Problem with Space indent settings in Word 2002

Hello everyone,

For the longest time I've been living with this problem, where as I'll be typing along just fine and when the text gets to the end of the line at the set margin, it Returns down normally to the next line down to continue whatever I'm typing. However, if I go Home to the beginning of a written line and want to move it in a few spaces using the Space bar, the line won't move forward. Tab will move it forward but that's too far forward. I just want a couple spaces or however many I need to indent at a given moment.

How do I tun off whatever it is that's locking the lines this way on already created pages and also set it along with other format preferences, for the opening pages as default?

Also, if I create Tabbed indents for a few bullet points I can't seem to stop the auto indenting for the bullet points when I'm done with that and return to the normal left margin. How do I fix that as well?

Many thanks!