Computer Skills

Beginner

60 mins

Teacher/Student led

+65 XP

What you need:
Chromebook/Laptop/PC or iPad/Tablet

Text Formatting: Fonts, Sizes, Emphasis

Learn to format documents professionally by applying fonts, sizes, and emphasis strategically. You'll create two versions of the same paragraph—one cluttered, one clean—then upgrade your proposal draft using the less-is-more rule.

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1 Introduction
2 Key Concepts
3 Step-by-step Task — Format the Same Paragraph Two Ways
4 Common Issues
5 Independent Practice — Upgrade Your Proposal Draft
Quiz

1 - Introduction

Welcome

Today you'll learn how to make a document look like an adult wrote it. The trick isn't adding more formatting — it's knowing when to stop. A proposal with five fonts and twenty bold phrases looks amateur; a proposal with one readable font and two carefully chosen emphases looks serious. You'll use this skill straight away on the proposal draft you've already written for your Something Real project.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

Change the font and font size of selected text
Apply bold, italic, and underline emphasis where it actually helps the reader
Apply the less-is-more rule to upgrade a formal document

Warm-up

Think for a moment about the last official document you received — a letter from Revenue, a page on Citizens Information, a Centra receipt, or a letter home from the school. How many different fonts did it use? How many phrases were in bold? That quiet, consistent look is not an accident — it's a choice, and today you learn to make the same choice.

Teacher Notes

Warm-up works best if students can actually pull up a letter or a webpage on their device for 30 seconds before moving on.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - Key Concepts

Four ideas drive every formatting decision you'll make for the rest of this course. Read the table, then you'll put them to work.

Concept	Why it matters	Example
Font family — the typeface you choose from the font dropdown (Aptos, Calibri, Arial, Times New Roman, Comic Sans MS, and so on)	A formal proposal set in Comic Sans looks like a child made it; a plain sans-serif like Aptos or Arial makes you look competent before the reader has read a word	—
Font size — measured in points (pt); body text sits around 11 or 12pt on screen and on paper	Too small and the reader gives up; too large and it looks like you ran out of things to say and tried to fill the page	—
Emphasis — bold, italic, and underline are three ways to make specific words stand out from the rest of the paragraph	Emphasis is for the one or two phrases the reader must not miss. Apply it to everything and you've emphasised nothing	In a proposal to the manager of your Work Experience placement, the phrase I am available three days a week bolded tells them at a glance what they actually need to know
Less-is-more rule — pick one font, one body size, and use emphasis only where a reader genuinely needs it	Every extra format choice costs the reader a little attention. Formal documents earn trust by being quiet and consistent, not loud and busy	—

Next you'll format the same paragraph two different ways and see the difference with your own eyes.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Step-by-step Task — Format the Same Paragraph Two Ways

You'll type one short paragraph about a Work Experience placement, then format it twice: once as a visual mess (Version A) and once following the less-is-more rule (Version B). Seeing both on the same page makes the rule obvious.

Teacher Notes

Students should genuinely make Version A ugly on purpose — the contrast is the whole pedagogical point.

+15 XP

4 - Common Issues

Common Issues

Issue	Solution
I picked a font but only part of the text changed	You didn't select everything first. Triple-click the paragraph, or press {{kbd:Ctrl+A}} (Windows/Chromebook) or {{kbd:Cmd+A}} (Mac) to select the whole document, then pick the font again.
Clicking Bold does nothing	Nothing is selected. Highlight the words you want bolded first, then click {{btn:B}}. If you want to type new bold text, click where you want to type, press {{kbd:Ctrl+B}}, and start typing.
My font list looks different from the screenshots	Word Online and Google Docs have slightly different default lists, and some schools restrict fonts. Any clearly readable sans-serif (Aptos, Calibri, Arial, Verdana) is a safe choice for a formal document.

+10 XP

5 - Independent Practice — Upgrade Your Proposal Draft

Independent Practice

Your goal: Apply the less-is-more rule to the proposal draft for your Something Real project so a reader — an employer, a parent, a teacher marking your Key Assignment — takes you seriously before they've read a single word.

Time: ~20 minutes

Task: Open your {{code:Digital_Portfolio}} folder in your cloud storage and open {{code:03_proposal_draft}}. Set the whole document in one readable sans-serif font at a normal body size. If your draft doesn't already have a short title line at the top, add one now (e.g. {{code:Work Experience Proposal}}) and bold it so it reads as a heading. Then ask yourself: if your reader only remembered one sentence from this proposal, which would it need to be? That's the phrase to italicise. Resist the urge to add more — your proposal should look quieter and more serious than it did when you started.

Success criteria:

The whole document uses one readable sans-serif font at a normal body size (around 11 or 12pt)
The opening line reads clearly as a heading — bold and visually distinct from the paragraphs below it
Exactly one phrase in the body has emphasis applied, and it is genuinely the most important phrase for your reader
Reading the document feels quieter and more professional than your earlier draft

Teacher Notes

Look for students who apply emphasis to three or four phrases — gently ask them which one matters most, and have them remove the rest. If a student isn't sure which phrase to italicise, ask them to state in one sentence what they most want the reader to remember; that is the phrase.

+15 XP

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This lesson is copyright of Coding Ireland 2017 - 2025. Unauthorised use, copying or distribution is not allowed.

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Text Formatting: Fonts, Sizes, Emphasis

Teacher Class Feed

1 - Introduction

Welcome

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

Warm-up

2 - Key Concepts

3 - Step-by-step Task — Format the Same Paragraph Two Ways

4 - Common Issues

Common Issues

5 - Independent Practice — Upgrade Your Proposal Draft

Independent Practice

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