Right-aligning a partial line of text?

[Blue Max]

Corel WordPerfect has a great code defined as 'FLUSH RIGHT' which allows
users to type text left-aligned, but then, at any point, force the rest of
the text to be right-aligned. The code was inserted with a function key,
just as you might enter a tab. Pressing the function key twice, added
dot-leaders between the left-aligned text and the right-aligned text. Is
there a similar code or feature in Word 2007?

I do recognize that the user can set up a right dot-leader tab on the right
margin to accomplish this, but then you still have to contend with the other
tabs inbetween that you may, or may not, need. Furthermore, you must tab
past any existing tabs each time in order to reach the right-tab at the
right margin. Moreover, each tab, executed between the two parts of text,
inhibits the dot-leaders desired between the entries.

The beauty of the WordPerfect approach, is that you leave all your tabs
defined as needed and simply use the 'Flush Right', or 'Flush Right' with
dot leaders, whenever you need to slide a portion of a line to the right
margin for some given purpose.

For example, you can print questions to the left and answers (with dot
leaders, if desired) to the right. Likewise, you can create programs
listing events, speakers, or musical presentations that are left-aligned and
coorresponding descriptions, names, or numbers that are right-aligned.
I.E., you do not need to repeatedly press pass existing tabs in order to
right-align the desired portion of text.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Corel WordPerfect has a great code defined as 'FLUSH RIGHT' which allows
users to type text left-aligned, but then, at any point, force the rest of
the text to be right-aligned. The code was inserted with a function key,
just as you might enter a tab. Pressing the function key twice, added
dot-leaders between the left-aligned text and the right-aligned text. Is
there a similar code or feature in Word 2007?

No, Word doesn't have this feature.

I do recognize that the user can set up a right dot-leader tab on the right
margin to accomplish this, but then you still have to contend with the other
tabs inbetween that you may, or may not, need. Furthermore, you must tab
past any existing tabs each time in order to reach the right-tab at the
right margin. Moreover, each tab, executed between the two parts of text,
inhibits the dot-leaders desired between the entries.

If you use properly defined styles that don't have any extraneous tab stops,
this is not a problem. If you just manually add a right-aligned dot leader tab
stop beyond the existing tab stops (which often were themselves added manually
to a paragraph that has no stops in its style), then you have the sort of mess
you described. Essentially, you can be lazy early on, only at the cost of having
to do more work later. ;-)

The beauty of the WordPerfect approach, is that you leave all your tabs
defined as needed and simply use the 'Flush Right', or 'Flush Right' with
dot leaders, whenever you need to slide a portion of a line to the right
margin for some given purpose.

For example, you can print questions to the left and answers (with dot
leaders, if desired) to the right. Likewise, you can create programs
listing events, speakers, or musical presentations that are left-aligned and
coorresponding descriptions, names, or numbers that are right-aligned.
I.E., you do not need to repeatedly press pass existing tabs in order to
right-align the desired portion of text.

I won't argue with you -- Word and WordPerfect just work differently, in many
ways, and some people prefer one or the other. The key to working efficiently is
understanding the quirks of whichever one you use, and working with the program
rather than against it.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

To add to what Jay has said, although setting a tab stop in Word clears all
the built-in tab stops to the left of it, if the document was imported from
WordPerfect, it may very well have manual tab stops every half inch, and
these will need to be cleared manually. This can be done by going to the
Tabs dialog and choosing Clear All. You can then start from scratch to set
just the tab stops you need.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Blue Max]

Thank you, Suzanne, for the addendum.

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[Blue Max]

Thanks, Jay. As you indicated, I also recently found that a right tab works
pretty well (?) provided you haven't manually inserted other tabs, but only
rely on equally-spaced tab settings. Off course, this is great until you
need those manual tabs.

Like you, I have no argument with Microsoft over their implementation, but
also recognize what a great feature this has been over the years. Having
used both, I can really attest that it truly has great advantages on a
regular basis. I would hope that they might consider implementing such a
code in the future. I believe that a lot of Word users would really grow to
love the feature.

Thanks,

Richard

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