Common Formatting Issues

Heading Styles

Problem: My headings look like short, bold paragraphs.

Solution: Use heading styles to make headings, not bold.

When you create a heading, don't use bold tags to make it look like a heading, use the heading tool itself. Using the bold option will make Pressbooks think you're trying to create a very short paragraph instead of a heading, which will ruin both consistency and document flow (especially for screen readers).

Example

Here's what this section would look like with proper headings.

Now, here's what the same section looks like with the headings replaced with bold paragraphs.

Even if you like how the bold option looks more, this should never be done for any reason. Simply change the style of the headings – you can get instructions on how to do this in In-Depth Theme Customization (Custom Styles).

Blockquotes

Problem: I'm using a long quotation, and want to separate it from the rest of my text.

Solution: Use the blockquote tag.

The best way to do this is to highlight your quote text and press Shift+Alt+Q (Control+Option+Q on Mac). This will automatically style the selected text as a blockquote. Alternatively, there is a button that looks like an opening quotation mark which will do the same thing.

If you also want to cite the speaker, you should switch from Visual mode to Text mode by clicking the "Text" tab in the top right of the editing window. Your text will appear unformatted, but don't worry! This is just how we can edit things in a more granular way.

Go to your blockquote, and you will see the quote surrounded by tags that look like:

<blockquote>Quoted text here</blockquote>

This is how Pressbooks knows how to style your text. To add a citation, put your cursor right before the closing tag (the </blockquote> is the closing tag) and type:

<cite>Your citation here</cite>

See the example for a sample of what this should look like.

Example

This is how to add a citation to your text.

This is what a blockquote looks like by default in the McLuhan theme. Some themes emphasize blockquotes more than others.

MS Word Span Tags

Problem: My text has weird styling after I copy and paste from MS Word.

Solution: Go into text mode and delete any <span> tags you see.

MS Word may add <span> tags to style your text. Unless you know exactly what it's for, you're safe to delete every span tag in your document by clicking the "Text" tab in the top right of the editing window.

Example

Here's what some unusual text might look like.

If we open the Text tab, we can see what's causing this.

If we delete the <span> tags, the text will be returned to normal.

Have an issue or article suggestion?

Email us! lts@boisestate.edu