Indenting text in word

1. Select the text you want to adjust.

2. Go to Home and select Line and Paragraph Spacing > Line Spacing Options at the bottom of the menu.

   

   The Paragraph dialog box opens.

   

3. On the Indents and Spacing tab, select the options you want, and click OK.

   The Paragraph dialog box options are described in Adjust indents and spacing.

You can quickly adjust indents and spacing in Word for the web.

1. If you’re not already in Editing View, select Edit Document > Edit in Word for the web. The doc will switch from Reading View to Editing View.

   

2. Select Page Layout and notice the Indent left and right and Spacing before and after options.

   

3. Place your cursor at the beginning of the paragraph you want to adjust.

4. To indent the paragraph, type the distance you want in the Left or Right box under Page Layout.

   For example, type 0.1 to indent the paragraph one tenth of an inch.

5. To change the amount of space before or after the paragraph, type a number in the Before or After box.

Tip: To change the indents for an entire document, it’s much faster to adjust the margins. Under Page Layout, select Margins, and choose the margin settings you want.

The Tab Key

One simple way to indent text is to place the cursor at the start of a paragraph and hit the tab key on your keyboard. In Microsoft Word, this adds a 0.5” (1.27cm) indent at the left margin. It also automatically formats the text so that subsequent paragraphs have a first-line indent.

If all you want to do is begin each paragraph with a half-inch indent, this is fine. But for more control over text indentation in your document, read on.

How to Indent Text

You can find the basic indentation options in Microsoft Word on the main ribbon. This includes the Paragraph section of the Home tab, where you will find Increase Indent and Decrease Indent buttons.

The Increase Indent button adds a 0.5” (1.27cm) indent at the left margin for the entire paragraph (not just the first line). The Decrease Indent button, meanwhile, does the exact opposite.

Alternatively, go to Layout > Paragraph on the ribbon and adjust the values in the left and right indent boxes as required. This has the added bonus of letting you indent text by a custom amount.

Special Indentations

For even more control over the indentation in your document, you can open the main Paragraph menu. This can be accessed by going to Home > Paragraph, clicking the Line and Paragraph Spacing button, and then selecting Line Spacing Options… from the dropdown menu.

In the new window, you will find an Indentation section. The left and right indent options here work the same as in the Layout tab on the ribbon.

The other settings here can be used to add special indentations to your document. These include:

• First line – This option indents the first line of each paragraph to a custom value. Typically, this type of indent would be used as an alternative to paragraph spacing.
• Hanging – This will indent each line after the first in a paragraph. The most common use for this is to add a hanging indent in a reference list (e.g., as required in APA referencing).
• Mirror indents – Clicking this will change the left and right indent options to say Inside and Outside This will mean that indents are “mirrored” on odd and even pages, which helps ensure consistent formatting when printing something in a book format.

To use these options, simply select the text you want to format with the cursor, open the paragraph menu, choose the type and size of indent you want to apply, and click OK to change the indentation for the selected text.

Is this article up to date?

Select the paragraph to be indented; From the Home tab, Paragraph group, select the dialog box launcher; Check that the Indents and Spacing tab is selected; In the Indentation section set the indent value you require.

How do you indent 0.5 in Word?

One simple way to indent text is to place the cursor at the start of a paragraph and hit the tab key on your keyboard. In Microsoft Word, this adds a 0.5” (1.27cm) indent at the left margin. It also automatically formats the text so that subsequent paragraphs have a first-line indent.

How do I indent the second line in Word?

Select OK.

1. Select the paragraph where you want to add a hanging indent.
2. Go to Format > Paragraph.
3. Under Special, select one of the following indent styles: Hanging. First Line. None. On Hanging and First Line indents, you can adjust the depth of the indent with the By field.
4. Select OK.

What is the shortcut key for 1.5 line spacing?

Ctrl+5
Pressing Ctrl+5 changes to 1.5 line spacing.

How will you use indent commands?

To use the Indent commands:

1. Select the text you want 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. Increasing the indent.
4. Click the Decrease Indent command to decrease the indent by increments of 1/2 inch.

How do I put spaces before paragraphs in Word?

To format paragraph spacing:

1. Select the paragraph or paragraphs you want to format.
2. On the Home tab, click the Line and Paragraph Spacing command. Click Add Space Before Paragraph or Remove Space After Paragraph from the drop-down menu.
3. The paragraph spacing will change in the document.

How do I do 1.5 spacing on Word?

To format line spacing:

1. Click Format on the menu bar.
2. Select Paragraph. The Paragraph dialog box appears.
3. Click the Indents and Spacing tab.
4. In the line spacing drop-down menu, you can select single, 1.5, or double spacing. The default is single spacing.
5. Click OK.

How do you do 1.5 spacing on Microsoft Word?

Change the line spacing in a portion of the document

1. Select one or more paragraphs to update.
2. Go to Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing.
3. Select Line Spacing Options and choose an option in the Line spacing box.
4. Adjust the Before and After settings to change spacing between paragraphs.
5. Select OK.

What is L Ctrl?

Alternatively referred to as Control+L and C-l, Ctrl+L is a keyboard shortcut whose function differs depending on the program being. For example, in Microsoft Word, Ctrl+L is used to align text with the left edge of a document (margin).Ctrl+L in Excel and other spreadsheet programs.

How do I indent tab in Word?

To indent using the Tab key:

1. Place the insertion point at the very beginning of the paragraph you want to indent.
2. Press the Tab key. On the Ruler, you should see the first-line indent marker move to the right by 1/2 inch.
3. The first line of the paragraph will be indented.

How do you make a 0.2 hanging indent?

Create a hanging indent

1. Select the text where you want to add a hanging indent.
2. Go to Home > Paragraph dialog launcher. > Indents and Spacing.
3. Under Special, select Hanging. You can adjust the depth of the indent using the By field.
4. Select OK.

What is indent example?

When you press the “Tab” button in a word processing program so the first line of your text starts further inward than the second, this is an example of indent.A space left when you “tab” to move text inward in a word processing program is an example of an indent.

How do I add a space between words in Word?

Change the spacing between characters

1. Select the text that you want to change.
2. On the Home tab, click the Font Dialog Box Launcher, and then click the Advanced tab.
3. In the Spacing box, click Expanded or Condensed, and then specify how much space you want in the By box.

How do I make no space between lines in Word?

Change the line spacing in Word

1. Select Design > Paragraph Spacing.
2. Hover the cursor over each option to see a preview, and then select the option you want. For single spacing, select No Paragraph Space.

Is 1.0 single-spacing?

Line spacing is the distance between lines. In earlier versions of Word, the default line spacing distance is “1.0,” or single-spacing, which stacks lines closely together with minimal space between. The amount of that space varies depending on the font used.

Where is the spacing in Microsoft Word?

Go to Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing. Select Line Spacing Options, and then choose the options you want under Spacing. To change the spacing before or after the selected paragraphs, select the arrow next to Before or After and enter the amount of space that you want. Select Set as Default.

How do you set 1 inch margins on Microsoft Word?

To set the top margin of all other pages to 1 inch:

1. At least one line down from the top of Page 1, place cursor before or after any text in the order.
2. Click Page Layout > Margins > Custom Margins.
3. In the Page Setup Window, change the top margin to 1 inch.
4. Select “This point forward” from the Apply to selection box.
5. Click Ok.

What does Ctrl Shift E?

Ctrl-Shift-E. Turn revision tracking on or off. Ctrl-A. Select everything in the document.

What is Ctrl E in word?

Ctrl+E. Align the text to the left. Ctrl+L. Align the text to the right. Ctrl+R.

What does Ctrl k do in word?

In Microsoft Word and other word processors, pressing Ctrl + K inserts a hyperlink at the text cursor’s current location.

Why can I not indent on word?

To fix this, click the Microsoft Office button, select Word Options . Under Proofing , click AutoCorrect Options… . Under AutoFormat As You Type tab (in the Automatically as you type section), make sure that the “Set left- and first-indent with tabs and backspaces” option is checked.

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Introduction

Indenting text adds structure to your document by allowing you to separate information. Whether you’d like to move a single line or an entire paragraph, you can use the tab selector and the horizontal ruler to set tabs and indents.

Optional: Download our practice document.

Watch the video below to learn more about how to use indents and tabs in Word.

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 for the first line, which is known as a 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. Place the insertion point at the very beginning of the paragraph you want to indent.

   

2. Press the Tab key. On the Ruler, you should see the first-line indent marker move to the right by 1/2 inch.
3. The first line of the paragraph will be indented.

   

If you can’t see the Ruler, select the View tab, then click the checkbox next to the Ruler.

Indent markers

In some cases, you may want to have more control over indents. Word provides indent markers that allow you to indent paragraphs to the location you want.

The indent markers are located to the left of the horizontal ruler, and they provide several indenting options:

To indent using the indent markers:

1. Place the insertion point anywhere in the paragraph you want to indent, or select one or more paragraphs.

   
2. Click and drag the desired indent marker. In our example, we’ll click and drag the left indent marker.

   

3. Release the mouse. The paragraphs will be indented.

   

To indent using the Indent commands:

If you want to indent multiple lines of text or all lines of a paragraph, you can use the Indent commands. The Indent commands will adjust the indent by 1/2-inch increments.

1. Select the text you want to indent.

   

2. On the Home tab, click the Increase Indent or Decrease Indent command.

   

3. The text will indent.

   

To customize the indent amounts, select the Layout tab near the desired values in the boxes under Indent.

Tabs

Using tabs gives you more control over the placement of text. By default, every time you press the Tab key, the insertion point will move 1/2 inch to the right. Adding tab stops to the Ruler allows you to change the size of the tabs, and Word even allows you to apply more than one tab stop to a single line. For example, on a resume you could left-align the beginning of a line and right-align the end of the line by adding a Right Tab, as shown in the image below.

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 located above the vertical ruler on the left. Hover the mouse over the tab selector to see the name of the active tab stop.

Types of tab stops:

Although Bar Tab, First Line Indent, and Hanging Indent appear on the tab selector, they’re not technically tabs.

To add tab stops:

1. Select the paragraph or paragraphs you want to add tab stops to. If you don’t select any paragraphs, the tab stops will apply to the current paragraph and any new paragraphs you type below it.

   

2. Click the tab selector until the tab stop you want to use appears. In our example, we’ll select Right Tab.

   

3. Click the location on the horizontal ruler where you want your text to appear (it helps to click the bottom edge of the Ruler). You can add as many tab stops as you want.

   

4. Place the insertion point in front of the text you want to tab, then press the Tab key. The text will jump to the next tab stop. In our example, we will move each date range to the tab stop we created.

   

Removing tab stops

It’s a good idea to remove any tab stops you aren’t using so they don’t get in the way. To remove a tab stop, first select all of the text that uses the tab stop. Then click and drag it off of the Ruler.

Word can also display hidden formatting symbols such as spaces (), paragraph marks (), and tabs () to help you see the formatting in your document. To show hidden formatting symbols, select the Home tab, then click the Show/Hide command.

Challenge!

1. Open our practice document.
2. Use the Tab key to indent the beginning of each paragraph in the body of the cover letter. These start with I am exceedingly interested, While working toward, and Enclosed is a copy.
3. When you’re finished, the first page should look like this:

   

4. Scroll to page 2.
5. Select all of the text below Training & Education on page 2.
6. Place a right tab at the 6″ (15.25 cm) mark.
7. Insert your cursor before each date range, then press the Tab key. These dates include 2008, 1997-2001, and 1995-1997.
8. Select each job description under the Experience section, and move the left indent to the 0.25″ (50 mm) mark.
9. When you’re finished, page 2 should look something like this:

   

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Microsoft Word is a graphical word processing program used to create text-based documents. It’s included in all of the Microsoft Office application suites and is one of the most widely-used word processors.

The importance of indenting

When creating a body of text in a Word document, indenting the first line adds structure and is the most common way to signal the start of a new paragraph or topic. 

Block paragraphs are the default in Word, meaning that each line within a paragraph is aligned with the left margin, and the paragraphs only visually separated by line spaces. As a general rule, block paragraphs are more common when writing for an online platform, and indented paragraphs are more common in print publishing and academic research. 
The images featured in this article are from Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), which is the same as Word 2019. The steps are the same for Word 2016, Word 2013, and Word 2010.

Aside from indenting the first line, it’s also possible to indent every line except for the first line, known as a hanging indent or second line indent. Hanging indents are typically used in bibliography or reference sections. 

6 ways to indent in Microsoft Word

There are multiple ways to indent in Microsoft Word depending on the style of document you’re creating and your preferences. But first, ensure the Ruler feature is displayed. This allows you to better position and customize your text spacing. To display the Ruler:

1. Click the View tab 
2. Click the checkbox next to Ruler in the left hand corner