Text formatting is how you style your words on a page. It’s choosing an outfit for your writing—it’s all about making sure your words look neat, are easy to read, and feel right for the situation.
There are a few main things to think about: the font you use, the size of the letters, and how the text is lined up on the page.
Why does it matter?
Font choice
Fonts are like clothes for words—they give your writing a certain style. Some fonts are clear and simple, like Arial, Calibri, or Verdana, which are like comfy trainers – practical and easy to wear. Other fonts, like fancy cursive ones, are like shoes that rub, they don’t have any practical use in documents.
- Plain fonts make reading easy. Imagine reading an entire book in fancy, squiggly letters—it’d get annoying fast!
Font size
Font size is how big the letters are. Too small, and it’s a struggle. Too big, and it can feel overwhelming.
A good size, like 12 or 14 points in a document, is like wearing shoes that fit just right—not too tight, not too loose.
Justification
Justification is about how you line up your text.
- Left-aligned text (where everything lines up on the left) is the easiest to read.
- Justified text (where both sides of the text line up) might look fancy, but it can leave big gaps between words. Those gaps can make reading harder, especially for people with dyslexia.
Alignment
Alignment is where your text sits on the page.
- Left-aligned is the default and feels natural to read.
- Center-aligned is nice for titles but awkward for longer paragraphs.
- Right-aligned text is rare and mostly used for design purposes, like making a poster look cool.
Steps to improve text formatting
- Pick clear, simple fonts like Arial, Calibri, or Verdana.
- Stick with sizes around 12–14 points for regular text in documents. In spreadsheets and presentations, the text size will be different so choose sizes that are easy to read in each format.
- Align text to the left—keep it tidy and easy to follow.
- Don’t add fancy effects like words in different colors — it’s like adding too many sprinkles on a cupcake.
- Don’t use underlining for emphasis – underlining is for links