---
title: Introduction to Rulers and Paragraph Styles
framework: cocoa
role: article
path: apple-archive/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/Rulers
---

# Introduction to Rulers and Paragraph Styles

Explains paragraph styles and how to work with the rulers that enable users to manipulate them.

## Who Should Read This Document

You should read this document if you need to work directly with paragraph style objects and their associated ruler views.

## Organization of This Document

This document contains the following articles:

- [About Paragraph Styles](Concepts/AboutParaStyles.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000879-CJBBEHJA) describes paragraph styles and the attributes in them you can change. - [Breaking Lines by Truncation](Tasks/TruncatingStrings.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20001811-BBCGJCDJ) describes the line break mode attribute of paragraph styles and illustrates how the truncation settings work in the context of table cells. - [About Ruler Views](Concepts/AboutRulerViews.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000872-CJBBEHJA) describes what’s in a ruler view and how it works. - [About Ruler Markers](Concepts/AboutRulerMarkers.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000873-CJBBEHJA) describes what a ruler marker is and how it works. - [Setting Up a Ruler View](Tasks/SettingUpRulerView.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000874-BBCGJCDJ) describes how to add and set up a ruler view for a particular view. - [Changing a Ruler’s Measurement Units](Tasks/ChangingUnits.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000875-BBCGJCDJ) describes how to set a ruler’s measurement units and how to define your own measurement units. - [Using a Ruler View’s Client](Tasks/ChangingRulerViewClient.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000876-BBCGJCDJ) describes how to set a ruler view’s client and adjust the ruler view’s markers and layout to match the client. - [Letting Users Manipulate Markers](Tasks/UserManipMarker.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000878-BAJHIAAG) describes how to react when the user adds, removes, and moves markers, or when the user clicks in the ruler view. - [Updating the Ruler View](Tasks/UpdatingRulerView.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000877-BABFFCJF) describes how to change the ruler view to reflect the current selection or changes the user makes in the view.

## See Also

For more information, refer to the following documents:

- *[Text Attribute Programming Topics](../TextAttributes/TextAttributes.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000088i)* describes the text-related attributes maintained by the Cocoa text system, including paragraph style attributes. - *[Attributed String Programming Guide](../AttributedStrings/AttributedStrings.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000036i)* provides more details about how the text system stores attributes with strings.

[Next](Concepts/AboutParaStyles.html)

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