Understanding Picas

Summary: One of the units of measure understood by Word is the pica, which is equivalent to 1/6 of an inch. This tip explains how to enter picas into dialog boxes where measurements are required. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, and Word 2003.)

A pica is a typographical term for a unit of measure. It is roughly equivalent to 1/6 of an inch. Picas are understood and used extensively by everyone in the publishing trade, particularly in design, typesetting, and printing. If you are familiar with picas, you can use them as a standard measurement in Word. When entering a measurement in picas, simply use the characters pi at the end of the measurement. For instance, if you want to specify the space to be left after a paragraph as 2 picas, you would enter 2 pi in the After box of the Paragraph dialog box.

Tip #1070 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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Understanding Picas