What is indentation in word

Indent the first line of a paragraph

To indent the first line of a paragraph, put your cursor at the beginning of the paragraph and press the tab key. When you press Enter to start the next paragraph, its first line will be indented.

Tip: If you want to change indentation for paragraphs that have already been written, use the tab-key method on the first paragraph, as described above. Then put your cursor at the beginning of the next paragraph. Press Backspace and then Enter. Repeat the process for subsequent paragraphs.

First-line indent by default

If you always want first-line indentation, modify the Normal style:

1. Put the cursor anywhere in the paragraph.

2. On the Home tab, right-click the Normal style, and choose Modify.

   

3. Select Format, and then choose Paragraph.

   

4. On the Indents and Spacing tab, under Indentation, select First line.

   

5. Select OK.

6. Select OK again.

   Note: If you always want first-line indentation whenever you start a new document, choose the New documents based on this template option before you select OK.
   

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.

Asked by: Mr. Vince Schaefer MD

Score: 4.5/5
(10 votes)

293 How do I indent a paragraph in Word?

What is indentation in Word?

In word processing, the word indent is used to describe the distance, or number of blank spaces used to separate a paragraph from the left or right margins. … Other types of indent formatting in word processing includes a hanging indent where all lines but the first are indented.

What are the four types of indent in MS Word?

Indents. Word provides four types of indents: first line indent, hanging indent, right indent and left indent.

What is indentation in MS Word and its types?

The «space» between the «text» and «left or right margin» within a document is called as «Indentation». There are «four types» of indents available in MS word: … Left indent: indicates space between the «paragraph» and the «left margin». 2. Right indent: indicates space between the «paragraph» and the «right margin».

What is indent What are the different types of indent in MS Word?

Left Line Indent Indents all the lines of the paragraph a specified distance from the left margin. Right Line Indent Indents all the lines of the paragraph a specific distance from the right margin. Hanging Indent Indents all the lines of the paragraph a specific distance from the left margin except the first line.

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Is this article up to date?

There are lots of things you can do with indentation in Word. From ensuring that your bullet lists are clear, emphasizing paragraphs, creating hanging indents and more. In this post I’m going to go through how to create a hanging indent, how to automatically indent as well as other uses and step by step instructions.

Here’s what on the page so you can find what you are after quickly:

• How to Apply Indentation in Word
• Using the Ruler to Apply Indentation
• Adding Indentation Using the Styles Options
• How to Automatically Indent in Word Using the Styles Options
• How to Make First Line Indent in Word
• How to Add a Second Line Indent: How to Add a Hanging Indent on Word
• How to Indent an Entire Paragraph in Word

What Is Indentation on Word?

In the olden days of pen and paper, in order to start a new paragraph, I was told that you have to indent the first word of it. In order words, leave a gap of about 1.5 cm and then start writing. I don’t know whether this is actually taught in schools this way anymore as so many people use computers instead of pen and paper. Be that as it may, this is probably the reason why the function has always been around in Word.

Why and When Do You Use Indentation on Word

As using computers and Word has become so common nowadays, the actual styling of indentation has in a sense, gone out the window. It used to be that there was no line space between one paragraph and the next. Rather the first word of the paragraph was indented. However, since we have a space between each paragraph nowadays, the reason for using indentation has become much more of a stylistic thing rather than an absolute necessity.

This being the case, we can do a lot more with indentation on Word to stress different areas of text, lists, or anything else for that matter. All you need to know how is to know the basics and you can play around with them however much you want.

How to Apply Indentation in Word

The quickest and simplest way to add indentation to your document is to use the Tab key on your keyboard. Obviously this is per paragraph and you will have to do so every single time you want to start a new paragraph with an indent.
This can become rather cumbersome as well as an annoying time waster. There are much better methods and I’ll go through them below.

Using the Ruler to Apply Indentation

If you want to eyeball and not get into how many centimeters or inches to add then use the following method:

1. Place your curser somewhere in the paragraph that you are working on and that you want all these types of paragraphs to be indented.
2. On the Home tab, click on the Select button and then click on Select all text with Similar formatting:

1. This will highlight all the relevant text with this formatting.

1. On the View tab, click the show ruler option:

1. You will now see the ruler on the top of your screen.
2. Looking at the image, you can see three different “bits.” Each of these does something different to your document:

1. By dragging the arrows, you can create the indent that you desire.
2. The top arrow indents the first line of the paragraph:

1. The bottom arrow affects the other lines of the paragraph. Please note that even though the bottom rectangle has moved as well, I have actually only moved the arrow.

1. The rectangle moves the entire paragraph:

This is obviously rather long winded but it does work. The better method is to use the Styles options on the Home tab.

Adding Indentation Using the Styles Options

The Styles are the mainstay of formatting throughout Microsoft Word and it’s important to know how to use them properly. This is especially true when it comes to indentation. You can set it up so that it will apply what you want in this specific document or in any future documents. If you want to see more about how Styles work in Word, check out that specific post.

How to Automatically Indent in Word Using the Styles Options

1. On the Home tab, right click on the style that you want to change. In this example, I’m going to add an indent to the Normal template. Select Modify:

1. If you want to use the Word defaults, you can just use the Indent options in the dialog box.

However, if you want something a little more, than you need to navigate to the Format button at the bottom of the dialog box and then select the Paragraph option:

1. Everything about indentation is controlled by this little area in the center of the dialog box:

1. Simple select your desired indentation levels and then press OK.
2. Back in the Styles dialog box, you have the option to have this style that you have just modified be for this specific document or for all the documents. That choice is up to you.

And that is how you automatically indent in Word. It requires a little bit of setting up, but once you have done it once and selected that you want it to be this way for all future documents, you will have done it. It really is once and done!

If you want to have different indent levels for different paragraphs in your document though, continue reading and I’ll show you each of these options.

How to Make First Line Indent in Word

If you want to make a first line indent in Word for a specific paragraph, you don’t need to go to the Styles section but rather to the Paragraph section of Word. To access these settings, do the following:

1. Ensure your curser is in the paragraph that you want to change.
2. On the home tab, select the Paragraph button on the bottom right corner of the section:

1. This opens up our Paragraph dialog box.
2. Let’s say that you want to have a first line indent of 0.75cm. Therefore you should input the following in the dialog box:

1. This will give us a first line indent that we desire:

How to Add a Second Line Indent: How to Add a Hanging Indent on Word

A second line indent is more commonly know as a hanging indent. In order to do so for a specific paragraph, do exactly the same as before with just a slight change:

1. Ensure your curser is in the paragraph that you want to change.
2. On the home tab, select the Paragraph button on the bottom right corner of the section.
3. On the indentation settings, in the Special section, select Hanging:

This changes the indent and that’s how to add a hanging indent on Word.

This is especially useful when you want to add a hanging indent for works cited.

How to Indent an Entire Paragraph in Word

If you need to indent an entire paragraph in Word you can do so with the same Paragraph dialog box. All you need to do is change the indentation in the Before text and After text fields.

I have added a 2 cm indentation and this is the result for the entire paragraph:

In Summary

There are quite a few ways to add indentation to your document. If you want to use it for a specific paragraph, or if you need to change the whole indentation settings for your document, there are pretty easy ways of taking care of it. I hope you have enjoyed this post. If you have any comments or questions, please let me know below and I’ll do my best to answer them as quickly as I can. Good luck!

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