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It is this setting (step 5) that controls how the Tab key behaves.
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This is where the Left and Right indents can be set for the paragraph. Note the Indentation area near the center of the dialog box. You do this by displaying the Home tab of the ribbon and clicking the small icon at the bottom-right corner of the Paragraph group. (You could select the entire paragraph, but there is really no need-just make sure that the insertion point is in the paragraph.) Then, display the Paragraph dialog box. To check the indent for a paragraph, simply place the insertion point within the paragraph you want to check.
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(Simply jot it down on a piece of paper.) When completed, you can click OK (if you made changes in the margins) or Cancel (if you made no changes). In Wayne's case, where he is concerned about the left margin, he should make note of the Left setting in the dialog box. The settings here indicate the page margins for the current section of the document. Note the Margins area, near the top of the page. The Margins tab of the Page Setup dialog box. To display the dialog box, display the Page Layout or Layout tab of the ribbon (depending on your version of Word) and click the small icon in the lower-right corner of the Page Setup group. The easiest way to check your margin is using the Page Setup dialog box.
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If all the paragraphs on a page have the same half-inch indent, it is easy to think that the margin for the page has changed, but it has not-the margin is still set to a half-inch.īecause it is easy to confuse margins and indents, it is important to figure out what is happening with your own document.
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For instance, if you have a half-inch margin and you indent a paragraph by a half-inch, there will be a full inch of whitespace to the left of the paragraph. Indents are applied to paragraphs and are cumulative with margins. Margins can be changed on a section-by-section basis within a document. For instance, you may have half-inch margins set, and that defines the whitespace on all sides of the document. A margin, in Word, is the space left around the outside of a document. Wayne wonders what is going on.īefore discussing what may be going on in Wayne's situation, it is a good idea to understand the difference between margins and indents. Then he begins the battle of having the margins stay where he wants them. Yet, when he begins to indent just once, he notices that the left margin moves over to where he indented. When Wayne creates a new document, it has half-inch margins on all sides.
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