Depending on the characteristics of the text in your document, you might notice that justifying a paragraph may not produce the best looking results. This is because when you choose to justify a paragraph, Word expands the text on each line by adding space between words and letters. You may need to make adjustments to get better-looking text.
There are many options you can try, and you should become familiar with all of them so that you can try them out on your text. The first guideline is to check your text; there may be some things you can do to it that will allow cleaner flow through a paragraph:
With your text in shape, you can then begin actual formatting. One approach is to open the Font dialog box (press Ctrl+D) and display the Character Spacing tab (Word 2007) or click on the Advanced tab to find the Character Spacing group (Word 2010 or a later version). Set the Scale to 95%. If that does not provide better spacing, select 90% from the drop-down list. These adjustments are typically so slight (particularly with commonly used font sizes for body text) that readers won't notice, but the effect on text flow could be dramatic—particularly in long paragraphs.
Perhaps the best solution, however, is to completely change the algorithm that Word uses to justify text. Many people prefer the algorithm used in WordPerfect, so Microsoft added the ability to emulate that justification method—resulting in much less choppiness. This option is available in Word 2007 and Word 2010; it was removed starting with Word 2013. Follow these steps to adjust the setting if you are using Word 2007:
Figure 1. The compatibility options available in Word.
Here are the steps if you are using Word 2010:
This will change the way justification is handled, but only for the current document. If you clicked the Default button, then the change is made in the Normal template, provided you choose to save changes to the template when you exit Word. With the change made in the template, then all future documents based on the Normal template will use the different justification algorithm. If you want to make the same change in other templates or other documents, you will need to load them and make the adjustment. If you have many documents that you might need to change (or if you routinely work with documents from others that you need to change), then you can create a macro that will modify the justification setting:
Sub ChangeJustification() With ActiveDocument .Compatibility(wdWPJustification) = True End With End Sub
Note:
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8139) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Getting Rid of Choppiness in Justified Text.
Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2013. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word 2013 Step by Step today!
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2018-04-21 14:30:23
Naomi
I really appreciated this particular article; the formatting on justified pages in my novels has been an ongoing source of frustration for me and tips like the ones in this post are so very helpful. I've learned that reading has a certain rhythm to it and the appearance on the page either carries the desired rhythm or is completely distracting if only on a subconscious level. Thanks again for sharing these insights.
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