Can you format text while you’re typing into Word, or do you have to highlight text and format it when you’ve finished doing all the typing?
The answer is that you can do whichever you prefer – or use a combination of both if you like. Some people like to concentrate on getting all their text typed without distracting themselves over its appearance. They then go through it to make it look a bit better. You can highlight some text with the mouse and choose a different font or size for it, change its colour, make it bold or italic, and so on, and then move on to a different piece of text and format that as required.
If you want to change some aspect of the whole document (choosing a different font or size for it, for instance), pressing Ctrl+A will highlight everything for you. You can quickly select a single word by double-clicking it, or (slightly trickier, this!) select a whole paragraph by triple-clicking it.
However, many of us prefer to ‘format as we go’. When we know we want the next word to be italic, we press Ctrl+I (or click the Italic button on the toolbar); when we want to stop typing italics, we press Ctrl+I again (or click the Italic button again) to switch it off. Likewise, if we want the next text we type to be in a different font, or at a different size, we choose the required font and size, then continue typing.
If you choose the ‘format as you type’ method, it pays to learn a few key combinations for formatting text in Word. That way, you don’t have to keep taking a hand off the keyboard to reach for the mouse and click buttons. Here are some of the most useful:
Bold: Ctrl+B
Italic: Ctrl+I
Underline: Ctrl+U
Increase text size: Ctrl+Shift+>
Decrease text size: Ctrl+Shift+<
Align paragraph to the right: Ctrl+R
Align a paragraph centrally: Ctrl+E
Align a paragraph to the left: Ctrl+L
Choose a font and/or text size: Ctrl+Shift+F
Reproduced from PC Tips for Seniors
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