Seth Wilson: Mastering Microsoft Word by learning about lines and paragraphs

In the last article on this topic, I wrote about formatting individual words in Microsoft Word. In this article, we will explore how to take advantage of, or work around, Microsoft Word’s Automatic Behavior Controls, or ABCs, for formatting lines and paragraphs.

Open Word. Click new blank document. On the first line, type: “Microsoft Word uses ABCs to format documents.” By default, that sentence will be aligned to the left part of the margin.

Now, indent the first line of that paragraph. Put your cursor in front of the word “Word” and press the tab key. As you watch the screen, Word will present another ABC, this time its AutoFormat options (it will look like ABC with a lightning bolt beside it). If you have the ruler turned on (Ribbon: View | Ruler), you can see that Word automatically set an indent at 0.5” instead of inserting a tab character.

If that’s what you wanted, great. That formatting choice will carry through your document, until you change it again. If not, click the dropdown on the button that appeared and choose “Change Back to Tab” or “Stop Setting Indent on Tabs and Backspace.”

Incidentally, buy and read Matthew Buttrick’s Typography for Lawyers, or TFL, (available at https://typographyforlawyers.com/). He recommends not using a tab for a first line indent:

“Don’t use word spaces or tabs to indent the first line—as you recall from white-space characters, that’s not what they’re for. Paragraphs indented with word spaces or tabs are hard to keep consistent and waste far more time than they save. Use the right tool for the job.”

Note that Word does not follow this recommendation by default. So, you need to decide how you will approach this issue. TFL recommends changing Word’s defaults to your chosen first line indent. You can do so using the Format | Paragraph menu item. Under Indentation, choose the dropdown under Special and choose First line. Set the size using TFL’s recommendations (at the link above).

Now, that your indents are set, how do you want the rest of the paragraph to appear? Some lawyers like full justification. Some, left aligned. Is there a right answer? Not really, but there is one important rule to keep in mind. TFL states that if full justification is used, “you must also turn on hyphenation to prevent gruesomely large spaces between words.”

So, remember, using justification requires hyphenation. Here’s how to set up the various paragraph alignments.

You can use the Home tab of the ribbon and select the Align Left, Center Text, Align Right or Justify buttons. Or, use your keyboard. “Ctrl/Command L” will left-align the paragraph. “Ctrl/Command J” will justify the paragraph. To add in hyphenation, in Microsoft Word (Windows), the options are available under Page Layout | Page Setup | Hyphenation | Automatic. For Mac, choose Tools | Hyphenation.

What spacing will you use for your paragraphs? The generally accepted rule is double-spacing. But, that begs the question of what is double-spacing?

A few years ago, there was a whole argument about what is double-spacing. (See Heated Litigation Fight Over ‘Double-Spacing’ Ends In Judge Telling Everyone To Shut Up, available at https://abovethelaw.com/2023/11/heated-litigation-fight-over-double-spacing-ends-in-judge-telling-everyone-to-shut-up/). More importantly, this requirement is noted in the recent rule amendments here in Indiana. Indiana Rules of Trial Procedure 10(D) requires:

“All text must be double-spaced except that footnotes, tables, charts, or similar material and text that is blocked and indented must be single-spaced. Single-spaced lines must be separated by at least 4-point spaces.”

The easiest solution would seem to be to use the default double-spacing in Microsoft Word. As TFL points out, though, that’s not true double-spacing. “Microsoft Word’s ‘double’ spacing, for instance, is about 15% looser, and it varies depending on the font.” (https://typographyforlawyers.com/line-spacing.html). Further, “if you’re required to use a 12-point font, double line spacing means 24 points.”

So much for pressing Ctrl/Command 2 to apply the default double spacing. While you may not get into a legal battle trying to define what is double-spacing, it is important to understand these issues and determine how to address them in your practice.

Giving some thought to these defaults can save you a lot of time while writing. If I’m writing in Word, I don’t typically type with justification (and hyphenation) turned on. It’s distracting. While I’m typing, the words tend to move around on screen more than with left align. So, if I’m going to use justification, I will apply it after I’m done writing.

It’s important to take notes of the things that distract you from getting words on the page. Formatting the document is important, but not while you are forming your argument. Get your content written and then figure out how best to present it with proper formatting.•

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Seth R. Wilson is an attorney with Adler Attorneys in Noblesville. In addition to practicing law, he helps manage the day-to-day technology operations of the firm. He writes about legal technology at sethrwilson.com and is a frequent speaker on the subject.