Indentation determines the distance of the paragraph from either the left or right margins of the text box. Within the margins, you can increase or decrease the indentation for a paragraph or group of paragraphs. You can also create a negative indent (also known as an outdent), which pulls the paragraph out toward the left margin if the text direction is set to left-to-right, or toward the right margin if text direction is set to right-to-left. Or you can create a hanging indent, in which the first line of the paragraph is not indented but subsequent lines are.

You set indentation on the Indents and Spacing tab of the Paragraph dialog box (Format menu).

Horizontal text alignment determines the appearance and orientation of the right and left edges of the paragraph relative to the text box margins (and any indents). The most common alignments are left, right, center, and justified.

You set alignment on the Indents and Spacing tab of the Paragraph dialog box (Format menu).

Text alignment options

• Left    The leftmost character of each line is aligned to the left margin, and the right edge of each line is ragged. This is the default alignment for paragraphs with left-to-right text direction.
• Center    The center of each line of text is aligned to the midpoint of the right and left text box margins, and the left and right edges of each line are ragged.
• Right    The rightmost character of each line is aligned to the right margin, and the left edge of each line is ragged. This is the default alignment for paragraphs with right-to-left text direction.
• Justified    The first and last characters of each line (except the last) are aligned to the left and right margins, and lines are filled by adding or subtracting space between and within words. The last line of the paragraph is aligned to the left margin if text direction is left-to-right, or to the right margin if text direction is right-to-left.
• Distributed    The first and last characters of each line (except the last) are aligned to the left and right margins, and lines are filled by adding or subtracting the same amount from each character. The last line of the paragraph is aligned to the left margin if text direction is left-to-right, or to the right margin if text direction is right-to-left.
• Distribute All Lines    The first and last characters of each line (including the last line of the paragraph) are aligned to the left and right margins, and lines are filled by adding or subtracting the same amount from each character.

In addition to horizontal alignment, you can vertically align text to baseline guides. You set baseline guides on the Baseline Guides tab of the Layout Guides dialog box (Arrange menu). You choose to align text to baseline guides on the Indents and Spacing tab of the Paragraph dialog box (Format menu).

If a line contains a large text character or graphic, Publisher increases the spacing for that line. To space all lines evenly, specify an exact amount of spacing by entering a value followed by a unit of measurement (inches, centimeters, picas, points, or pixels).

You can also align text to baseline guides to precisely line up text across multiple columns.

Paragraph spacing determines the amount of space above or below a paragraph. When you press ENTER to start a new paragraph, the spacing is carried over to the next paragraph, but you can change the settings for each paragraph.

You set line and paragraph spacing on the Indents and Spacing tab of the Paragraph dialog box (Format menu).

You can also align text to baseline guides to precisely line up text across multiple columns. You set baseline guides on the Baseline Guides tab of the Layout Guides dialog box (Arrange menu). You choose to align text to baseline guides on the Indents and Spacing tab of the Paragraph dialog box (Format menu).