This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Emphasizing Important Text
When you speak, you use inflection for emphasis. To get an important point across, you might raise your voice and enunciate each word slowly and clearly. This gets the audience's attention and it gives a point of reference.
You can do the same thing with your printed document. Judicious use of bold, italic, underline, and other effects can guide a reader through the text and draw attention to key points. You have to be careful not to use these elements too much or you risk distracting the reader.
Using Bold, Italic, and Underline
Before there were gazillions of fonts to play with, the only way you could vary the look of the text was with bold, italic, and underline. These old standbys still have their place. The designers for the Special Edition Using books decided to use italic to point out important terms and to emphasize words. Titles and headings are bold so they really stand out. Screenshots illustrate WordPerfect's use of underlines for hotkeys. All of these things make it easier for you to understand the information being presented.
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To apply bold, italic, or underline, select the text, and then click the Bold, Italic, or Underline button (or any combination of the three). |
Note
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If you can't figure out why your bold, italic, and underline disappear after you change the font, see "Disappearing Act" in the Troubleshooting section at the end of this chapter.
Adding Color
I can't remember the last time I printed a document for someone to read. Like many others, I use e-mail most of the time. I just attach the file to an e-mail message. The recipient opens it in his word processing program and reads it onscreen.
This method of reviewing documents gave me the excuse I needed to start adding color to my documents. I began using it to draw attention to titles and headings, and progressed to using it for key terms, statistics, quotes, references, headers and footers, and so on.
To add color to your text, follow these steps:
- If you've already typed some text to which you want to add color, select the text you want to add color to. Otherwise, position the insertion point where you want to start typing the colored text.
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Click the Font Color button on the property bar (see Figure 3.3).
Figure 3.3 Clicking the Font Color button on the property bar is the fastest way to open the color palette. This palette is also available in the Font Properties dialog box.
- Click one of the color boxes to choose one of the standard colors.
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Tip From
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So, 42 colors aren't enough for you? When you've got to have just the right shade of blue/green (and you have a few minutes to play), choose More from the color palette to open the Select Color dialog box. Click anywhere on the color wheel to move the little selection box and display the color you've created in the New Color section. Now, click and drag the selection box on the vertical luminosity bar to the desired color intensity. You can then make minor adjustments by tweaking the numbers in the Color Values section.
Tip From
If you use the same colors over and over, you'll love this! WordPerfect places the last seven colors you've selected on the top row of the palette. I really appreciate this with the custom colors because I don't have to reselect them each time.
To learn how to use the Highlight feature (instead of font color) to accentuate sections of text, see "Using the Highlight Tool," p. 379.
Using Other Font Effects
Bold, italic, underline, and color all have buttons on the property bar, so they are the easiest font effects to add. The other effects, also called attributes, are found in the Font Properties dialog box. First, position the insertion point where you want the effects to start (or select some existing text). Choose Format, Font or press F9 to open the Font Properties dialog box (see Figure 3.4).
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Figure 3.4 You can use the Font Properties dialog box if you need to set multiple font options or if you want to preview your changes first.
The font attributes are listed in the Appearance section. As you select attributes, the sample text in the lower-left corner shows you how the attributes will look when applied to the text. The Real Time Preview feature pops up again here—WordPerfect pulls in a short section of text from your document and uses it as the sample text. (If you're working in a blank document, the sample text is the name of the currently selected font.) Click OK when you're done choosing effects.
Tip From
If you use font attributes a lot, consider adding buttons for them to the toolbar. Or, create a new toolbar and add all your favorite buttons to it. Choose Tools, Settings, Customize. You can add to an existing toolbar, or you can create a new toolbar. To add a button to an existing toolbar, select the toolbar, and then choose Edit. Open the Feature Categories drop-down list and choose Format. Select the feature in the list, and then choose Add Button. When you are finished adding buttons, click OK to save your changes. To create a new toolbar, choose Create, type a name for the toolbar, and then click OK. Add buttons as previously described.
Note
If you received an error message during setup saying that you had too many fonts selected, see "Too Many Fonts" in the Troubleshooting section at the end of this chapter.
Note
If you're selecting options in the Appearance section of the Font Properties dialog box and the sample text isn't changing to reflect your changes, see "Disappearing Act" in the Troubleshooting section at the end of this chapter.