SOLIDWORKS Paragraph Properties Guide

When editing a note in a SOLIDWORKS drawing, a Formatting toolbar appears above the note that includes options to increase or decrease the indent and to toggle on bullet points or numbering. If you need more control over how your note looks, including spacing between lines and paragraphs, the size of indents, and numbering format, you can find it in the Paragraph Properties.

SOLIDWORKS Paragraph Properties Options

To access Paragraph Properties, double-click your note to activate it, highlight the text you want to format, then either click the Paragraph Properties icon in the Formatting toolbar or right-click the text and pick Paragraph Properties from the in-context menu.

Paragraph Properties Button in Formatting Toolbar

Paragraph Properties in Note In-Context Menu

In the Paragraph Properties dialog box that pops up, there are three sections: Indentation, Formatting, and Bullets and Numbering.

Paragraph Properties Dialog Box

Under Bullets and Numbering, the checkboxes for Bullets and Numbering apply bulleted formatting and numbered formatting, respectively, to the selected text. Some options will be greyed out depending on whether one option, the other, or neither is selected. Both can’t be checked at the same time.

If Numbering is selected, there are radio buttons for Start from top and Start from bottom, which control whether the numbered format is ascending or descending. The Start at textbox sets the first number if Start from top is selected, or the last number if Start from bottom is selected. The Type and Format dropdowns define the numbering structure and formatting style.

Type Dropdown (left) and Format Dropdown (right)

The final option is a checkbox for Do not show period with borders. Outside of Paragraph Properties, it is possible to highlight a number in a note and add a border to it. If this box is unchecked and the Format is set to 1. or (1), then the number will still have a period after it or parentheses around it in addition to the border. In the example below, A is formatted so that the box is checked, and B is formatted so that it is unchecked.

Numbers with Circle Borders

The Indentation section contains options that control the size of indents for the selected note text. First line indent sets the indent of the first row of text if Wordwrapping is enabled, the indent of the paragraph if Wordwrapping is not enabled, or the indent on the bullet or number if Bullets or Numbering is selected. Indent is only available if a bulleted or numbered format is applied. It sets how far text is from the bullets or numbers.

Indent increment controls the value of the increase indent and decrease indent buttons, both within Paragraph Properties and in the Formatting toolbar. Clicking the decrease and increase increment buttons at the bottom of the Indentation section decreases or increases the First line indent and Indent values by the Indent increment value. All values in these three text boxes are measured in millimeters.

The Formatting section has options for Paragraph spacing and Line spacing. Paragraph spacing controls the spacing between whole paragraphs. Line spacing is for lines within a paragraph.

Want to learn more? Check out the articles listed below. Additionally, join the GoEngineer Community to create forum posts, enter design contests, and answer questions from other SOLIDWORKS users. 

Learn More

Getting Started with SOLIDWORKS Hole Tables

Mastering Basic Part Modeling in SOLIDWORKS: A Step-by-Step Guide

How to Use SOLIDWORKS Fully Define Sketch

How to Add Gauge Table Templates in SOLIDWORKS

SOLIDWORKS Split Command Understanding Resulting Bodies

VIEW ALL SOLIDWORKS TUTORIALS