Editing and Formatting Documents

It also includes features to help you add or delete text in your document. You can make format variations to align, highlight or add emphasis to text, or modify the color, size, or font of your text, and so on. Other features of word processing programs include spelling and grammar checks. To illustrate your documents, you can add images, drawings, and graphics.

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Paragraph Formatting

. To indent the first line of a paragraph, place your cursor before the first word and press the Tab key once. This action indents the first line to the right. A slightly indented first line typically marks the start of a new paragraph. In the example shown on the screen, the first paragraph starts without any indentation. In the second paragraph, the Tab key was used after every word. In the third paragraph, only the first line has an indent. The Tab key moves between tab stops, and enables you to place text at different locations across the page.

In order to align the text in a paragraph to the left, right, or center, use the alignment buttons in your word processing program. In the image, the first paragraph is left aligned. This means that every new line in the paragraph is aligned to the left margin. You can also choose to align your paragraph to the right or to the center. If you justify a paragraph, all the words are evenly spaced and extend to both the left and right margins.

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Styles and Themes

You have seen how to format a resume with a word processing program. There may be several sections in a resume that you want to highlight as bold or italics. For example, you may want a potential employer to notice your achievements in sports or your experience. You can set a different font size for headings and a smaller size for the remaining text in your resume. You may also want to change the font size of one heading and replicate the change across other headings throughout the document. It would be tedious to format each heading individually. To avoid this, use the Styles and Themes feature. When you apply a style to a heading in your resume, all the headings will follow the same style. If you want to change the look of the heading, you only need to modify the style. All the headings in that style will automatically update. Applying a consistent style across your resume gives it a professional look. Themes beautify your document. There are many themes available in word processing software programs. Themes add color and make your document attractive. When you apply a theme to a document, all the elements—such as lists, headings, hyperlinks, and so on—are styled to match the theme. Some themes include a background color for your resume. Some word processing programs offer only a style option, whereas others offer themes and styles. For example, in Microsoft Word, both Styles and Themes are available. You can access them from the Styles pane in Microsoft Word 2010.

Working with Tables

A table enables you to arrange information in the form of rows and columns. When you present information in a tabular format, it is much easier to read and understand. For example, in a resume, you can write your achievements in a tabular format. Therefore, a table not only makes your document look neat and organized, but also improves the readability of your document. Tables are also used to compare information. To compare two or more items in paragraphs, you would have to scroll between the paragraphs to read the information. However, when you present the same information as a table, you can read the information side by side, at a glance. Word processing programs enable you to create tables easily. To create a custom table, specify the number of rows and columns. When rows and columns intersect, they form a cell. Each cell becomes a space into which you can write your information. You can also perform other actions: for example, you can add and delete rows; align the text inside a cell to the left, right or center; change the size of the table; and format the borders.

Editing a Document

If you misspell a word as you enter information in your resume, you can erase this word by placing the cursor at the end of the word and use the Backspace key on the keyboard. Use the Delete key if you place the cursor on the left side of the word. To delete entire lines of data, select the lines and use the Delete key. If you delete some words accidentally, you can undo the deletion if you press the Control and Z keys (Ctrl + Z) together. Alternatively, you can click the Undo button available on the toolbar of the software. It is easy to copy information within your resume. For example, to copy the words Work Experience in different paragraphs, select the two words and use the Copy command (Ctrl + C). Move the cursor to the desired location, and use the Paste command (Ctrl + V) to replicate the copied words.

Creating a Table

Let's learn how to create a table with OpenOffice Writer. First, select the Insert option from the Table menu and then select the Table option. In the Insert Table dialog box, the Name textbox enables you to enter a name for your table. In the Size section, you can specify the number of rows and columns you want in the table. In the Options section, you can specify the format of the table. Use the Heading checkbox to create the first row as the header of the table. By default, the heading of a table is in bold, italicized, and aligned in the center. Your table may extend across multiple pages on your document. If so, you can enable the Repeat heading checkbox. With this option, the heading is repeated on the first row of every new page in which the table appears. You can also specify the number of rows you want to repeat as the heading on each page. The Don't split table option enables you to display shorter tables on a single page, instead of having them spread across multiple pages. The Border checkbox includes a darker border around your table.

Editing and Advanced Formatting Options

Microsoft Word, which is part of the Microsoft Office Suite. Some of the other popular word processing software products are: Apache OpenOffice Writer, WordPerfect, and Google Docs.

Paragraph and Line Spacing

Spacing improves the readability of your document. Paragraph spacing is the amount of space between two paragraphs. Line spacing is the space between two lines within or outside a paragraph, depending on the position of the cursor. Let's now look at an example of how to set spacing in OpenOffice Writer. To open the dialog box as it appears in the image, select Paragraph from the Format menu. The first tab, Indents & Spacing, lets you manage the spacing in your document. The Before text textbox in the Indent section indents your paragraph to the right. The After text textbox section indents your paragraph to the left. You can specify the indentation of the starting line of your paragraph in the First line textbox. If you select the Automatic checkbox, the spacing adjusts as per the font size. The Spacing section enables you to decide how much spacing you need above or below a paragraph. The Line spacing drop-down list enables you to manage the space between two lines. You can use the Register-true (a term used in printing terminology) section to format page styles. Select the Activate checkbox to apply this format.

Formatting

Word processing programs enable you to add different styles of text called fonts. You can make your resume look professional by using fonts such as Times New Roman or Arial. The font size option lets you adjust the size of the text. The typical font size of a resume is 12 points. Headings typically have a larger font size than the regular text. To list items in your resume, use bullet points. To emphasize text, use italics (Ctrl + I). Your resume may contain different section headings. Use bold text (Ctrl + B) to highlight the text. You may also choose to underline (Ctrl + U) the headings. To align your text to the left, right, or center margin, you can choose the margin settings in the Page Setup option of Microsoft Word. Word processing software also enables you to proofread your document. To ensure that your resume is free from spelling and grammatical errors, enable the Spelling & Grammar feature with the F7 key.

Formatting Tables

Word processing programs also enable you to format your table. For example, you can add rows and columns to your table. Let's see how to do this using OpenOffice Writer. To add a new row to your table, right-click at the location at which you want to add the row, and then select the Insert option from the Row menu. In the Insert Rows dialog box, enter the number of rows you want to insert. You can specify the position of the new row (in relation to the existing rows) with the Before and After options. You can follow similar steps to insert columns. There are several other operations you can perform on tables with a word processing program. For example, you can resize the columns and rows, split cells into multiple rows or columns, and so on. Word processing programs also enable you to format your table. For example, you can add rows and columns to your table. Let's see how to do this using OpenOffice Writer. To add a new row to your table, right-click at the location at which you want to add the row, and then select the Insert option from the Row menu. In the Insert Rows dialog box, enter the number of rows you want to insert. You can specify the position of the new row (in relation to the existing rows) with the Before and After options. You can follow similar steps to insert columns. There are several other operations you can perform on tables with a word processing program. For example, you can resize the columns and rows, split cells into multiple rows or columns, and so on. In order to combine the contents of multiple cells into one cell, select the cells and use the Merge Cells option. In the example shown in the image, Cell 1 and 2 are separate columns in the first row. When the two cells merge, the data becomes part of one cell.