King Abdulaziz University

Faculty of Applied Studies

Computer and Information Technology Department

Module 1: Managing Documents and

Options

Lesson 4: Formatting text

In this lesson, you'll learn how to both add content to your document and format that
content, including how to select text, apply font formatting and styles, and clear formatting
from your content.

Lesson Learning Outcomes

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
1. Apply font formatting.
2. Copy and clear formatting.
3. Apply text effects.

Topic 1: Select and apply font formatting

In this topic, the purposes of formatting your text and your content overall is to make your
document more readable, to improve communication, and to make it more aesthetically
pleasing on the whole for the reader.

Add content
All it takes it to add content is to enter text into the document. You can enter, select, and
format text one character at a time. Paragraphs in Word are identified by the use of the Enter
key, otherwise known as the hard return.

Efficiently select text

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Working with the text in a document requires you to select the text to be more efficient while
editing it.
The following table describe a few keys and keyboard shortcuts you can use when selecting
text. Remember, the scroll bars assist in navigating the document, as well.

Key or keyboard shortcut Takes this action

Ctrl+Left arrow key or Ctrl+Right arrow Moves one word to the left or the right
key

Ctrl+Up arrow key or Ctrl+Down arrow key Moves one paragraph up or down

Up arrow key or Down arrow key Moves one line up or down

Left arrow key or Right arrow key Moves one character to the left or the right

Page up or Page down Moves one screen up or down

Ctrl+Page up or Ctrl+Page down Moves to the beginning of the previous or

the next page

Home or End Moves to the beginning or end of the

current line

Ctrl+Home or Ctrl+End Moves to the beginning or end of the

document

Ctrl+A Selects all content

Table 1: Keys and keyboard shortcuts for selecting text

Continuing with efficiency, the following table describes a few "mouse shortcuts" you can use
when selecting text. Keep in mind that Word allows you to select text at the level of the
character or the character space, such as entering a single space on your keyboard.

Mouse shortcut Selects this text

Click a character A single character

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Double-click a word A word

Click the selection bar on the left side A line of text

of a line

Click the selection bar and then drag Contiguous lines of text
over text in lines

Select a first area of content, select Ctrl, Noncontiguous lines of text

and then select a second area of
content

Triple-click text A paragraph

Select the Ctrl key, and then select text A sentence

in a sentence

Triple-click the selection bar All content

Table 2: Mouse shortcuts for selecting text

Format content
One way to quickly format text you've selected is to use the Mini Toolbar. When you select
text with the mouse, as you begin to move your mouse up and slightly to the right, the Mini
Toolbar will appear. With the text already selected, you simply select the formatting you want
to apply. This saves you time compared to accessing the ribbon to apply formatting that you
regularly use.

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Figure 1: The Mini Toolbar

Format text
You can find simple formatting on the Home tab, in the Font group (refer to Figure 2).

Figure 2: The Font group

Although the Font group has several commands for formatting your content, the ones that
this topic focuses on are:
 Font and Font Size. These are two of the most commonly used formatting features
across most Office applications.
 Word and other applications that use fonts refer to a family of fonts as a typeface. A
typeface contains multiple fonts that share common design features but have different
weights, styles, widths, slants, italicization, and other subtle differences. For different
kinds of typefaces, refer to Figure 3. The fonts in a font family subtly differ from each
other but follow a shared design.

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Figure 3: The Franklin Gothic typeface

 Change Case. With the Change Case command, you can modify text to have a
different case, such as uppercase or sentence case.

Figure 4: The Change Case command in the Font group

 Bold, Italic, and Underline. This rich text formatting is very useful for making your content
stand out.

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 Font Color and Text Highlight Color. These commands, which the following figure
depicts, help you to add color to your text.

Figure 5: The Bold, Italic, Underline, Font Color, and Text Highlight Color commands

Apply built-in styles

One of the quickest ways to apply specified formatting to your content is to use the prebuilt
styles. Depending on the document you're working on, you might notice that styles vary from
document to document and from template to template. On the Home tab, select the Styles
gallery to observe the styles in a document, as the following figure depicts.

Figure 6: The Styles gallery

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Select your content, and then hover the different styles available in the Styles gallery. The
preview in Word indicates how each new style would apply to the content. You can then
select the style of your choice. Styles provides a quick way to add some pizzazz to your
document and to ensure that you're using the fonts, sizes, colors, and other formatting that
you intend.
Some of the styles you apply will not only provide aesthetics to your document but will also
begin to apply structure to the document by the use of headings. These headings will help
you navigate via the Navigation pane, which you'll learn about later in this module.

Try-it: Select and apply font formatting

In this levelled try-it, you'll use the most common formatting features in Word that exist on
the Home tab or the Mini Toolbar.

Try-it 1
In this try-it, you'll change the font style, font color, and font size for specific text within a
document.

Resources
You'll need the following resource for this try-it:
 L4_T1_try1_concord_grapes_simple_starter.docx in this lesson’s Learning Activity
Resources folder

Instructions
You'll perform the following general tasks during this try-it:
1. Apply the Segoe font with a font size of 12 to all the content in the document.
2. Format the Concord Grapes title text with a font size of 20, a font color of Blue, Accent 1,
and a font style of Bold.
3. Format the following text with a font size of 16:
o A cultivar of the genus Vitis labrusca
o Growing grapes in your yard

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4. Save your file as My_concord_grapes_simple_formatting.docx.

Try-it 2
In this try-it, you'll change the font style, font color, and font size for specific text in a
document. You'll also apply prebuilt styles.

Resources
You'll need the following resource for this try-it:
 L4_T1_try2_concord_grapes_simple_starter.docx in this lesson’s Learning Activity
Resources folder

Instructions
You'll perform the following general tasks during this try-it:
1. Apply the Segoe font with a font size of 12 to all the content in the document.
2. Format the Concord Grapes title text with the prebuilt Title style. With this title text
selected, apply a font color of Blue-gray, Text 2.
3. Apply Heading 1 to each selection of the following text:
o A cultivar of the genus Vitis labrusca
o Growing Grapes in your yard
4. After the word Considerations in the document, select Enter to begin a new paragraph.
5. Select the word Considerations in the document, and then apply the Heading 2 style.
6. Save your file as My_concord_grapes_simple_formatting.docx.

Topic 2: Copy and clear formatting and

apply text effects
In the previous topic, you learned the different ways to apply formatting to content. Now,
consider that you might sometimes inherit work that others have done. In these situations,
you might find the need to clear the formatting that they previously applied to the content

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while leaving the text in place. You might also need to replicate the formatting applied to one
part of your document to several other parts. In this topic, you'll learn how Word helps you
manage this need, and you'll apply some interesting text effects.

Clear All Formatting command

The Clear All Formatting command strips off all formatting from the selected text, returning
it to the normal state. This makes it easier to clean up a selection of text or even the entire
document and then reapply formatting as needed.
For example, assume that your document has the text “Pickled Beets” formatted in a specific
font color. To clear all formatting, you need to select this text and then select the Clear All
Formatting command. The selected text will revert to the default font style (the font, font
size, and color) set for the document.

Figure 7: Selected text before the Clear All Formatting command is applied

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Figure 8: Selected text after the Clear All Formatting command is applied

Format Painter
One of the most efficient ways to apply formatting to content is to use currently
formatted content and the Format Painter command. To apply formatting from one selection
of content to another, select the content that has the formatting you want to copy, and then
do either of the following:
 Select Format Painter to copy formatting to selected text. When you hover over the
new text, a paintbrush icon appears. Select the text, and the copied format applies as a
single use on the new content.
 Double-click the Format Painter command to copy formatting to selected text. When
you hover over the new text, a paintbrush icon appears. You can now apply the copied
format to multiple selections of text. After you've formatted all the content you want,
select the Esc key to end the Format Painter functionality.

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Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

Figure 9: The Format Painter command about to be selected

Figure 10: Applying the Format Painter on text with the paintbrush icon displayed

Text effects
Another command you can use to dress up the formatting of your content is the Text Effects
and Typography command. With this command, you can apply predesigned effects to text
that you've selected. Text effects are a kind of typography, or the visual component of the
written text.
You can apply several types of font altering with the text effects by selecting Text Effects and
Typography. With the preview functionality in place, you can preview the font before you
apply the change to your content.
To apply a text effect, select the content, select Text Effects and Typography, and then
hover one of the predesigned text effects. You can also explore the settings of other text
effects to customize and apply the settings of your choosing.

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Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

You can use each of the following options from the text effects to customize your content:
 Outline. Adds a colored outline to the selected text.
 Shadow. Adds a shadow to a specific location outside the text.
 Reflection. Adds a reflection of the characters in the text.
 Glow. Adds a glow color to the perimeter of the text.
Three more options exist for setting specific parameters to the selected text and applying
different typography settings—Number Styles, Ligatures, and Stylistic Sets. These are more
advanced options that won’t be covered in this course.

Figure 11: A preview of a prebuilt text effect on selected text in a document

Try-it: Copy and clear formatting and apply text

effects
In this levelled try-it, you'll clear all formatting and then copy specific formatting to content
within a document.

Try-it 1

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Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

In this try-it you clear all formatting from text in an existing document and then reapply
formatting to text.

Resources
You'll need the following resource for this try-it:
 L4_T2_try1_concord_grapes_clear_formatting_starter.docx in this lesson’s Learning
Activity Resources folder

Instructions
You'll perform the following general tasks during this try-it:
1. Select all the content on the page, and then select Clear All Formatting.
2. Apply the Segoe font with a font size of 14 to all the content.
3. Use the Mini Toolbar to change the font size of the Concord Grapes title text to 20 and
to change the formatting to be bold and italic. Next, apply the Blue, Accent 1 font color.
4. Apply a font size of 16 and underline the following text:
o A cultivar of the genus Vitis labrusca
o Growing Grapes in your yard
5. Save your file as My_concord_grapes_clear_formatting.docx.

Try-it 2
In this try-it, you set and apply the default formatting to specific text and then apply text
effects.

Resources
You'll need the following resource for this try-it:
 L4_T2_try2_concord_grapes_set_default_format_starter.docx in this lesson’s Learning
Activity Resources folder

Instructions
You'll perform the following general tasks during this try-it:

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1. Set the default font specifically for this document as:

o Font: Segoe UI
o Font size: 12 pt.
o Font color: Black, Text 1
2. Apply the Title style to the Munson’s Pickles and Preserves Farm text.
3. Apply the following text effects to the Concord Grapes title text:
o Fill: Black, Text Color 1
o Outline color: White, Background 1
o Hard shadow: Blue, Accent Color 5
4. Save your file as My_concord_grapes_clear_formatting.docx.

Lesson Summary
In this lesson, we introduced you how to implement good text formatting and layout, clear
formatting and applying text effects. In the next lesson, we will discuss how to apply different
formatting techniques to your paragraphs.

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