Project 3: Brochure
Character Spacing

Title: Jan's Illustrated Computer Literacy 101
Did you want: Working with Words: Word 2007,2010,2013,2016 or españolIcon: Change web


The Font dialog has a tab that you've not dealt with yet - Character Spacing. Sometimes it is useful to adjust the look of a font rather than find a whole new font.

Dialog- Font - Character Spacing


Where you are:
JegsWorks > Lessons > Word97-2003

Before you start...

Project 1: Word BasicsTo subtopics

Project 2: Auto ToolsTo subtopics

Project 3: Brochure
    Linked Text BoxesTo subtopics
    Brochure Subtopics display
    icon-footprintDoc Template
         Paragraph Dialog
    icon-footprintBrochure Cover
    icon-footprintBrochure Back
    icon-footprintBrochure Flap
    icon-footprintCharacter Spacing
         Styles
    icon-footprintApply Styles
    icon-footprintFormat Flap
    icon-footprintBrochure Inside
    Summary
    Quiz
    ExercisesTo subtopics 

Project 4: ReportTo subtopics


    Search
    Glossary


Character Spacing Effects

Preview - normal spacing

Normal character spacing

The baseline is the line that the letters normally sit on.


Preview - Scaling, character sizes increased to 200% horizontally

Scaling: You can adjust the width of a font as a percentage. This changes the shapes but not the heights of the characters.

Example- size of characters scaled to 200% of normal


Preview- character spacing expanded 5 pts.

Spacing: You can condense the spacing so that characters are closer together, or expand the spacing so that they are further apart. Letters remain the same size and shape.

Example: Character spacing expanded by 5 points.

Preview - character spacing condensed 5 pts.

Example: Character spacing condensed by half a point

Preview - characters lowered

Position: The position of a word relative to the text's baseline can be set to Normal, Raised, or Lowered. In the preview, the base line is shown by the lines on either side of the preview text. It is the line the letters sit on.

Example: Position lowered by 5 points

Preview - characters raised

Example: Position raised by 5 points


Preview - kerningKerning: While Spacing makes the same adjustment to all characters, kerning adjusts the spacing between certain pairs of letters, for example, a capital T next to a lower case letter o. Without kerning the T will be too far away to look right in some fonts and at large font sizes. In the sample at the right, look carefully at the space between the T and the o.

The first line has a font size of 18. It's not kerned because the setting at the top says to start kerning at 24 points and above. The other lines have font sizes of 24, 28, 36, and 48. The difference becomes more noticeable as the font size increases.


Icon Step-by-Step 

Step-by-Step: Character Spacing

 Icon Step-by-Step

What you will learn:

to scale text
to expand and condense text
to raise and lower text

Start with: Class disk Icon- Word with blank document, a blank document

  1. In a blank document, type the following: 

    1. Scaling text larger: This is my text.

    2. Scaling text smaller: This is my text.

    3. Expanding text: This is my text.

    4. Condensing text: This is my text.

    5. Raising text: This is my text.

    6. Lowering text: This is my text.

    7. Compare to - This is my text  

    8. Kerning:

    9. Text Text Text Text Text

    10. Text Text Text Text Text


     
  2. In line 1, select the the part  This is my text. 
     
  3. Open the Font dialog.
     
  4. Click on the Character Spacing tab, if necessary.
     
  5. Apply a scaling of 150% to the text. Close the Font dialog.
     
  6. Continue with each line, applying the changes to the phrase This is my text.  -
    • line 2: scaling 80%
    • line 3: expand by 10 pts.
    • line 4: condense by .8 pts
    • line 5: raise by 8 pts.
    • line 6: lower by 12 pts.
  7. Compare each change with the unchanged text in line 7.
     
  8. In lines 9 and 10 change the font size of the words to match the following: 12 , 24, 36, 48, 72
     
  9. Select line 10 and open the Font dialog. Check the Kerning for fonts box and leave the font size at 1 pt.
     
  10. Document - Character SpacingCompare lines 9 and 10 carefully. For which font sizes does kerning make a noticeable difference? Underline them.
     
  11. Create a header with your name and the date at the left and Word Project 3 at the right.
     
  12. Preview.
     
  13. Class diskSave as  characterspacing.doc  in the  word project3  folder of your Class disk.
    Full disk How to handle a full disk
     
  14. Print icon Print.