Indenting Paragraphs


Word's indentation feature enables you to indent paragraphs from the left and right margins. You can also create a first line indent , which indents only the first line of a paragraph, or a hanging indent , which indents all of the lines in a paragraph except the first. Figure 7.12 illustrates all four types of indentation.

Figure 7.12. You can indent paragraphs in four different ways.

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By default, Word sets a first line indent of one-half inch when you press Tab at the beginning of a paragraph that you've already typed. It also sets a left indent of one-half inch when you press Tab at the beginning of any line of an existing paragraph other than the first. These indents carry down to additional paragraphs you type. If you don't like this behavior, choose Tools, AutoCorrect Options, click the AutoFormat As You Type tab, clear the Set Left-and First-indent with Tabs and Backspaces check box, and click OK.


Word provides several ways to set indents. If you want to set a left indent at a half-inch increment on the ruler, you can use the Decrease Indent and Increase Indent buttons on the Formatting toolbar (refer to Figure 7.12), as described in these steps:

  1. Click in the paragraph you want to indent (or select multiple adjacent paragraphs to indent them all).

  2. Click the Increase Indent button to indent the text one-half inch. If you want to indent the text further, continue clicking this button. To decrease the indentation, click the Decrease Indent button.

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The keyboard equivalent of clicking the Increase Indent toolbar button is Ctrl+M. The equivalent of the Decrease Indent button is Shift+Ctrl+M. You can also set a hanging indent by pressing Ctrl+T. To remove a hanging indent, press Ctrl+Shift+T.


The most efficient way of setting indents is to drag the indent markers on the ruler. When no indentation is set for a paragraph, the First Line Indent, Hanging Indent, and Left Indent markers are positioned at the left margin, and the Right Indent marker is positioned at the right margin, as shown in Figure 7.13.

Figure 7.13. When no indents are set, the indent markers appear at the margins.

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Follow these steps to set an indent by dragging the indent markers:

  1. Click in the paragraph you want to indent (or select multiple adjacent paragraphs to indent them all).

  2. Point to the indent marker that you want to use (see Figure 7.13).

  3. Drag the desired indent marker to the right spot on the ruler, and release the mouse button.

When you drag the Left Indent marker, the First Line Indent and Hanging Indent markers move too. And when you drag the Hanging Indent marker, the Left Indent marker moves with it.

If you like, you can drag more than one marker for the same paragraph. For example, you can drag both the Left Indent and Right Indent markers to indent a paragraph from both sides, or drag the First Line and Hanging Indent markers to create a hanging indent in which the first line in the paragraph is indented a little, and the remaining lines are indented further. In Figure 7.14, the insertion point is in a paragraph with this type of hanging indent. The position of the indent markers on the ruler shows where the indentation is set, and the tab characters show where the Tab key was pressed to make the text line up properly.

Figure 7.14. Hanging indents are useful for creating simple lists.

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Another use for hanging indents is to create entries in a bibliography, in which the first line of each entry extends to the left of the remaining lines in the entry.

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The Show/Hide button is turned on in Figure 7.14 so that you can see where the Tab key and Enter keys were pressed. To create a list like the one shown in the figure, set the hanging indent, and type the letter or number that begins the first item ( A. in this example). Press the Tab key to move out to the hanging indent position, type the text in the item, press Enter once (or twice to create a blank line), and then continue with the remainder of the list. Note that if the automatic numbered lists feature is turned on (as it is by default), Word will recognize that you're creating a list after you type the first item in the list and will automatically help you format the remaining items in the list. See "Creating Bulleted and Numbered Lists" later in this hour for more information.


Finally, you can create indents in the Paragraph dialog box. If you and your mouse don't get along, this is probably the best method for you:

  1. Click in the paragraph you want to indent (or select multiple adjacent paragraphs to indent all of them).

  2. Choose Format, Paragraph to display the Paragraph dialog box (refer to Figure 7.5 earlier in this hour).

  3. Click the Indents and Spacing tab if it isn't already in front.

  4. Under Indentation , type the amount (in inches) that you want to indent the paragraph in the Left and/or Right text boxes. To create a first line or hanging indent, choose that option from the Special list, and type the desired amount for the special indentation (in inches) in the By text box.

  5. Click the OK button.

To move an indent that you've set via any method, simply select the indented paragraphs and drag the appropriate marker on the ruler to its new position.

If you select several paragraphs and notice that an indent marker on the ruler is gray, not black, it means that the indentation is set for some of the selected paragraphs, but not all. If you drag the indent marker, it creates the same indentation in all of the selected paragraphs.

To remove an indent, select the indented paragraphs, and drag the appropriate marker back to the left or right margin on the ruler.

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Another quick way to remove all indents from the selected paragraphs is to choose Format, Paragraph. Click the Indents and Spacing tab and set the Left and Right text boxes to zero inches. Choose None in the Special list, and click OK.




Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Office Word 2003 in 24 Hours
Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Office Word 2003 in 24 Hours
ISBN: 067232556X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 315
Authors: Heidi Steele

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