Justify a line of Latin language text

Copper Contributor

Hello. In Word, I have been trying to justify lines of Latin language text to copy an existing text. This text also has numbered lines (every 5 lines) with grammatical commentaries referenced to the line numbers.

My problem is that in tinkering with the margins, it never works out quite right. Using Shift-Enter, I can choose the words that should be on each line, but then the spacing between words is too loose in places.

 

Any hints as to how I could make this look better?

 

I work in the Mac version of Office 365, but also have Office 365 on a Windows 10 machine. Both are updated to the latest versions.

 

I have attached an example page of the text I am trying to mimic.

5 Replies

Hello @faszikam ,

not sure why you want to have a new doc look exactly like the old one, but if the typography is important, you'll have a very difficult job as first and foremost you need to find the most fitting font and fix its spacing and size to match the original. I've tried that once for my academical paper, and it was a nightmare.

 

If it is not important, there are many ways around it, Let me know if you are interested in the workarounds. Lenka

@faszikam 

 

If you just want to reproduce a small fraction of a document, maybe you could take a screen shot and insert the screen shot into the new document. Of course, that won't work if the text must be editable.

Thanks for your response. And yes, please, I would be interested in a workaround if it's not too much trouble.

Hello @faszikam,

first and foremost you need to set your goal - the why in why do you need it to look the same.

 

- If it is just for an academic paper, you don't need to worry. Set a style and apply the style.

- If you need to have it in two columns, use the continuous breaks to create an in-text section for two columns.

- The same applies if you don't want to have two columns but want to have the lines numbered. You need to create an in-text section (using continuous section breaks) and mark that text with line numbers. Use this page (How to number every nth line in Word 2013 | Just Another Microsoft Office Blog (wordpress.com)) to follow the set-up for every fifth line. Of course - apply the style if you need the text to look different.

 

- If you need to have paragraphs, not lines, to be numbered, create a table and paste each paragraph in a new row. Put automated numbering into the first column. Apply the "latin-text" style within the second table-column.

 

Since I don't have the exact goal you are trying to approach, these are the general rules I used when I worked with middle-English texts or with poems/plays in my papers.

 

I hope this helps you to get started.

Is the Line Number feature available in the Page Setup dialog on a Mac? If it isn't available on the Mac, use that feature on the WIndows computer. It puts the line numbers in the margin where they do not interfere with the layout of the text.