Word Processing

Unit 3: Advanced Word Processing Techniques

Lesson 7: Paragraph and Large Block Formatting

How do you set up paragraph indents?

Edit Menu

For each paragraph in your document you can specify the amount of indenting for the:

first line
left margin
right margin

In order to understand paragraph indenting, it's important to understand what margins are. Margins are the distance from the edge of the paper to the area of the document where most text will appear. There is one set of margins for a complete document. There are top, buttom, right, and left margins. Paragraph indents start where margins leave off. It's not, however, impossible to have text printed in the margins. If you specify a negative value for any of the paragraph indents, you can have text from a paragraph appear in the margin.

Format paragraph dialog box

Paragraph indents can be specified for existing paragraphs, or for new paragraphs you are about to enter at the end of the document. To set the indents for an existing paragraph you must select the paragraph before specifying the indents. To select a paragraph it is enough to set the insertion point inside the paragraph. To set the indents for a new paragraph at the end of your document, simply specify the indents, and all subsequent paragraphs will have the newly specified indents. Another way to say this is, when you press the enter key a new paragraph is started. That paragraph will by default have the same indents as the one that preceeded it.

So, how do you specify paragraph indents? There are two methods:

from the Format/Paragraph dialog box.
from the Ruler.

Format/Paragraph dialog box. The figure above shows the Format/Paragraph dialog box. It is accessed from the Paragraph... command on the Format menu. The paragraph indents are specified in the Indentation section. You may enter a value or use the arrows next to the right of each field to specify the indent amount. Notice the Preview at the bottom of the Indentation section. Here you can get an idea how your choices will affect the paragraph(s).

Setting indents from the Ruler. The easiest way of setting paragraph indents is with the handles on the ruler. The simulation to the right shows how to set the indent for the first line, and the left and right margin.