10 Minute Guide to Lotus Notes Mail 4.5 - 20 - Formatting Paragraphs In this lesson, you learn how to format paragraphs in your e-mail messages. Aligning and Indenting Paragraphs Since Lotus Notes Mail is such a powerful word processor, many people write interoffice memos, proposals, and the like directly in the Lotus Notes Mail program. For those who travel with a laptop, Lotus Notes offers the possibility of not having to install a word processor, saving on disk space. In addition to formatting text as you learned in Lesson 7, Lotus Notes provides many tools for paragraph formatting. A paragraph, as defined in word processing, is any text that ends with a hard return (Enter). You can change the alignment of a paragraph to make it flush left, flush right, centered, or justified. 1. Create a new mail message. In the body field, type several paragraphs. 2. Select the paragraphs you want to align. 3. Choose Text, Text Properties. The Text Properties box appears (see Figure 20.1). 4. Click the Alignment tab. 5. Click one of the alignment icons: Left, Center, Right, Full, No Wrap: Left Aligns text flush to the left margin but ragged on the right margin. Center Centers text between the left and right margins. Right Aligns text flush to the right margin but ragged on the left margin. Full Aligns text flush with the left and right margins. No Wrap Turns off word wrapping and displays text on one line. 6. Click the Close button (X). Your selected paragraphs are realigned. Timesaver Tip: Shortcuts You can also align paragraphs with the Text Align Paragraph Left, Text Align Paragraph Center, and Text Align Paragraph Right SmartIcons. Or you can choose Text, Align Paragraph and then select Left, Center, Right, Full, or No Wrap. Lotus Notes gives you a number of ways to indent paragraphs. Indenting moves the beginning of the first line of the paragraph to the right by a specified amount. Outdenting moves the beginning of the first line of the paragraph to the left by a specified amount (also referred to as a hanging paragraph). Setting indents using the Text Properties box: 1. Select the paragraph or paragraphs you want to indent. 2. Choose Text, Text Properties. 3. In the Text Properties box (see Figure 20.1), click the Alignment tab. Figure 20.1 The Text Properties box. 4. Click a First line icon: Normal, Indent, or Outdent. Normal Keeps the margins at the default settings. Indent Starts the first line of the paragraph to the right of the left margin setting. You determine the spacing. Outdent Starts the first line of the paragraph at the margin setting, the rest of the paragraph is indented to the right. You determine the spacing. 5. When you select indented or outdented paragraphs, a new field appears on the Properties box. Enter the amount of space you want for your Indent or Outdent (.25" is the default). 6. The new formatting is applied. Click the Close (X) button if you want to close the Properties box. You can also use the Ruler above the open message to set indents: 1. Select the paragraph or paragraphs to indent. 2. Choose View, Ruler. The Ruler appears above the open message (see Figure 20.2). Figure 20.2 Ruler with indent pentagons. 3. Drag the upper pentagon pointer to where you want the first line of the paragraph(s) to start, drag the lower pentagon pointer to where you want the remaining lines of the selected paragraph(s) to start or drag the rectangle that sits beneath the pentagons to adjust all lines at once. If you drag the top or the bottom pentagon and meant to take both, simply double-click the one you moved. This will force the pentagons together again. Bullets and Numbers You can create bulleted or numbered lists to emphasize important information in your message. Use bullets for listing information when the order of the listing is not important. Use numbered lists when a logical sequence is critical to understanding the information, such as listing steps to complete a task. You can convert text in existing paragraphs to a bulleted or numbered list simply by selecting the paragraphs and then clicking the Bullet or Number SmartIcon on the toolbar. Each paragraph becomes a separate bullet or number in the listing. Or you can first click the Bullet or Number SmartIcon; then begin typing the text. Each time you press Enter, a new bullet or the next number in sequence appears. Timesaver Tip: Automatic Renumbering If you decide you don't need one of the items in your numbered list, simply delete it, and Notes will automatically renumber the list if necessary. Line and Paragraph Spacing You can set the spacing between lines in a paragraph, as well as the amount of space before and after paragraphs. 1. Select the paragraph(s) you want to change. 2. Choose Text, Text Properties. 3. In the Text Properties box, click the Alignment tab. 4. To set the spacing between lines within a paragraph, select Single, Double, 11/2 from the Interline list box. 5. To set the amount of space you want between paragraphs, select Single, Double, or 11/2 from either the Above or Below list box 6. The new formatting is applied. Click the Close button (X) if you want to close the Properties box. Setting Tabs Tabs are set every 1/2 inch in Lotus Notes, but sometimes you need to set your own tabs. You can set tabs from the Text Properties box or from the Ruler. From the Text Properties box: 1. Select the paragraph(s) for which you want to set tabs. 2. Choose Text, Text Properties, and then click the Page tab (see Figure 20.3). Figure 20.3 The Text Properties box with the Page tab selected. 3. In the Tabs drop-down list box, choose one of the following: Individually set and enter the tab stops you want (if you enter more than one, separate them with semicolons). Evenly spaced and enter the interval between tab stops. Always enter the numbers followed by the inch mark ("). 4. (Optional) If you want to enter left, right, center, or decimal tabs, type an L, R, C, or D before the number (such as L1"). To set tabs using the Ruler: 1. Select the paragraph(s) to which you want to add tabs. 2. If you don't see the Ruler, choose View, Ruler. 3. On the Ruler (see Figure 20.4), click where you want a left tab, right-click where you want a right tab, press Shift and click where you want a decimal tab, and press Shift and right-click where you want a centered tab. Figure 20.4 Ruler with tab stops. To remove a tab from the Ruler, click it. To change the type of the tab, right-click the tab and select a tab type. Keeping Paragraphs on One Page or Together You may want to keep a paragraph from breaking in the middle when you have an automatic page break. You can enter a manual page break to control where your page breaks by choosing Create, Page Break where you want the new page to start. Alternatively, you can format the paragraph(s) to keep the lines all on one page. You may also want to be sure that two paragraphs are kept together and not split by the page break, which is especially important if one paragraph is a headline. 1. Click in the paragraph you want to keep on one page, or click in the first of two consecutive paragraphs you want to keep on that page. 2. Choose Text, Text Properties. 3. In the Text Properties box, click the Page tab (see Figure 20.5). 4. Under Pagination, select Keep paragraph on one page or Keep paragraph with next paragraph. 5. Click the Close (X) button if you want to close the Properties box. Figure 20.5 Text Properties box with Page tab selected. To see the page breaks, choose View, Show, and Page Breaks. Page breaks appear as solid lines across the screen. Using Named Styles If you use the same set of formatting commands frequently, it's time for you to try named styles. Named styles keep a group of formatting commands together, so you can apply them as a group: 1. Format a paragraph with the properties you want to save as a named style. 2. Click the paragraph. 3. Choose Text, Text Properties. 4. In the Text Properties box, click the Named Styles tab. 5. Click Create Style and enter a name for the paragraph style in the Style name text box (see Figure 20.6). Figure 20.6 The Create Named Style dialog box. 6. Check any of the following options: Check Include font in named style if you want to save the font as part of the named style. Check Make style available for all documents if you want to use the named style outside of this one document. Check Include this style in Cycle Key [F11] so it becomes one of the styles available when you press F11 to cycle through the named styles. 7. Click OK. Once you create the named style, you can apply it to other paragraphs: 1. Select the paragraph(s) to which you want to apply the named style. 2. Choose Text, Named Styles, and select a style from the menu. Or click the Named Styles indicator on the status bar and select a style from the pop-up list. If you need to change a named style, first format a paragraph with the new properties you want for the named style. Choose Text, Text Properties, and then click the Named Styles tab. Click Redefine Style and select the named style whose properties you want to replace with those of the selected paragraph. Then click OK. To delete a named style, choose Text, Text Properties, and click the Named Styles tab. Click the Delete Styles button. Choose the name of the style you want to delete, and then click OK. In this lesson, you learned about formatting paragraphs. In the next lesson, you learn some advanced formatting.

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