Spacing recommendations

[bubbakittee]

Does anyone have guidelines or "best practices" regarding the use of
Word's paragraph spacing capabilities ??

For example, suppose I want 12 points of space in between any given
pair of consecutive "body" paragraphs. How should I define my "body"
style ? Should I use:
(1) 12 points before and zero points after, or
(2) Zero points before and 12 after, or
(3) 6 points before and 6 after
(4) Something else

It seems to me that #3 works best. The only downside is that the 6 pts
of "space before" prevents me from putting headings close to my body
paragraphs (which I sometimes want to do). I have tried #2, also, and
it seems to create a lot of extra work with spacing around figures,
tables, and bulleted lists.

For your amusement ... many years ago, I edited some docs from the
documentation group at Microsoft. Their approach was to put in an
extra carriage return, and then adjust its height. I hope that's not
the best approach these days.

thanks

bk

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Don't ever base usage on documents from Microsoft; most Softies have no idea
how to use Word. I've taught many MS grandmothers to suck eggs, including
some in the Office User Assistance ("Help") department.

That said, a lot of the oldest templates I have, based on letter templates
that shipped with Word 2.0, have #3 spacing (6 points Before and After), and
this does have its points. As a rule, I prefer using Spacing After (for the
mentioned reasons having to do with headings), and you'll note that the
built-in Body Text style has just 6 points After. It's rarely necessary to
have a full 12 points between paragraphs of 12-point text, IMO. If you
format lists with no Spacing Before (depending on the 6 points from the Body
Text) and 6 points After, then enable "Don't add space between paragraphs of
the same style," you can have tightly spaced lists and still have 6 points
After.

No matter what you do, you'll sometimes have to fudge. I have a Body Text
Space Before style, with 12 points Spacing Before, that I use in fiction
where the author wants to indicate a break, or after tables where I need
extra space, etc. I have Body Text set as the following style. And sometimes
you'll just have to apply direct formatting to get a desired effect.

I can usually make do without empty paragraphs EXCEPT around TOCs. Here they
are vital because the "empty paragraph" that appears to be below the TOC is
actually inside the TOC field, and you can't insert a page break, a second
TOC, or anything else in that paragraph without making it part of the TOC.
This can be incredibly frustrating, especially when the TOC completely fills
the page and the empty paragraph is forcing a blank page (in such instances,
I just have to format it as Hidden).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I can't seem to reply to your reply to my reply (I get an error message
about a malformed header), so I'm replying to this one instead:

Yes, I'm pretty sure lists were what the developers had in mind with the
"Don't add space" setting. In Word 2007, the List Paragraph style has this
enabled by default.

I usually end up with space between list items anyway. Tightly spaced lists
are fine for bulleted lists where no item is more than one line long. Once
you start having runover lines, it seems to look better with at least some
space beween items.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org