Formatting your Paragraphs

Paragraph formats in a word processing program assign a function to a paragraph, i.e. a section of text up to the next line break, rather than just an appearance. On Microsoft Word these are called 'Styles'. These styles can be, for example, a heading or a quotation. These are then visually distinguished from the text. This optical distinction can be made manually or automatically (by assigning a paragraph format).

Figure 1: Location of the Styles options in MS Word. 

Benefits of using paragraph styles:

• Guaranteed consistency: Once set, the appearance of all text passages that belong to this style can be changed with one click. The document remains consistent in appearance.
• Automatically create Tables of Contents: The table of contents is a mandatory component in most texts that you write during your studies. If it is a thesis, additional tables of contents such as a list of figures and abbreviations might be needed. Every word processor has the function of generating tables of contents from the paragraph styles.

Remember: every software is stupid. It can only do what we tell it to. That's why it needs explicit instructions, such as assigning paragraph formats.

Here we have put together some instructional articles on the individual formatting options in three word processing programs for you: 

Tip: Leuphana students can obtain a free license for "MS Office 365 ProPlus" through the MIZ.

Citation for this webpage. 

Knorr, Dagmar (2020): Textverarbeitungsprogramme. Wiki "Schreiben im Studium | Academic Writing". Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Schreibzentrum / Writing Center. <https://lehrwiki.leuphana.de/display/SWCRessourcen/Textverarbeitungsprogramme>