Adobe InDesign CC - Paragraph Formatting

Just like character formatting, you can format paragraphs too with a wide range of options. The different options have been labeled 1-10 (in orange) so that you can easily follow.

To adjust paragraph formatting options, select the Paragraph Formatting Controls (1) icon.

(2) represents all the paragraph alignment options available. You can align paragraphs left, right, top, or bottom and even align them along the spine (of a book) if you are creating a facing pages document.

(3) is the Left Indent and (4) is the First Line Left Indent. The difference is that, when you click Left Indent, the entire paragraph is indented according to the indent value you set. But that does not always look good, hence it is a good idea to indent only the first line of the paragraph, which is when you will need to use First Line Left Indent.

Similarly, (5) and (6) denote Right Indent and Last Line Right Indent respectively. They do a similar job like (3) and (4), this time, on the right side of the paragraph.

(7) and (9) represent the Space Before and Space After fields which allows you to insert a space before or after the paragraph. It is always a recommended practice to use Space Before and Space After instead of manually using tabs, spaces or Enter key for paragraph spacing.

(8) and (10) are Drop Cap Number of Lines and Drop Cap One or More Characters. This is a unique effect, which allows you to extend the first letter which is usually in caps along the specified number of lines for a more elegant and professional look as shown in the above example.