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Microsoft Word

Indentation

Indention is a paragraph-level formatting that applies to some or all of the lines in a paragraph. In this tutorial you’ll learn how to set up left, right, hanging, or first-line indent with the help of Home tab, Layout tab, Paragraph dialog box or horizontal ruler.

  1. Set left indent on Home tab.
    Left indent adds extra space to the left of the entire paragraph. On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, use the Increase Indent and Dcecrease Indent commands.
  2. Set left or right indent on Layout tab.
    Right indent adds extra space to the the right of the entire paragraph. On the Layout tab, in the Paragraph group, specify the Left or Right indentation values in the Indent area.
  3. Set First Line Indent
    The “first line indent” adds extra space to the first line of a paragraph. Click at the begining of the paragraph, press Tab keyboard button to set indent on the first line or press Shift+Tab keyboard button to un-indent the first line.
  4. Set Hanging Indent
    The hanging-indent is opposite to the “first line indent”, it adds extra space to the left of the entire paragraph except the first line. Select paragraphs, press Ctrl+T to set hanging indent or press Ctrl+Shift+T to remove the hanging indent.
  5. Mirror Indents
    Use mirror indents, if you intend to print document on both side of the paper.
  6. Set Indents with the ruler
    You can set the First Line Indent, Hanging Indent, Left Indent, and Right Indent by dragging their markers on the horizontal ruler.

Indent Paragraph on Home tab

You can move the entire paragraph(s) away from the left margin by clicking the Increase Indent icon or move the entire paragraph(s) closer to the left margin by clicking the Decrease Indent icon in the Paragraph group on the Home tab.

To increase the indentation of current or selected paragraphs:

  1. Click Home tab
  2. Click Increase Indent icon in the Paragraph group.
  3. Or press keyboard shortcut buttons Ctrl+M.

By default, increases a paragraph’s indent by 0.5 inch each time you use Increase Indent (or Ctrl+M) command.

To decrease the indentation:

  1. Click Home tab
  2. Click Decrease Indent icon in the Paragraph group.
  3. Or press keyboard shortcut buttons Ctrl+Shift+M.

By default, decreases a paragraph’s indent by 0.5 inch each time you use Decrease Indent (or Ctrl+Shift+M) command.

Indent Left or Right on Layout tab

The Increase Indent and Decrease Indent tools in Paragraph group on the Home tab, increases/decreases a paragraph’s indent by 0.5-inch. But the Indent area in Paragraph group on the Layout tab allows you to specify your own indent settings instead of the default 0.5-inch setting. The Indent area in the Layout tab also offers the Right indentation for the selected paragraphs:

  1. Click Layout tab
  2. In the Indent area of the Pargraph group, specify the Left or Right distance.
  3. You can also specify the negative value (for example, -0.5) if you need to set the indentation beyond the margins.

Indentation in Paragraph dialog box

Click on the Paragraph dialog box launcher icon from either the Home or Layout tab and make sure the Indents and Spacing tab is selected in the dialog box:

Indentation area in the Paragraph dialog box

The Indentation area allows you to immediately set up Left, Right, First line, Hanging, or Mirror indents.

Indent First Line of Paragraphs

The first-line indent adds extra space to the first line of each paragraph to indicate the beginning of the paragraph. When you indent the first line, only the first line will move from the margin, the other lines will not move. To indent the first-line:

  1. Click on the beginning of an exising paragraph.
  2. And press Tab button on the keyboard button.
  3. Or press Shift+Tab keybaord shortcut to remove first line indent.

Or use the Paragraph dialog box:

First line indentation in Paragraph dialog box
  1. Click on Home or Layout tab
  2. Click the paragraph dialog box icon in the Paragraph group.
  3. Select Indents and Spacing tab on the Paragraph dialog box.
  4. Click on Special list and choose the “First line” from the menu.
  5. Specify the indent space 0.25 (or your desired value) in By field or use Up and Down arrow to set the indent space.
  6. Click OK to apply the First Line indent on selected paragraphs.

Creating Hanging Indent

Hanging indentation is the opposite of the first-line indentation, it ident all lines except the first line of the paragraph. The hanging indent is usually used in indexes, bibliographies, etc. The Word’s lists (numbered and bulleted) also uses the hanging indentation. Follow these steps to set up hanging-indent:

  1. Select paragraphs
  2. Press Ctrl+T to set hanging indent
  3. Or press Ctrl+Shift+T to remove the hanging indent

You can also specify the hanging indent in the Paragraph dialog box:

Hanging indentation in Paragraph dialog box (choose Hanging from Special drop-down)
  1. Click on Home or Layout tab
  2. Click the paragraph dialog box icon in the Paragraph group.
  3. Select Indents and Spacing tab on the Paragraph dialog box.
  4. Click on Special list and choose the “Hanging” from the menu.
  5. Click By field and specify the indent space 0.5 (or your desired value) or use Up and Down arrow to set the indent space.
  6. Click OK to apply the Hanging indent on selected paragraphs.

Mirror Indents

Use Mirror indents formatting to create indents to accommodate duplex printing (printing on both sides of the paper):

When you checked the Mirror indents box in the Paragraph dialog box, the Left indent become Inside and Right indent become Outside:

Set up mirror indents

To set up mirror indents:

  1. Select the text and click on Home or Layout tab
  2. Click the paragraph dialog box icon in the Paragraph group.
  3. Select Indents and Spacing tab on the Paragraph dialog box.
  4. Check the Mirror indents checkbox and specify the Inside and Outside indents.
  5. Click OK
1″ inside indent: Mirror indents multiple pages view

To see how your documents looks after applying the Mirror indents, click View tab and click Multiple Pages icon in the Zoom group, see above figure.

Adjusting Indent with the Ruler

You also can adjust the indents with the use of the ruler by dragging the indent-markers (arrows) on the desired location.

Indent markers (arrows) on the ruler

Understanding ruler indent marks/symbol:

  • Adjusting Left Indent with Ruler
    The left indent marker (arrow) will move the entire paragraph (all lines including first-line) by adding the extra space to the left of the paragraph. The first-line indent also move when you move the left indent.
  • Adjusting Right Indent with Ruler
    The right indent maker (arrow) will move the entire paragraph by adding the extra space to the right of the paragraph.
  • Adjusting First Line Indent with Ruler
    The first-line indent marker (arrow) will move the first line by adding the extra space to the left of the first-line.
  • Adjusitng Hanging Indent with Ruler
    The hanging indent marker (arrow)will move all lines except the first line.
Adjusting indents

Troubleshooting

The ruler is not visible, how to activate the ruler?

The ruler may not visible if you are not in the Print Layout view or the Ruler is not activated. To make the ruler active:

How to show / hide ruler
  1. Click on the View tab.
  2. Activate the Print Layout view in Views group (if not activated).
  3. Check Ruler box in the Show group.