How do you write in poem form?

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  • Start date Start date
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Guest

I am trying to copy my handwritten poems onto Word and it does not come out
looking like a poem. It looks more like a letter instead. Please help me.

Thank You
Very Much
Gretchen Garrow
 
Gretchen said:
I am trying to copy my handwritten poems onto Word and it does not come out
looking like a poem. It looks more like a letter instead. Please help me.

Thank You
Very Much
Gretchen Garrow
Click to expand...
Would you like to see how mine come out? I just type them and space them
like a poem.

Bernard
 
Unlike the usual problem., when people unnecessarily use the ENTER key at
the end of each line, instead of letting Word do the wraparound, you DO need
the ENTER key after each (deliberate) line in poetry.
 
In this group Gretchen wrote in message
I am trying to copy my handwritten poems onto Word and it does not
come out looking like a poem. It looks more like a letter instead.
Please help me.
Click to expand...

Always hit 'Enter' after each line, and, if you have indented lines,
unbreaking space (Ctrl+Shift+Enter) may be preferable to using the space
bar.

Also always work in Page Layout View.
 
Here's how I do it, assuming that each line of the poem is left-aligned
(that is, alternate lines are not indented):

1. Type the entire poem, pressing Shift+Enter (line break) at the end of
each line and Enter (paragraph break) at the end of each stanza.

2. Select the entire poem and apply some Spacing After (Format | Paragraph)
so that the stanzas are separated.

3. Drag the left indent marker on the ruler until the poem is visually
centered (do not use Center alignment); this is tricky if some of the lines
are very long, but make it so that the average line length looks centered.

I generally define a Poetry style to handle these properties, but if I'm
typing a lot of poems with lines of varying length, then I drag the indents
as needed for each poem.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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