Why can't I format just one line?

I wonder who the brain dead person was that implemented this utterly stupid "feature"?  

I highlight one line.  I do something to it.  (Centering it).  But it formats several lines below it as well.  I didn't highlight those lines.  Why are they affected?  To think the software maker actually got paid to do something like this is just beyond comprehension.  Why does Microsoft try to think for its customers?  Are their customers really so incapable of making decisions themselves?  Please:  NO Microsoft links.  They are utterly useless, written by people devoid of English communication skills.  There's got to be an easy solution to this.  Under Options I disabled whatever I could find that could be connected to this.  I am not very knowledgeable in Word I admit.  I just expect logic from software though.


I should mention that I always use Shift_Enter when working with text like this.  

Answer
Answer
You need to understand that certain formatting settings in Word are associated with individual characters, while others are associated only with entire paragraphs. The alignment (left, center, right) formatting is a paragraph format, so it cannot be applied to less than an entire paragraph -- regardless of what you have selected.

A paragraph is defined as the sequence of characters ending with a paragraph mark (Enter, seen as ¶ when nonprinting characters are displayed). A line break (Shift+Enter) is not a paragraph mark -- so everything from the line break to the next paragraph mark is part of the same paragraph as the text before the line break.

If you want a specific line to be centered, and not the text above it or below it, then that line and the line before it must end with a paragraph mark (Enter) and not a line break (Shift+Enter).

lines before -- not centered¶
       selected line -- centered¶
lines after -- not centered
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Last updated December 5, 2024 Views 2,380 Applies to: