Line spacing and other anomalies in scanned text

[Bert Coules]

I'm currently working on a document (text only, one font throughout) that
has been scanned (by someone else) from a printed book.

I'm seeing a curiously anomaly with regard to line spacing. I marked the
entire document and set spacing to 1.5, but some double-return paragraph
spaces are still spaced singly. If I mark the text where this happens and
look at Format/Paragraph, the spacing is reported as 1.5 even though it
palpably is not.

Is this an effect caused by the scanning procedure? Whether it is or not,
how can I eliminate it and set the entire document to 1.5?

I'm also seeing another oddity, though it's a less serious one: some words
have their letters spaced more widely than is normal for the Courier New
font I've set throughout (this is not due to full-width justification having
being accidentally turned on). Again, is this just a side effect of the
scanning?

Many thanks.

Bert

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Displaying nonprinting characters is always helpful, of course, and you
should not have an "double-return paragraph spaces"; instead, define and
apply a style with 1.5 line spacing and the required amount of Spacing
Before/After. Then Ctrl+A, Ctrl+Q, Ctrl+Spacebar to remove all direct font
and paragraph formatting.

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

 

[Bert Coules]

Displaying nonprinting characters is always helpful, of course, and you
should not have an "double-return paragraph spaces"; instead, define and
apply a style with 1.5 line spacing and the required amount of Spacing
Before/After. Then Ctrl+A, Ctrl+Q, Ctrl+Spacebar to remove all direct font
and paragraph formatting.

Thank you for that, and I'll look into it, but I'm afraid I don't understand
why I shouldn't have double return paragraph spaces. If I'd typed the
document myself, that's how I would create new paragraphs, so why shouldn't
the scanned text be the same?

I also don't know what you mean by "the required amount of Spacing
Before/After" but I'll do my best to find out.

Bert

 

[Graham Mayor]

Word is a word processor and not a typewriter, so it does not require you to
press enter twice to create spacing between paragraphs. Paragraph formats
include programmable spacing before or after the paragraph (or both) and if
you use (or create and use) a paragraph style that includes such spacing,
you not only create a document that looks right, but a document that is much
easier to edit.

As for scanned text, this requires the use of OCR software which converts a
graphical image of the text to editable text. How well it achieves this is
determined by the software itself. Few are the documents that do not require
extensive re-modelling after such conversion.

You may find http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/CleanWebText.htm useful.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Bert Coules]

Graham, thanks for that.

I've been doing some reading this morning, and I now see what you and
Suzanne mean; I'll do my level best to apply it to the document in hand.

I can see that pressing Return once to create a paragraph space could be
useful, but what happens when I want to start a new line within a paragraph?

I'm still not entirely clear on this Before and After (or both) bit. If I
type a body of text and want to create a new paragraph, then I can see that
the space I create could be said to be both After the para I've just typed,
and Before the one I'm about to type - but it's the same space, isn't it?
I'm hazy on how there could be two separate definitions fro what amounts to
the same thing.

If I have line spacing set at 1.5 throughout (for a 12pt font) and want the
paragraph spacing to be 3 lines, what value should I use in the Before and
After boxes? 24pt?

Many thanks to you and Suzanne for your help and your patience.

Bert

 

[Bert Coules]

Well, I can answer one of my questions myself: I've discovered that to get
two blank lines between paragraphs typed at 1.5 line spacing and in 12pt,
the After value has to be 18pt. I don't really see why it isn't double
that, but as long as it works, that's fine with me.

Bert

 

[Graham Mayor]

Normally for inter-paragraph spacing you would use 'space after'. Space
before tends to be use for (say) Headings where they are used singly and you
wish to create extra space between the text and the heading.

http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/typespacing/a/leading.htm may help explain
line spacing.

If you wish to start a new line within a paragraph you would press
Shift+Enter

If you display the formatting marks - click the ¶ button - you will see the
difference.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Terry Farrell]

If this has been scanned, then it suggests that the paragraph setting 'Don't
add space between paragraphs of the same style' has been checked.

 

[Bert Coules]

Graham,

If you wish to start a new line within a paragraph you would press
Shift+Enter

I know you'll tell me that Word isn't a typewriter (and I can see the sense
of that argument in many instances, I genuinely can) but I fail to see how
pressing Shift+Enter to obtain a new line and Enter to create a new
paragraph is any simpler, more straightforward and more logical than using
one Enter for the former and two for the latter.

But no matter. Thanks to the advice from you and the others, I seem to be
up and running on my current document. I'm grateful!

Bert

 

[Stefan Blom]

Normally for inter-paragraph spacing you would use 'space after'.

I must be unusual, then, because I tend to use Spacing Before rather than
Spacing After for text that needs paragraph spacing.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Yes, you are still thinking typewriter

99 times out of a hundred when you need a new line, you would press enter.
That creates a new paragraph. How the paragraphs are formatted should relate
to the styles applied to them.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Graham Mayor]

Each to his own

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Bert Coules]

Yes, you are still thinking typewriter

I think it's because I use - and will only ever need to use - the merest
fraction of what Word can do. A very-slightly souped up electronic
typewriter is actually all I need.

Besides, I used really to like my typewriters!

Bert