Paragraph formatting

Paragraph formatting includes attributes such as:

• Alignment—controls which side of the text frame paragraph text is aligned with.
• Spacing—controls the spacing between lines and between paragraphs.
• Leading—determines the distance from one text baseline (the line on which a line of text appears to sit) to the next.
• Justification—determines where space is added between words in a paragraph to align the edges of each line with both sides of the margin.
• Flow options—Flow options—controls where on the page your paragraph starts and inter-paragraph relationships. See Paragraph panel for further information.
• Bullets and numbering—allows you to turn a series of paragraphs into bulleted, numbered or multi-level lists.
• Tab stops—controls how text is positioned at specific horizontal locations in a text frame.
• Drop caps—increases font size of initial characters in a paragraph, extending over multiple lines.
• Indents—these can only be applied to full paragraphs or stories.
• Decorations—these can be used to differentiate blocks of text using decorative styles that will always move relative to the text.
• Widow and orphan control—this can be used to fix instances in which lone words and lines appear separately from the rest of a paragraph at the top or bottom of a text column.

This type of formatting can be applied to artistic text, but is more appropriate for frame text.

With your text (or text object) selected, paragraph formatting settings are available from the context toolbar, the Text menu, and the Paragraph panel.

The positions of paragraph formatting attributes are displayed on the text ruler, which can be activated via the View menu.

A frame text ruler can be displayed directly above any active text frame to visually set paragraph indents and tab stops.