4.1 Overview
When creating content in Report Authority it is important adopt word processing best practices in order to create a document that;
- is consistently formatted
- looks professionally produced;
- and can be easily reformatted.
The best way to achieve this is through the use of styles, rather than the use of explicit formatting.
Explicit Formatting
When characters or paragraphs are selected and any of the controls are used in the Font and Paragraph sections of the Home ribbon, the selection becomes explicitly formatted:
Any explicit formatting overrules any formatting inherited from any style applied to it.
E.g. if the justification of a paragraph is explicitly set to be left-aligned, if a style is subsequently applied that is center aligned, the paragraph will adopt all style properties such as font family and size, paragraph spacing etc. except for text alignment which will be left-aligned regardless of the alignment defined in the style.
Using explicit formatting can appear to “break” the use of Styles and for that reason, its use is discouraged.
Clear Explicit Formatting
To clear all formatting (including explicit formattng), highlight the paragraph and select the Clear Formatting button in the Home ribbon:
Copying and pasting external text
Text from external sources such as other Report Authority documents, Word documents, emails, web pages, etc., are likely to contain explicit formatting. Pasting such text into a Report Authority document will by default also paste the explicit formatting which will result in the inconsistent appearance of text.
It is strongly advised that all text being pasted from external documents is pasted without explicit formatting. This is achieved by clicking on the Paste Special button and then selecting the Unformatted text option:
