Word 2010 Section 8 Using Indents and Tabs

Indenting Text

In many types of documents, you may want to indent only the first line of each paragraph. This helps to visually separate paragraphs from one another. It's also possible to indent every line except the first line, which is known as a hanging indent

Indents and tabs

Indents and tabs are useful tools for making your text more readable. Indenting text adds structure to your document by allowing you to separate information. Depending on your needs, you can use tabs and indents to move a single line or an entire paragraph

Tab Key

A quick way to indent is to use the Tab key. This will create a first-line indent of 1/2 inch. Place the insertion point at the very beginning of the paragraph you want to indent. Press the Tab key. On the ruler, you should see the first-line indent marker move to the right by 1/2 inch. If you can't see the ruler, click the View Ruler icon over the scrollbar to display it

To create or adjust a first-line indent or hanging indent

Place the insertion point anywhere in the paragraph you want to indent, or select one or more paragraphs. To adjust the first-line indent, drag the first-line indent marker on the ruler. To adjust the hanging indent, drag the hanging indent marker. To move both markers at the same time, drag the left indent marker. This will indent all lines in the paragraph.

Indent commands

Select the text you want to indent. Make sure you are on the Home tab. Click the Increase Indent command to increase the indent by increments of 1/2 inch. Click the Decrease Indent command to decrease the indent by increments of 1/2 inch

Tabs

Tabs are often the best way to control exactly where text is placed. By default, each time you press the Tab key, the insertion point will move 1/2 inch to the right. By adding tab stops to the ruler, you can change the size of the tabs, and you can even have more than one type of alignment in a single line. For example, you could left-align the beginning of the line and right-align the end of the line by adding a right tab.