How to Use Indent in MS Word
When you are creating a document in MS Word, you may need to indent sentences or paragraphs to conform to certain editorial guidelines at work, school or for publications. Indentation is easy to do using Word, no matter if you are using Word 97-2003 or Word 2007. All it takes is a few clicks of the mouse to get uniform results without the need to use the tab bar.
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Instructions
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Microsoft 97-2003 Instructions
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1
Highlight the paragraph or sentence you want to indent by dragging the cursor over the text.
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2
Find the horizontal ruler at the top of the page. If the ruler is not open, go to the View menu and click on "Ruler" to open the horizontal ruler.
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3
Click on the "First Line Indent" marker on the ruler. This is the hourglass-shaped tab on the left side of the ruler.
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4
Drag the marker to the centimeter or inch mark where you want the indentation to be.
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5
Increase or decrease the left indent of an entire paragraph by selecting the text, clicking on the Format menu then clicking on "Decrease Indent" or "Increase Indent."
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Change the right indent of a paragraph by selecting the paragraph and dragging the "Right Indent" marker, a small triangle-shaped tab on the right side of the ruler, to the centimeter or inch mark that you want.
Word 2007 Instructions
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Click on the spot you want the indent to be.
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8
Click on the "Page Layout" tab at the top of the screen. This will bring up a Paragraph dialog box that is labeled "Indent" and "Spacing" at the top; click on the small arrow at the bottom right corner of this box to bring up a pop-up menu.
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Click on the "Special" drop-down menu in the middle of the pop-up menu, then click on "First Line." Next to the "Special" menu will be a menu listed as "By."
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Click on the "By" arrow buttons to set the amount of inches you would like to indent the text. Click "OK" at the bottom of the pop-up menu when you are done.
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11
Increase or decrease the right indent of a paragraph by going back to the "Paragraph" section in the page layout tab then clicking on the arrows next to the "Indent Right" option.
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Tips & Warnings
To create hanging indent, just choose "Hanging" in the "Special" menu in Word 2007 or click on the lower half of the hourglass shape on your ruler in Word 97-2003 and drag it to the right.
