Format Menu

Opens the Font Properties dialog, which lets you edit the font properties for topic content directly.

Opens the Paragraph Properties dialog, which lets you edit the paragraph properties for topic content directly. This includes the ability to apply page breaks, column breaks, and widow/orphan control to a paragraph directly. See Paragraph Formatting.

Opens a dialog that lets you apply conditions to content. See Applying Conditions to Content.

Opens the Select Language dialog, which lets you choose a language for the selected content.

Opens the Manage Named Elements, which you can use to name content when creating togglers. See Inserting Togglers.

Opens the Create Style dialog, which lets you create a new style for the content selected in the content file. See Creating Selectors.

Opens the floating Style Picker, which lets you select and apply a style to the selected content.

Opens the Create Snippet dialog, which lets you create a new snippet from the content selected in the topic. See Creating Snippets From Existing Content.

Lets you create a micro content file from a topic or snippet. See Creating Micro Content.

Opens a submenu, which lets you select a list action, such as restarting numbering, applying bulleted or numbered lists, and indenting content. See Lists.

• List Actions Opens a submenu, which lets you apply miscellaneous actions to the selected content in a list.
• Merge With Previous List Combines a list with another list immediately before it.
• Merge With Next List Combines a list with another list immediately following it.
• Sort List Reorders the items in the list alphabetically.
• Reverse List Reorders the items in the list so that they appear in reverse order (i.e., first item is last, last item is first).
• Unbind List Removes the list designation from the content so that it displays as regular text.

• Continue Sequence Ensures that the next list you create in the topic starts with the next number in the sequence of the list above (even if the two lists are separated by other content).

  Example You have a numbered list from 1 to 10 at the top of your topic and you add a few regular paragraphs (not in a list) after it. If you start another numbered list and select this option, the new list will start at 11.

• List Start Number Lets you specify a number to start a numbered list.

• Item Number Lets you specify a number to start a selected item in a numbered list.

  Example You have a numbered list from 1 to 10. If you click in the paragraph with the number 7 and then use this option to start numbering at 23, your list would change so the numbering displayed as 1 to 6, and then 23 to 26.

• Move Up Moves the selected item in the list above the item before it.
• Move Down Moves the selected item in the list below the item after it.
• Make Simple Item(s) Lets you return a line in a list from a paragraph item to a simple item (an <li> tag without a <p> tag following it). Paragraph items can be used in numbered or bulleted lists, for example, to add comments without disrupting the flow of the list.
• Make Paragraph Item(s) Lets you add a <p> tag after the <li> tag in a numbered or bulleted list. You can then add more lines after a list item without adding numbers or bullets to those lines. Paragraph items can be used in numbered or bulleted lists, for example, to add comments without disrupting the flow of the list. For more information see Working With Paragraph and Simple List Items.
• Bullet List Applies a bulleted list to the selected content.
• Circle Bullet List Applies a bulleted list to the selected content. The bullets are circles.
• Square Bullet List Applies a bulleted list to the selected content. The bullets are squares.
• Numbered List Applies a numbered list to the selected content.
• Lower-alpha Numbered List Applies a numbered list to the selected content where lowercase alpha characters are used (a., b., c., d., etc.)
• Upper-alpha Numbered List Applies a numbered list to the selected content where uppercase alpha characters are used (A., B., C., D., etc.)
• Lower-Roman Numbered List Applies a numbered list to the selected content where lowercase Roman numerals are used (i., ii., iii., iv., etc.)

• Upper-Roman Numbered List Applies a numbered list to the selected content where uppercase Roman numerals are used (I., II., III., IV., etc.)

• Outdent Items Lets you shift indented content to the left, thus "outdenting" it.
• Indent Items Lets you shift selected content to the right, thus "indenting" it.
• Custom Format Opens a custom list format that lets you create a uniquely styled list up to 10 levels deep. You can also select an existing custom format from this submenu to apply it to the selected content in your topic or snippet. At this time, custom list formats are supported only in PDF output. After browsers begin to support the CSS3 marker element that makes custom list formats possible, this feature will automatically be supported in browser-based outputs as well. Until then, if you want to generate a browser-based output, you should use the standard method for creating lists instead. See Creating Custom List Formats.

Opens the Create Group dialog, which lets you create a group from selected content and apply one of the following tags to it: <blockquote>, <div>, <fieldset>, <form>. See Creating Divs and Other Tag Groups.

Applies bold typeface to the content selected in the topic.

Applies italic typeface to the content selected in the topic.

Underlines the content selected in the topic.

Lets you choose and apply a color to the selected content.

Lets you choose and apply a color to the background of the selected content. See Setting the Background Color for Text.