USING INDENTS & TABS

Guided Lesson

Objective In this lesson, you will learn how to use

the tab selector and the horizontal ruler to set tabs and indents, and how to use the Increase and Decrease Indent commands.

Key Terms First-line indent: When the first line of your paragraph is

indented. Hanging indent: The first full line of text is not indented,

but the following lines are indented. Indent: The space between text and a document’s margin. Leader: Solid, dotted, or dashed lines that fill the blank

space before a tab setting. Negative indent (outdent): You can also create a

negative indent, sometimes called an outdent, by dragging the indent markers on the ruler to the left past the left margin.

Tab stop (tab): Marks the place where the insertion point will stop when you press the Tab key.

Introduction There are several ways in Word that you

can indent text; however, it’s important to use these tools appropriately in order to indent correctly each time. This helps the editing process go smoothly, thus saving you time.

Indents & Tabs Indenting 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 a whole paragraph.

Indents and Tabs movie

Indenting Text In many types of documents, you may wish

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.

Note: Make sure that the rulers are visible for this lesson so that you can see the indentations.

First Line Indent

Hanging Indent

To Indent Using the Tab Key A quick way to indent is to use the Tab key.

This will create a first line indent of 1/2 inch.

1. Open the “Bullying in Schools” data file. 2. Place the insertion point at the very

beginning of the first paragraph. This is the paragraph we want to indent.

3. Press the Tab key. On the ruler, you should see the First Line Indent marker move to the right by 1/2 inch.

The Three Indent Markers

To Create or Adjust a First Line Indent or Hanging Indent1. Place the insertion point anywhere in the second

paragraph. 2. To adjust the first line indent, drag the First Line

Indent marker on the ruler to the .5 inch mark.3. Place the insertion point anywhere in the third

paragraph.4. To adjust the hanging indent, drag the Hanging Indent

marker to the 1 inch mark on the ruler.5. Place the insertion point anywhere in the fourth

paragraph. 6. To move both markers at the same time, drag the Left

Indent marker to the 1.5 inch mark on the ruler. This will indent all of the lines in the paragraph.

To Use the Indent Commands If you want to indent all of the lines in a

paragraph, you can use the Indent commands on the Home tab.

Increase and Decrease Indent1. Select the text you wish to indent.2. Make sure you are on the Home tab.3. Click the Increase Indent command to

increase the indent by increments of 1/2 inch.

4. Click the Decrease Indent command to decrease the indent by increments of 1/2 inch.

If you would prefer to type in your indent amounts, you can use the Indent fields on the Page Layout tab.

Tabs Tabs are often the best way to control exactly where

text is placed. By default, every 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 simply adding a Right Tab.

Pressing the tab key can either add a tab or create a first line indent depending on where the insertion point is. Generally, if the insertion point is at the beginning of an existing paragraph, it will create a first line indent; otherwise, it will create a tab.

The Tab Selector The tab selector is above the vertical

ruler on the left. Hover over the tab selector to see the name of the type of tab stop that is active.

Types of tab stops Left Tab : Left-aligns the text at the tab stop.

Center Tab : Centers the text around the tab stop.

Right Tab : Right-aligns the text at the tab stop.

Decimal Tab : Aligns decimal numbers using the decimal point.

Bar Tab : Draws a vertical line on the document.

First Line Indent : Inserts the indent marker on the ruler and indents the first line of text in a paragraph.

Hanging Indent : Inserts the hanging indent marker and indents all lines other than the first line.

Setting Leaders Leaders are solid, dotted, or dashed

lines that fill the blank space before a tab setting.

Leaders are often used in table of contents.

To Insert a Leader1. Open the Tabs dialog box by double-clicking a

tab stop marker on the ruler, or on the Home or Page Layout tabs.

2. Click the Paragraph Dialog Box Launcher, and then click Tabs in the Paragraph dialog box.

3. In the Leader section of the Tabs dialog box, click the option button next to the leader you want to use.

4. If you want to set leaders for more than one tab stop, click Set, and then select the next tab stop and the leader you want to set.

Tabs Dialog Box

Let’s Practice Now, we will practice using Tab stops

together. Make sure you have a copy of the NADA

Memo document and data file.