Working with Indents

Although tabs enable you to align text at various tab stops on the Ruler, you might want to indent or offset lines and paragraphs from the left or right margins. Word provides different indent settings that indent the text at a particular setting on the Ruler.

Indent The offset of a particular paragraph or line of text from the left or right margin.

The easiest way to indent a paragraph from the left margin is to use the Increase Indent button on the Formatting toolbar. Place the insertion point in the paragraph you want to indent, and then click the Increase Indent button on the toolbar. Remember that you can also use the Click and Type feature for left indents (see the previous chapter, "Using Borders and Colors").

Each time you click the button, you are increasing the indent one-half inch. You can also decrease the left indent on a particular paragraph. Click the Decrease Indent button on the Formatting toolbar.

Setting Indents on the Ruler

You can also indent a paragraph from both the left and right margins using the Ruler. The Ruler has a left and right indent marker on the far left and far right, respectively (see Figure 7.3).

Figure 7.3. The Left Indent and Right Indent markers can be used to indent paragraphs from the left and right margins, respectively.

To indent a paragraph from the left margin, use the mouse to drag the Left Indent marker to the appropriate position. Grab the marker at the very bottom, because the top of the marker is the First Line indent marker. These two markers separate if you don't grab both markers together at the bottom. You can also indent a paragraph from the right margin using the Right Indent marker. Slide the marker to the appropriate position on the ruler to create your indent.

Creating Hanging Indents

The hanging indent is a special kind of indent. With this type of indent, the text (a single line or multiple lines) that wraps under the first line of the paragraph is indented more than the first line. Hanging indents are created by separating the First Line Indent marker from the Left Indent marker on the ruler.

To create a hanging indent, follow these steps:

1. Place the insertion point in the paragraph that you want to indent.

2. Drag the Left Indent marker (drag it by the square bottom of the marker) to the position where you want to indent the second and subsequent lines of the paragraph.

3. Drag the First Line Indent marker (drag it by the top of the marker) back to the position where you want the first line to begin.

Figure 7.4 shows a paragraph with a hanging indent. You can increase or decrease the offset between the first line and the rest of the paragraph by dragging either the First Line Marker or the Left Indent Marker. If you prefer to enter numerical information for your hanging indents, choose the Indents and Spacing tab (select Format menu and then Paragraph ) and in the Special list under Indentation , select Hanging . Then, set the amount of space By box.

Figure 7.4. Hanging indents enable you to offset the indent on the first line of a paragraph and the remainder of the paragraph.