A text object is a portion of text that you can treat as a single unit. For example, a link is a text object. When you create the link and format it, you apply formatting features to the entire link as a single unit. If you apply a color, it applies to the entire link, not just a few letters. Paragraphs are also text objects because you can format them as a single unit without formatting the entire text box that contains the paragraph.
Paragraphs can contain links and other text objects. When you format a paragraph containing another text object, some—but not all—of the new formatting is also applied to the contained object. Generally, the formatting is consistent with the type of object and the formatting available for it. For example, links do not have margins, so if you change the paragraph’s left and right margins, the link is not affected. But because the font of a link can be formatted, if you format the paragraph’s fonts the link’s fonts are also formatted. However, if the link’s font has already been defined, it will not take on the paragraph’s font.
If you change the format of the contained object, it does not affect the container object. So, if you change the color of the link text, the surrounding paragraph text is not affected.
The following table shows which text attributes affect a contained object and which do not.
|
Text attribute |
Affects contained object |
Does not affect contained object |
|
Font |
x |
|
|
Style |
x |
|
|
Size |
x |
|
|
Color |
x |
|
|
Position |
|
X |
|
Case |
x |
|
|
Decoration |
x |
|
|
Small caps |
x |
|
|
Alignment |
x |
|
|
Image wrap |
x |
|
|
Line height |
x |
|
|
Letter spacing |
x |
|
|
Word spacing |
x |
|
|
Space above |
|
x (relative size corresponds to parent element’s width) |
|
Space below |
|
x (relative size corresponds to parent element’s width) |
|
First line indent |
x |
|
|
Left margin |
|
x |
|
Right margin |
|
x |
|
List style |
x |
|
|
List indent |
x |
|
|
All border and background attributes |
|
x |