Formatting poetry

[Guest]

I want to format stanzas of poetry, where each line of a stanza has a hard
return after it except the last line of the stanza. Sometimes I want to
indent the second and fourth lines of the stanza (for example), but when I
insert a tab at the beginning of the second line, all the lines of the stanza
indent rather than just the line with the tab. What am I doing wrong? Or how
can I accomplish what I want?

Here is an example stanza:

This is first line of my stanza,<HARD RETURN>
<TAB>Here is the second,<HARD RETURN>
This is the third line<HARD RETURN>
<TAB>And here is the last.

Dan

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Assuming Word 2002 or 2003, go to Tools | AutoCorrect Options | AutoFormat
As You Type and clear the box for "Set left- and first-indent with tabs and
backspaces."

Note also that it is generally a good idea to use line breaks (Shift+Enter)
at the ends of verses of poetry, with a paragraph break (Enter) only at the
end of the stanza. This has several advantages:

1. If you want to begin lines with a lowercase letter, Word won't insist on
capitalizing it for you.

2. Using basic "Widow/orphan control," you will guarantee that you will
always have at least two lines of the stanza/paragraph at the top or bottom
of a page.

3. If you want to keep the entire stanza from breaking across pages, you can
also check "Keep lines together" on the Line and Page Breaks tab of Format |
Paragraph.

4. By adding Space After to the paragraph style used for your stanzas, you
can insert a "blank line" between stanzas without having to use an empty
paragraph (which should always be avoided for a number of very good
reasons).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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[Guest]

Suzanne,

Thank you for your reply. I agree with all of your comments. That's exactly
how I format poetry paragraphs. I also am an advocate of using space
before/space after instead of inserting blank paragraphs.

I'm using Word 2000, and I don't seem to have the option that you described.
Is it there in some other place?

Dan

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Well, that's why it's helpful to state what version you're using! Usually I
give the full information, but I took a shortcut and assumed Word 2002/2003.
In Word 2000 and earlier, the control is "Tabs and backspace set left
indent" on the Edit tab of Tools | Options. No idea why they moved it to an
entirely different dialog in Word 2002.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

Suzanne,

That's it! That's just what I was looking for. Thanks very much for your help.

Dan