Re: MS Word: Spacing before, after, or both?

Subject: Re: MS Word: Spacing before, after, or both?
From: Dick Margulis <margulisd -at- comcast -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 08 Sep 2005 18:22:50 -0400


Jonathan West wrote:

You can have the Space Before and Space after overlap. Go to Tools, Options,
select the Compatibility tab and ensure that the "Don't use HTML paragraph
auto spacing" box is unchecked.

If the box is unchecked, the space between any two paragraphs is equal to
the *larger* of the values of the space after the first paragraph and space
before the second paragraph.

If the box is checked, the space between any two paragraphs is equal to the
*sum* of the values of the space after the first paragraph and space before
the second paragraph.

Good to know. Thanks.

[snip]


With this setting, I normally set the Body Text style to have both space
before and space after. The reson for this is that bullet list styles can
then have zero space before and after, so that the bullets are together
while the body text paragraphs before and after the bulleted list ensure
that the is a space between the list and the surrounding paragraphs.

Several people have alluded to space before and/or after body paragraphs.

It may be broccoli to you, but I say it's spinach and I say the hell with it. This default Word style is a holdover from typewritten block letter style. It has nothing to do with typesetting of books.

Here's my default starting point (tweaked as needed for different kinds of documents):

My Body Text style has no space before or after, but it has an indent for the first line. You know, just like a regular friggin' paragraph in a regular friggin' book.

I also have a Body Lede style, based on Body Text, that has no paragraph indent. I used this following any heading, any list, any text break of any kind. The break marks the beginning of a paragraph, and you don't need to mark it two ways. Look in a real book (one published by a publishing company your parents have heard of) to see that this is a longstanding tradition.

For lists, I put a few points before and after each list item and set them with a hanging indent. If I'm being fussy, I define a "first" and a "last" list item style with another few points extra before and after, respectively, together with rules about list widows and list orphans.

But that's just me, tilting against windmills as usual...

Dick
www.dmargulis.com/typography.asp


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