Boxing A Quote

Question

Boxing A Quote

Anonymous

Hello,

   This is not about a problem but about how to do an action that I am not sure how to do. I have tried putting the question in my search engine and gotten links that didn't seem helpful and I have looked in my Word 2019 for dummies and don't see this exact scenario addressed, so I thought I would run it by the knowledgeable folks here to see if I could get some detailed help for a guy not very computer savvy.

   Here is what I am trying to do. In the document I want to insert a long quote (10-15 lines long) and have it indented on both sides and seperated from the main text both above and below by a single space so that it would look like this and thus stand out from the main text:

      xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

      xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

      xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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I am writing in the justified style and want the quote to appear in the same format so that both sides of the quote sentences start and end in the same places, giving the quote an even appearance. I have done some research and I think if I tried using the ruler to reset the margins, this would result in resetting the entire document, which I obviously don't want. I only want the margins changed for the quote itself. I would probably want to do this more than once, so I don't know if there is a way to set something up (save) so I can access the feature another time, or would I have to reset it as needed. I also looked at tabs (I already have one set for new paragraph indentation) but I'm not sure if this is the answer either, especially as I have one set already, which I don't want changed. I have heard that there is something called creating a text box, but I'm not sure how to set this up or if it is even what I need. I don't wand the box lines to appear on the document page, and if I'm able to type in the box I would need to have the justified style work there as well as in the main text. Any help anyone can give would be most appreciated. Thank you.

       Wayne

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10 answers

Answer 1

Hi Charles and Suzanne,

   I amusing an HP Pavilion x360 laptop running Windows 10.  and using Word 2019. I would like to try the suggestions both of you have mentioned but I'm running into problems getting started. I tried to follow the screenshots Charles provided to try a Style Modification but but I can't seem to find a pathway to get to the dialog box where the Frame option appears. I tried looking for the Modify feature on my toolbar ribbon under the Home&gt;Styles tabs but this didn't display any Modify option. I got a bunch of boxes with a lot of AaBbCcNormal/NoSpace/Heading 1&2/Subtitles/Emphasis&Intense/Strong Quote and

Intense/Subtle Reference and Intense/Book Title List/Paragraph/Caption, and below that Create Style, Clear Formatting, and Apply Styles. If I click on the arrow in the bottom right corner of the pane I get a small box with all the same listings plus endnote text and footer. How can I modify a style if the option to do so isn't there? Or am I just not knowledgeable enough to be looking in the right place? So if I want to modify a quote, how do I do this? Suzanne, you mention a block quote, and that I need to use a style that has left and right indents. Again, I can't seem to find an access to this via my toolbar. I have looked in my Word 2019 for dummies book and there is no listing in the index for this under either Block or Quote. I'm beginning to get frustrated and wish I had an in person tutor for this as I hate to keep pestering people but I need to learn this and I seem to be going in circles. Thanks for your patience.

                     Wayne

Answer 2

What you are describing is a "block quote." You achieve this by using a style that has left and right indents. You can add Spacing Before/After to the style and check the box for "Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style." Unfortunately, the Block Text style, which was more-or-less satisfactory in Word 2003 and earlier, has been "improved" in subsequent versions to include font color and a border (which is more suitable for a "pull quote" than a block quote), but you can modify it to suit your preferences.

Answer 3

You want to change both the left and the right paragraph indents. That can give you the ability to justify text. See the link on margins and indents. Margins and Indents in Word

You do not need to use a Frame. The key is the left and right indents.

To get the effect you want you must either create your own paragraph style (and name it something other than "Quote," perhaps "Quotation" or modify the built-in Style. Personally, I would opt for modifying the built-in style.

***

sometimes I have trouble following tips from others as the buttons and tabs they tell me to look for don't seem to exist on mymachine. I'll let you know and thanks for replying so quickly.

Wayne

What is your operating system? What is your machine?

Answer 4

Hi Charles,

   Thanks for the detailed reply. I will try it out tomorrow. I should let you know that I tried to use the Quote method on an indented long quote I had previously written using the Enter key to deliniate  the right hand margin and then using the space bar to move words around in subsequent lines so that all of them would end at this spot. Hiwever, when I highlighted this text and clicked on the Style/Quote option, the program took each seperate line and italicized it in smaller font and placed the last word below the rest of the line, double spacing this and all subsequent lines, which I obviously did not want. I don't know if this occurred because I was trying to change an existing quote, especially one I had probably formatted incorrectly. I want the indented quotes to have the same font size as the main text. I hope I can fix this without having to delete it and reinsert. If so I have already saved it to my desktop. I will try your method tomorrow with a test quote, but I may need to get back to you as I have found out that sometimes I have trouble following tips from others as the buttons and tabs they tell me to look for don't seem to exist on mymachine. I'll let you know and thanks for replying so quickly.

           Wayne

Answer 5

Hello Wayne,

This forum is a user-to-user support forum. My name is Charles and I am a fellow user with decades of experience using Microsoft Word. I have written extensively on using Word and have authored help articles on the Microsoft site.

You do not want to change margins, but rather indents. Margins and Indents in Word

You would want to use a paragraph style for this.

Word comes with a built-in style called Quote*.*

You can modify this to meet your needs, perhaps just changing the paragraph indents. However, you could put it in a frame, with or without borders and shading. Here is an example using a frame. Here is a temporary link to the document shown below. When you want these effects, simply place your insertion point/cursor in the paragraph you want set off and apply the style.

Here are a couple of the dialogs used in this.

I hope this information helps.

I like to also provide this link about Ransomware even though it has nothing to do with your question:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/for...

Please let me know if you have any more questions or require further help.

You can ask for more help by replying to this post (Reply button below).

Stay well

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Boxing A Quote

10 answers