Indenting paragraphs

There are three ways of indenting paragraphs. You can use the ruler, or the indent buttons on the toolbar or the Format/Paragraph dialog box.

Indenting involves moving your writing in from the margin of the page. It is different from changing the size of the margins on the page.

Indenting using the Toolbar

• The easiest way to add indents to your work is to use the toolbar.
• Click on the View menu and make sure there is a tick next to the Ruler option. If there is, click anywhere in the document to close the menu. If there is not, click on the Ruler option to display the ruler on your screen.
• Look at the ruler. You will notice little grey lines along the bottom of it. These are called Default Tab Markers, and they show how far your text will move in and out when you use the toolbar buttons.
  

• Indentation applies to an entire paragraph. You can select some or all of the paragraph, it does not matter. The indentation will be applied to the entire paragraph.
• Open the file Australian Folk Songs.
• Scroll down to the second page, the song Brisbane Ladies.
• Turn on the Show/Hide button, if necessary.
• Notice that each line of the first verse ends with a paragraph marker (hard return). This means that Word97 regards each line as a separate paragraph.
• Click in the first line. The indentation we will do will apply to this paragraph only.
• Click on the Increase Indent button on the Formatting Toolbar.

The paragraph will move in so it is lined up with the first default tab marker.

• Click on the Increase Indent button again. The paragraph will line up with the second default tab marker.
• Click on the Decrease Indent button. The paragraph will move back to the first default tab marker.
• Continue playing with these buttons until you are satisfied with how they work. Return the paragraph to the margin.
• Select all paragraphs in the first verse and indent them to the first default tab marker.
• Select all paragraphs in the chorus and indent them to the second default tab marker.
• Select all the remaining verses and indent them to the first default tab marker.
• Save your work.

Indentation using the Ruler

There are four types of indentation you can do using the ruler: left indents, right indents, first line indents and hanging indents. These are all done using the indentation markers on the ruler.

• Scroll down to the next page, the song Wild Rover

• Scroll down to the Notes. Select this paragraph by clicking inside it somewhere.
• Click on the right indent marker and drag it in to 13cm. This will indent the right hand side of the paragraph.
• Click on the left indent marker (the rectangle) and drag it in to 1.5cm. This will indent the left hand side of the paragraph.
• Select the heading Notes and move the left hand indent marker to 1.5cm. This will move the heading in line with the paragraph below.
• Scroll down to the last song, Drover's Dream.
• Select all the verses of the song.
• Click on the hanging indent marker (the bottom triangle) and move it to 1.5cm. This will give all the verses a hanging indent.
• Move the first line marker (top triangle) to 0.5 cm. This will lessen the width of the first line indent.
• Save and close the file.
• Open the file Letter to Anna.
• Select the first paragraph in the body of the letter by clicking inside it.
• Click and drag on the first line indent marker (top triangle). Move it to 2.5cm. The first line of the paragraph will indent to this line.
• Select the rest of the body of the letter. Click and drag on the first line indent marker (top triangle). Move it to 2.5cm. The first line of the rest of the paragraphs in the body of the letter will indent to this line.
• Save and close the file.

Indenting UsingThe Paragraph Dialog Box

This is the main box for applying paragraph formatting (this is formatting that applies to the entire paragraph).

• Open the file Dickens.
• Select the entire document.
• Select Format/Paragraph. The following dialog box will appear. This is where the paragraph formatting is done.
  

• The Alignment box shows the alignment of the paragraph(s) selected. The document is justified.
• Indentation is where you specify the indentation of the selected paragraph(s). We will set a left and right indent of 1cm.
• Click in the box next to Indentation: Left and type in 1cm.
• Click in the box next to Indentation: Right and type in 1cm.
• Click on OK. Notice that the document is now indented 1cm from either side.
• Select Format/Paragraph again.
• We will create a first line indent of 1cm on each paragraph. Click in the Special option and select First Line from the list that appears.
• Type 1cm in the box next to First Line.

• Click on OK. Notice that each paragraph is now indented 1cm from the left indentation. This is because the special indents are measured from the left indentation marker, not from the margin.
• Select Format/Paragraph again.
• We will put a space of 6pts after each paragraph. Click in the Spacing: After box and type 6.
• Click on OK. Notice that there is now a space after each paragraph.
• Select Format/Paragraph again.
• We will now look at the line spacing of the paragraphs. Click in the Line Spacing box and select double. Click on OK and see the effect on your document.
• Select Format/Paragraph again and repeat for 1.5 spacing.
• Select Format/Paragraph again. Select Multiple spacing. In the box next to it, enter the number 3. This triple spaces your document. Click on OK and see the effect on your document.
• Select Format/Paragraph again and repeat for 4 lines, 6.5 lines etc.
• The last spacings to look at are the At Least and Exactly options. These both let you specify the space between the lines in the paragraph.
• The space between the lines is measured form the bottom of one line to the bottom of the next line.

When you set this measurement with At Least, Word97 will allow for collisions between eg a y on the top line and a t on the next line. It will make the spacing larger to accommodate this.

• Set the spacing to At Least 9 points and observe the effect on your document.

When you set this measurement with Exactly, Word97 does not allow for collisions between eg a y on the top line and a t on the next line. It will not make the spacing larger to accommodate this.

• Set the spacing to Exactly 9 points and observe the effect on your document.
• Return the document to double spaced.
• Save and close the file.