Paragraphs and Rich Formatting

The basis of a WordprocessingML document is its actual text contents. Those text contents can be stored in many contexts (tables, text boxes, etc.), but the most basic form of text contents in WordprocessingML is the paragraph, specified using the p element (§2.3.1.22).

Within the paragraph, all rich formatting at the paragraph level is stored within the pPr element (§2.3.1.25; §2.3.1.26). [Note: Some examples of paragraph properties are alignment, border, hyphenation override, indentation, line spacing, shading, text direction, and widow/orphan control. end note]

Within the paragraph, text is grouped into one or more runs, represented by the r element (§2.3.2.23), which define a region of text with a common set of properties.

Just as a paragraph can have rich formatting, so too can a run. All of the elements inside an r element have their properties controlled by a corresponding optional rPr run properties element (§2.7.8.1; §2.3.2.26). [Note: Some examples of run properties are bold, underlined, or visible. end note]

Within runs, run content is the set of possible objects and characters which can be displayed in the document.