by Michy Lynn

Created on: February 05, 2009

Formatting Text on a Web Page

Web content is a bit different than print items in that the reader will be viewer the content on a screen and not on a page or in a book.When designing a website, it's important to understand how to properly format and design the text on the page that the web surfer will read. Many web designers spend time focusing on navigation, style and colors, but formatting text properly is just as important.

Paragraphs are Important for Web Design

Many people use reading guides or their fingers or note cards to follow along while they are reading a print item, but this is nearly impossible to do on the computer without leaving unsightly fingerprints on your monitor. That brings me to the first reason why paragraph breaks are important: to make it easier for your readers to read your content without too much eye strain.

Another reason for proper paragraph breaks is to make the writing more attractive at first glance. A page with a long scroll of writing with no breaks is not only NOT attractive, but it is a bit intimidating to read too.

Also, paragraph breaks are important to break up when thoughts flow from one to another, allowing the reader to know when a thought or mood or tone shift has occurred in the writing. This helps break the elements of the writing up into distinct sections with similar content, allowing the reader to more easily focus on the key points of your writing.

So how do you determine where to place a paragraph break?

Good
question Let me try to give you a good answer that pleases both web copy writers and editors as well as hard core grammarians. A paragraph is a group of sentences lumped together by similar meaning, intent or content. When the thought changes or a new idea or concept is introduced, a paragraph break allows for a pause to shift the reader's
mind to the new concept or idea.

Next, for web copy especially, paragraphs should be kept short. When writing for print, longer paragraphs are more acceptable, but for web copy, 3-5 average length sentences is usually a good paragraph and then a paragraph break is needed.

Paragraphs are also used to break up or accentuate something if you are trying to make a point, add impact. For example, if you have one sentence that makes a strong point and you really want to make it stand out, you could make that sentence a paragraph all by itself, with a break before and after, causing the reader to really take notice of that sentence.

For dialogue, there should be a paragraph break before

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