Text Formatting

In order to allow the creation of aesthetically pleasing text nodes, hypertext authors require at least rudimentary word processing features. The following is a short checklist:

• Font: the typeface, size, style (italic, bold), and colour of text.
• Alignment: whether paragraphs are aligned with the left, right, or both margins. This also includes centring.
• Indentation: the setting of tab stops and the ability to indent paragraphs.
• Layout: this includes margins, line spacing, and the ability to constrain text to regions of the screen.

The first three items may be saved as text styles, at either the character or paragraph level. The use of style sheets encourages consistency and design and may be necessary to provide structural clues to programs such as SmarText.

For ease of revision, block operations such as cut, copy, and paste are essential. Blocks may be defined by line, consecutive character (sometimes called "stream"), or column.

For a more radical view of typographical possibilities, see typography.

Note that the above minimal text formatting features are barely supported on the World Wide Web.