w:p

Paragraphs

Text structure and formatting in OOXML - paragraphs, runs, and text elements.

Paragraphs (w:p) are the fundamental building block of WordprocessingML. They contain runs (w:r), which contain text (w:t).

Structure

w:p (paragraph)
├── w:pPr (paragraph properties)
│   ├── w:pStyle (style reference)
│   ├── w:jc (justification)
│   └── w:spacing (line spacing)
└── w:r (run)
    ├── w:rPr (run properties)
    │   ├── w:b (bold)
    │   ├── w:i (italic)
    │   └── w:sz (font size)
    └── w:t (text)

Example

<w:p>
  <w:pPr>
    <w:jc w:val="center"/>
  </w:pPr>
  <w:r>
    <w:t xml:space="preserve">Normal text, </w:t>
  </w:r>
  <w:r>
    <w:rPr><w:b/></w:rPr>
    <w:t>bold text</w:t>
  </w:r>
  <w:r>
    <w:t xml:space="preserve">, and </w:t>
  </w:r>
  <w:r>
    <w:rPr><w:i/></w:rPr>
    <w:t>italic text</w:t>
  </w:r>
</w:p>

Implementation Notes

Whitespace handling (All)

By default, leading/trailing whitespace in w:t is trimmed. Use xml:space="preserve" to keep spaces.

Empty paragraphs

Empty paragraphs are valid and commonly used for spacing. They render as a blank line with the paragraph's line height.