Learn MS Word Legal: The Difference Between Setting Paragraph Positions Within The Multi-Level Dialog Box And Non Numbered Body Text Paragraphs

In dealing with students on a weekly basis, the same questions crop up again and again pertaining to the positioning of paragraphs when they are within Multilevel Outlines opposed to when they are just Body Text. 1. When it comes to a Multilevel Outline, the positioning of a paragraph is visually tied in to the ruler which is known as "Absolute Positioning". So, if a numbered paragraph has the settings whereby the first line is coming in at 1.0 then "Aligned At" controls the first line and "Text Indent At" controls the positioning of anything after line 1 of the Heading. For purposes of this scenario, from line 2 forward, the numbered paragraph wraps around to 0.5 and it is considered the Hanging Portion. 2. The approach we took above for the Multilevel unfolded from top to bottom - First Line to end of Para. 3. Let's now turn our attention to a Body Text paragraph and its positioning. Let's use the same 1.0 for the first line and 0.5 for the Hanging portion. 4. Under Format Paragraph, within the Style, you first determine how far in the paragraph as a whole is being Indented. So we need to look at the Hanging portion first and determine that there is a "Left Indent" at 0.5. That is equivalent to "Align Text At" in Multilevel. Then we look at the first line which is an "additional" 0.5 in from the initial Indented portion and we therefore place a 0.5 under "Special" First Line 0.5. That is the equivalent to "Aligned At" under the Multilevel. The first line is an additional 0.5 in from the indented portion and that perspective is looked at as a Relative Perspective. So, if you examine what we pointed out above in the Multilevel scenario, the positioning goes hand in hand with the actual position numbers on the ruler while the "Format Paragraph" positions deal with a "relative approach" to how far away from the initial indent does the first line come in in the actual document. Next time you go through the process take note of what we just discussed. Training From An Inside Perspective www.advanceto.com For those that go it alone but nevertheless want expert level... www.awarenessexplosion.com