One of the things it is possible to do with more complex wordprocessors is to shade the text and add borders - not just to the text itself but also to the whole document. Grey or colour can be used or the text can be inverted with the background colour forming the text colour. This can be used to make a section stand out. It is sometimes used for examples and quotations.
The spacing between lines can be adjusted in varying degrees. This can make a document easier to read. It also allows a reviewer to make notes on the printed page by the relevant text. This might be required for exam papers, for instance, or student excercises where the student is given feedback.
When we talk about paragraph formatting we are talking about effects being applied to a whole paragraph rather than just a few words. However, this category does not include text effects such as bold or italic. What we are actually looking at is idents and spacing together with line and page breaks.
A page will have a set number of lines. The wordprocessor keeps a count of those lines as you type and when you have reached the end of a page starts a new one automatically. However, you might want text beyond a certain point to appear on the next page. To achieve this a page break is inserted. This causes the computer to stop printing at that point and start again on the next sheet of paper. Other types of section break can control when a new column is started, whether or not word are hyphenated and lines kept together.
We have mentioned elsewhere about widows and orphans and the fact that text can be indented from the margin. But the spacing before and after a paragraph can also be controlled. This can be useful in setting paragraphs apart and for separating the text. It can improve the readability of your document.
Word Processing intro Basics Editing Formatting Appearance and Printing Proofing Mailmerging Reusing Text