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About this lesson
Learn how and when to use specific indent types.
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Exercise files
Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ Word documents from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.
Indents.docx59.7 KB Indents - Solution.docx
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Quick reference
Indents
Learn how and when to use specific indent types
Home Ribbon, Paragraph Group
When to use
Use the Indent buttons when you want to move a paragraph.
It is also useful to use the ruler “indent markers” to move indent location as desired.
Moves first line
Moves the left indent
Instructions
- First Line Indent: Press TAB on the keyboard
- Left indent: Click the “increase indent” button
- Hanging Indent: Generally used for numbers and bullets. To apply manually, click insert indent, but use the indent marker on the ruler and pull the top arrow to the left.
- Double Indent: used when formally quoting a person or text. To apply, click the “insert indent” button to move the paragraph from the left by 1 inch, then use the right-indent marker on the ruler to move the paragraph from the right by 1 inch.
Tip:
A double indent is traditionally used as a quote, along with double spaced text. To double space the text in a paragraph, press Ctrl 2.
Login to download- 00:04 In this lesson you're gonna learn about indenting paragraphs.
- 00:07 There is a variety of ways to do this for various reasons,
- 00:10 but before we get started you really need to have your ruler on your screen.
- 00:15 So if you take a look right up at the top,
- 00:16 if your ruler is not visible, we need to put that on right now.
- 00:20 So please click on the VIEW ribbon.
- 00:22 Over on the left you'll have a Ruler, put a check mark in that box and
- 00:26 then you'll see your ruler sitting above your document.
- 00:29 Now let's set ourselves back to the HOME ribbon,
- 00:32 because in the Paragraph group, right up here, we have two buttons.
- 00:36 One says Decrease, one says Increase.
- 00:38 I can never remember which is which.
- 00:40 I just float my mouse and it tells me which is which.
- 00:43 Another thing is now that your ruler's there,
- 00:44 I want to draw your attention to this little animal right here.
- 00:47 It looks like an hourglass but it is not an hourglass.
- 00:51 It's actually two separate little tools.
- 00:54 If I float my mouse on the bottom square it says Left Indent, and
- 00:57 attached to that is a an arrow that says Hanging Indent,
- 01:02 when you float your mouse, and then right at the top is a First Line Indent.
- 01:07 So basically it's three tools there.
- 01:09 Usually the bottom two they stay together pretty well,
- 01:11 and this top one you'll observe it split apart when we start using it.
- 01:15 All right, so I'm gonna scroll down here so we can start on this First Line Indent,
- 01:18 the very first paragraph.
- 01:20 Go ahead and click in front of the quotation mark there and
- 01:23 I'm gonna press my Tab key on my keyboard.
- 01:26 When I hit Tab, look what happened on the ruler, they split apart.
- 01:30 And they split apart at exactly the half inch increment and
- 01:33 that is a standard default setting across the ruler.
- 01:36 If I float my mouse on this arrow, it says First Line Indent.
- 01:39 If I float my mouse on the bottom, it says Left Indent and it might say,
- 01:42 there it goes, Hanging Indent, but that's fine.
- 01:45 Also notice this tiny little lightning bolt button.
- 01:49 This is a gift.
- 01:50 So whenever you see those lightning bolts hit the drop down arrow,
- 01:53 continue to learn.
- 01:54 You will become a better computer user by hitting these drop down arrows and
- 01:58 reading what is behind them.
- 02:00 Change Back to a Tab, a standard tab rather than an indent,
- 02:03 Stop Setting Indents on Tabs and Backspace.
- 02:06 You can tell the computer not to do that anymore.
- 02:08 I happen to like the feature so I don't do that, and then Control Autoformat Options.
- 02:14 So we're gonna click off of that, I just wanted to draw your attention to it.
- 02:17 So right now we have a very standard paragraph look, and
- 02:20 we're gonna go onto the next one which is a Left Indent.
- 02:23 Now the Left Indent is when we want the entire
- 02:26 left side of this paragraph to move.
- 02:28 So I clicked in there, it goes back to it's default setting.
- 02:32 It looks like an hourglass again but we know it's not,
- 02:34 it's simply the indent markers.
- 02:36 And I'm going to come right up here and I'm going to click and
- 02:39 hit the Increase Indent, and it will increase by one half inch.
- 02:43 Notice the entire paragraph moved, not just the top line.
- 02:46 That is a proper left indent.
- 02:48 Sometimes you might have letterhead that has a wide left margin, for
- 02:53 whatever reason.
- 02:54 You can force it again to go another half inch.
- 02:57 So just so you know, you have those options.
- 02:59 If you went too far, you just hit the Decrease Indent and
- 03:01 it'll go back by half inch.
- 03:03 Again, notice that the hourglass, the indent markers moved around on that ruler.
- 03:09 Okay next we have a Hanging Indent.
- 03:10 Every time we apply bullets and numbering, it does use a hanging indent, but
- 03:15 we're gonna do this.
- 03:16 So we're gonna apply it with words so you can actually see the dramatic,
- 03:20 how it looks.
- 03:21 It's a two step application.
- 03:23 We are gonna go ahead and hit the button that says Increase Indent, but
- 03:26 now on this line, look at your ruler.
- 03:29 Now we're going to use the very top first line, and
- 03:31 we're gonna pull that back, okay?
- 03:34 So now I could've started with it all on the left and just floated my mouse on this
- 03:39 arrow, and hit Hanging Indent, and move that to the right, either way.
- 03:44 If you don't like where it lands and you want the whole thing moved over by half
- 03:47 an inch, that's when you operate the little square at the bottom.
- 03:51 And we simply click and drag that over to the 1,
- 03:54 and that's how you move the entire thing to where you want it to be.
- 03:58 So you have total control over these paragraphs and
- 04:01 these indents as long as you know that these little operators on the ruler
- 04:05 can be moved around with your mouse.
- 04:07 Now, let's go ahead and, I wanna show you an example of bullets.
- 04:10 When I highlight this list and hit Bullets, take a look at the indents on
- 04:15 your ruler, they moved automatically to the hanging indent layout.
- 04:19 And again I can move them and reposition them,
- 04:22 simply by moving that little bottom square.
- 04:25 Okay, the very last one, this is a Double Indent.
- 04:28 Now, we're gonna go ahead and hit the Increase Indent twice to increase it to
- 04:32 the left by one inch, but then I want to increase the right indent.
- 04:37 So take a look on the right side of the ruler, it's at the six and a half mark,
- 04:41 and I want a full inch right indent.
- 04:44 So I'm going to move that to the 5.50 mark.
- 04:46 You use this to quote someone in a document or give someone credit for
- 04:51 something and use their quotes.
- 04:53 Typically, if you're quoting someone, you would then double space.
- 04:56 Ctrl+2 is a double space, and that's it,
- 05:00 that's how you apply indents, control indents, use the ruler to control indents.
- 05:06 It's a wonderful feature, please practice.
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