
When the cursor blinks at the beginning of an item in the list, pressing Tab will indent by creating a sub-list likewise, pressing Shift+Tab will unindent, which for a sub-list means bringing its items level back to the main list (more on nested / multilevel lists in Word 2010). Here's a handy trick when you are editing a list of items (either bulleted lists or numbered lists). When you press the Tab key on your keyboard, the default action Microsoft Word will take is inserting a tab character at the insertion point (blinking cursor). Special case: increase or decrease indent of lists (bulleted or numbered) Just use the up or down arrow buttons to adjust the indent of the current paragraph (or text elements currently selected) - the Left indent amount applies to the left margin of the page unlike the Increase / decrease indent buttons under the Home tab, the Right indent text counter field allows you to change the indent from the right side of your document! The default right indent setting of " 0" (zero) means that the text will stop from the right side of the page at a distance determined by the document margins. Note that you can now manually enter an amount of inches (including fractional quantities) by which to change the current indent: If you want more granular control over the amount of indent or outdent you apply to text elements in your document, click on the " Page Layout" tab in the Word 2010 ribbon. Changing document margins and using the ruler, discussed in later tutorials, gives you much more control, including vertical spacing! Increase or decrease indent by a single inch (or fractions of an inch) Tip: notice that decreasing or increasing indent only affects the left margin of the paragraph / text block. This approach applies the default indent or outdent distance, but as you'll see below, you can get more control than that. Then, make sure that the " Home" tab is selected in the Word 2010 ribbon (toolbar at the top), and click on the " Increase Indent" or " Decrease Indent" buttons:Īs soon as you click on either button, Word will apply the change right away to undo, either press Ctrl+Z or click on the opposite button in the ribbon. Place your cursor inside the paragraph you want to indent or unindent, or select all the elements in question (if more than one). But the easiest way to add space on the left or right of a paragraph, table, or other element is to use the default buttons. Figure 11.As you'll learn in the Microsoft Word ruler tutorial, the indent on the left and on the right can be fully customized to the pixel (or inch), as can the margins of your document. Select the OK button to save your selection(s) and close the Paragraph dialog box. Make any additional adjustments to alignment or line spacing.ġ0. Use the increment arrows to adjust the length of the indent. Select First line in the Special drop-down menu. Select the Special menu arrow in the Paragraph dialog box. Select the Paragraph group’s dialog box launcher. Note that older versions of Word will say “Select All Text With Similar Formatting,” instead.Ĭaution: Other text with paragraph formatting (such as a title formatted with a large font size rather than with one of Word’s preset heading styles) will also be selected.ĥ. Select Select Text with Similar Formatting in the drop-down menu (see figure 3). Select Select in the Editing group (see figure 2).Ĥ. Select the Home tab in the ribbon (see figure 1).ģ. Your paragraphs should be indented as you move the ruler marker.ġ. Move the top ruler marker to the right to the desired indent length. If your ruler is already visible, skip to step 7.ĥ. Select Text with Similar Formatting option This option will select all the paragraphs in the document.Ĭaution: Other text with paragraph formatting (such as a title formatted with a large font size rather than with one of Word’s preset heading styles) will also be selected. Note that older versions of Word will say “Select All Text With Similar Formatting,” instead. Select Select Text with Similar Formatting in the drop-down menu. If your document is blank, skip to step 5.ġ. However, you can also use the Paragraph dialog box if you would like to make additional adjustments to alignments and line spacing simultaneously. If you want to indent all existing paragraphs, the quickest method is the ruler.
Microsoft word shortcut for indent how to#
See “ How to Create, Change, and Delete Tabs in Microsoft Word” for more information about using tab stops. Insert your cursor at the start of the paragraph. If you want to indent single, existing paragraphs, the quickest method is the Tab key.
