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Word Processing: Think You Know How Bold, Italic, etc. Actually Work? Take This Quiz!
The Problem
Has this ever happened to you?
You want to add some text to an existing document (or email draft) that already has a mixture of plain and formatted text (bold, italic, underlined, red, etc.). You click into its text, and as you expected, you get the familiar insertion point (the vertical blinking line).
You then start typing, but your new text doesn’t appear the way you expected, e.g., sometimes it appears plain when you expected bold, or bold when you expected plain. You wish you could understand and predict what you will get instead of being frustrated or confused some of the time.
Take this short quiz
Test your knowledge of what you get when typing new text into an existing document.
In the first four examples,
- “football” will be the existing text, where “foot” is bold and “ball” is plain (i.e., not bold), with no space between them.
- The vertical bar (|) will represent the insertion point (the vertical blinking line), which is where the next characters you type will be inserted.
1. |football
With the insertion point at the very start of the document (before the bold “f”), how will the next character that you type appear?
a. bold b. plain c. cannot be determined
2. foo|tball
With the insertion point between the bold “o” and “t,” the next character you type will be:
a. bold b. plain c. cannot be determined
3. foot|ball
With the insertion point between the bold “t” and the plain “b,” the next character you type will be:
a. bold b. plain c. cannot be determined
4. footb|all
With the insertion point between the plain “b” and “a,” the next character you type will be:
a. bold b. plain c. cannot be determined
In the remaining two examples, “foot ball” will be the existing text, where “foot” is still bold and “ball” is still plain (i.e., not bold), and there will also be a single space between them.
5. foot| ball
With the insertion point between the bold “t” and the space, the next character you type will be:
a. bold b. plain c. cannot be determined
6. foot |ball
With the insertion point between the space and the plain “b,” the next character you type will be:
a. bold b. plain c. cannot be determined
How to understand what happens when you type into existing formatted text
Whether you’re using a Windows computer or a Macintosh, in a word processor like Microsoft Word, Pages, LibreOffice, or an email program where bold, italic, etc. are supported, the text could have a variety of formatting.
For example, imagine a line of text from a stage play:
Juliet: (softly, to herself) O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
This line has text with three different formats: bold, italic, and plain text (which is neither bold nor italic).
Here’s what happens when you click and type additional text into such a document or email:
- If you type at the very beginning of the document, your new text will arrive with the same formatting as the very first character in the document, i.e., what you type will match the character immediately to the right of the insertion point.
- If you type anywhere else in the document, your new text will use the formatting of the character immediately to the left of where you’re typing.
- If you click to type your new text just after a space, the same mechanism applies, but since you can’t see whether that space character is bold or plain, you won’t be able to tell in advance (simply by looking) what formatting your new text will have. However, if the software displays a standard “formatting toolbar,” its icons (“B” for bold, “I” for italic, and “U” for underline) will indicate what you’ll get when you start typing.
- If you type into an empty document, your new text will use the current or default formatting for the document as a whole, which you’ll also be able to see on its standard “formatting toolbar,” if present.
Here are the quiz answers:
For each example, the next character you type will be:
1. |football
a. bold: You’re typing at the start of the document, with a bold character to the right.
2. foo|tball
a. bold: You’re typing in the middle of the document, with a bold character to the left.
3. foot|ball
a. bold: You’re typing in the middle of the document, with a bold character to the left.
4. footb|all
b. plain: You’re typing in the middle of the document, with a plain character to the left.
5. foot| ball
a. bold: You’re typing in the middle of the document, with a bold character to the left.
6. foot |ball
c. cannot be determined: You’re typing in the middle of the document, with a space to the left, so you can’t tell simply by looking at it whether that space is bold or plain.
How did you score?
- 0-2: This issue has probably confused you for a long time, so I hope I’ve clarified it for you.
- 3-5: You’ve got part of the picture, so I hope I could clear up the rest for you.
- 6: You understand this thoroughly!
Generalizing this
My examples here only show bold vs. plain variations. In more complex documents where the text formatting may include a variety of fonts, sizes, colors, and more, the same formatting behavior applies to new text that you type.
What about Copy and Paste, or Cut and Paste?
With a word processor, when you Copy (or Cut) text from a source document and Paste it into a destination document (or you Paste it into a different place within the same document), there are two different cases:
Case 1: Regular Paste or “Keep Source Formatting”
By default, most word processors will try to preserve the text’s formatting (font, size, bold, italic, etc.) from the source document as it arrives in the destination, so:
- Unlike simply typing in new text, the formatting to the left or right of where you’re pasting will not matter.
- Instead, the text that the Paste will insert will use the source document’s formatting.
- For example, if you Copy some 24-point bold Helvetica text and Paste it into the middle of some existing 12-point plain Times New Roman text, the new text will be 24-point bold Helvetica.
- However, in newer versions of Word (2007, 2010, and later) there are options you can adjust that change this default behavior, making Paste insert text as described below instead.
Case 2: “Paste Special” with “Unformatted Text” or “Merge Formatting”
Many word processors (including Microsoft Word) have an alternate Paste function that lets you choose to insert “unformatted text,” which does not preserve any of the formatting from the source document, so:
- This type of Paste will be equivalent to your typing in that new text, so its formatting will depend on the characters to the left or right of where you’re pasting, as described above.
- In other words, the text that arrives will use the destination document’s formatting.
- For example, if you Copy some 24-point bold Helvetica text and use Paste Special to insert it into the middle of some existing 12-point plain Times New Roman text, the new text will match that.
Where to go from here
As always, if any of my advice seems too difficult to follow, I recommend that you find someone you know and trust who can help you.
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