Format paragraphs

  • Article

This page applies to WPF and Silverlight 2

You can align text relative to the bounding boxes of the objects that contain the text in your Microsoft Expression Blend application, for text that is contained in TextBox, TextBlock, or RichTextBox objects. Specifically, you can align text to the left, right, or center, or you can justify the text to the left and right edges of the bounding box that contains the text. For RichTextBox objects, you can set the alignment of individual paragraphs separately, and you can also control the line height and paragraph spacing of text in the objects.

To align text in a TextBox, TextBlock, or RichTextBox object

  1. Select the TextBox, TextBlock, or RichTextBox object that contains the text that you want to align, by using either the Selection Cc295348.2ff91340-477e-4efa-a0f7-af20851e4daa(en-us,Expression.10).png tool or the Direct Selection Cc295348.6dd6571f-c116-451d-8dd2-1f88b8406362(en-us,Expression.10).png tool.

  2. In the Properties panel, under Text, click the Paragraph Cc295348.11ff1de9-476e-4280-9af5-13dd9fa5c83c(en-us,Expression.10).png tab.

  3. Set the Text Alignment Cc295348.30a54e2f-d80a-4657-96d8-62743c3bfb0b(en-us,Expression.10).png as you want.

Note

If you are in text-editing mode for a TextBox or TextBlock object, the Text Alignment button will not be enabled. Press the ESC key to exit text-editing mode and to enable Text Alignment.

To set line height or paragraph spacing for text in a RichTextBox object

Note

RichTextBox is not available in Silverlight 2.

  1. Select the RichTextBox object that contains the text that you want to format, by using either the Selection Cc295348.2ff91340-477e-4efa-a0f7-af20851e4daa(en-us,Expression.10).png tool or the Direct Selection Cc295348.6dd6571f-c116-451d-8dd2-1f88b8406362(en-us,Expression.10).png tool.

  2. To format individual paragraphs separately in the text object, right-click the object, click Edit Text, and then click to position your cursor anywhere in the paragraph that you want to format. Otherwise, to uniformly format all paragraphs in the object, continue to the next step.

  3. In the Properties panel, under Text, click the Paragraph Cc295348.11ff1de9-476e-4280-9af5-13dd9fa5c83c(en-us,Expression.10).png tab, and then do one or more of the following:

    • Set the Line Height Cc295348.1decde9b-acdb-4a0b-bdfb-bc20ae355159(en-us,Expression.10).png property as you want to set the amount of space between every pair of lines in the paragraph or paragraphs.

    • Set the Paragraph SpacingBefore Cc295348.ff9d0231-32ec-4d0b-843d-7c7eefdda7bc(en-us,Expression.10).png property to set the amount of space that comes before the paragraph or paragraphs.

    • Set Paragraph Spacing After Cc295348.f8c165cf-5c19-445b-a360-cdc6230397e2(en-us,Expression.10).png to set the amount of space that follows the paragraph or paragraphs.