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#1
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Indentation of Paragraphs
I cannot change the setting for indentation. It's now on
10 spaces and I want it to indent 7 spaces. I've tried Tabs under the Paragraph command in Format, Tools and AutoFormat, moving the ruler (which Word Help directed me to do), but that just messed up my right margin. One suggestion was to place the cursor in from a a paragraph and then press the Tab key. But that just pushed my text forward. One more question, please: every time I indent with the tab key, a little box appears with what looks like a yellow lightning icon. This icon blocks the characters under it and to remove it, I have to make some change to another paragraph, such as backspacing, etc. Would appreciate any help. |
#2
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Hi Jann
Jann wrote: I cannot change the setting for indentation. It's now on 10 spaces and I want it to indent 7 spaces. I've tried Tabs under the Paragraph command in Format, Tools and AutoFormat, moving the ruler (which Word Help directed me to do), but that just messed up my right margin. One suggestion was to place the cursor in from a a paragraph and then press the Tab key. But that just pushed my text forward. Since you're posting in .longdocs here, I assume that's what you're working with. I then strongly suggest that you change all of your indents (and most anything else) through styles and not through direct formatting. That said, to change an indet, change the style through Format | Styles | chose style | Format | Paragraph: Left your prefered indent. If you have Word 2003 or (IIRC) 2002, then you do that through the styles and formatting task pane. One more question, please: every time I indent with the tab key, a little box appears with what looks like a yellow lightning icon. This icon blocks the characters under it and to remove it, I have to make some change to another paragraph, such as backspacing, etc. Sounds like a SmartTag. It's Word's way of showing you that it has just decided that you didn't really want to have a tab-character inserted, but an indent. You might change some of the things Word "guesses" via the "AutoFormat as you type" settings. But I repeat: This is direct formatting, and its use is highly discouraged in long documents. Greetings Robert -- /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | MS \ / | MVP X Against HTML | for / \ in e-mail & news | Word |
#3
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Thank you. What is the difference beetween a "tab" and
and "indent"? to me, the Tab is the key you press to create an indent. So why would the Smart Tag think I'm doing two opposite things when, to me, they are one and the same? -----Original Message----- Hi Jann Jann wrote: I cannot change the setting for indentation. It's now on 10 spaces and I want it to indent 7 spaces. I've tried Tabs under the Paragraph command in Format, Tools and AutoFormat, moving the ruler (which Word Help directed me to do), but that just messed up my right margin. One suggestion was to place the cursor in from a a paragraph and then press the Tab key. But that just pushed my text forward. Since you're posting in .longdocs here, I assume that's what you're working with. I then strongly suggest that you change all of your indents (and most anything else) through styles and not through direct formatting. That said, to change an indet, change the style through Format | Styles | chose style | Format | Paragraph: Left your prefered indent. If you have Word 2003 or (IIRC) 2002, then you do that through the styles and formatting task pane. One more question, please: every time I indent with the tab key, a little box appears with what looks like a yellow lightning icon. This icon blocks the characters under it and to remove it, I have to make some change to another paragraph, such as backspacing, etc. Sounds like a SmartTag. It's Word's way of showing you that it has just decided that you didn't really want to have a tab- character inserted, but an indent. You might change some of the things Word "guesses" via the "AutoFormat as you type" settings. But I repeat: This is direct formatting, and its use is highly discouraged in long documents. Greetings Robert -- /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | MS \ / | MVP X Against HTML | for / \ in e-mail & news | Word . |
#4
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Went to Format and Style, but there was nothing to allow
me to set the indentations to the number I want. It just says Paragraph and Body Text, but I kdon't know what that means. -----Original Message----- Hi Jann Jann wrote: I cannot change the setting for indentation. It's now on 10 spaces and I want it to indent 7 spaces. I've tried Tabs under the Paragraph command in Format, Tools and AutoFormat, moving the ruler (which Word Help directed me to do), but that just messed up my right margin. One suggestion was to place the cursor in from a a paragraph and then press the Tab key. But that just pushed my text forward. Since you're posting in .longdocs here, I assume that's what you're working with. I then strongly suggest that you change all of your indents (and most anything else) through styles and not through direct formatting. That said, to change an indet, change the style through Format | Styles | chose style | Format | Paragraph: Left your prefered indent. If you have Word 2003 or (IIRC) 2002, then you do that through the styles and formatting task pane. One more question, please: every time I indent with the tab key, a little box appears with what looks like a yellow lightning icon. This icon blocks the characters under it and to remove it, I have to make some change to another paragraph, such as backspacing, etc. Sounds like a SmartTag. It's Word's way of showing you that it has just decided that you didn't really want to have a tab- character inserted, but an indent. You might change some of the things Word "guesses" via the "AutoFormat as you type" settings. But I repeat: This is direct formatting, and its use is highly discouraged in long documents. Greetings Robert -- /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | MS \ / | MVP X Against HTML | for / \ in e-mail & news | Word . |
#5
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Hello Jann
Jann wrote: Thank you. What is the difference beetween a "tab" and and "indent"? to me, the Tab is the key you press to create an indent. So why would the Smart Tag think I'm doing two opposite things when, to me, they are one and the same? To observe what the standard behaviour is for pressing the TAB character, imagine what happens in (or open up) Notepad when you press that button. If you do so at the beginning of a line, why yes, that *looks* like an indent, but in effect, there's a tab-character inserted which makes the cursor jump to the next default tab position. You see that easily if you press TAB after having written a couple of words. Greetings Robert -- /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | MS \ / | MVP X Against HTML | for / \ in e-mail & news | Word |
#6
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#7
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Ordinarily the Tab key does just insert a tab character. But if you have
"Tabs and backspace set left indent" (Tools | Options | Edit in Word 2000 and earlier) or "Set left- and first-indent with tabs and backspaces" (Tools | AutoCorrect Options | AutoFormat As You Type in Word 2002 and 2003) enabled, then pressing Tab indents the paragraph to the first tab stop. A better way to create a first-line indent (assuming that's what you're after) is to drag the first-line indent button on the ruler (see http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/UsingRulers.htm) or set an indent in the Format | Paragraph dialog. Then every time you press Enter and get a new paragraph, it will have a first-line indent. Or you can select a style, such as Body Text First Indent, that has this property built in. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. "Robert M. Franz" wrote in message ... Hello Jann Jann wrote: Thank you. What is the difference beetween a "tab" and and "indent"? to me, the Tab is the key you press to create an indent. So why would the Smart Tag think I'm doing two opposite things when, to me, they are one and the same? To observe what the standard behaviour is for pressing the TAB character, imagine what happens in (or open up) Notepad when you press that button. If you do so at the beginning of a line, why yes, that *looks* like an indent, but in effect, there's a tab-character inserted which makes the cursor jump to the next default tab position. You see that easily if you press TAB after having written a couple of words. Greetings Robert -- /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | MS \ / | MVP X Against HTML | for / \ in e-mail & news | Word |
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