Entering Units of Measurement in Dialog Boxes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 1, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

There are many places in Word where you must provide measurements so Word knows how to format elements of your document. For instance, if you display the Paragraph dialog box (which is used for formatting paragraphs), there are numerous places where you can enter measurement values. In this and other dialog boxes, each place you can enter a measurement value is shown as a box with up and down arrows to the right of the box.

You can use the up and down arrows to change measurement values, but Word allows you to input exact measurement values in a number of different ways. These values are typically indicated by a number followed by two letters that indicate the unit of measurement you desire. Word allows you to use the following designations for units of measurement in your dialog boxes:

Abbreviation	Meaning	Example
"	inches	.667"
cm	centimeter	32 cm
in	inches	.25 in
li	lines	2.25 li
pi	picas	8 pi
pt	points	4 pt

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (377) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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