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Word 2007 Practice: Working with Indents

Open Word 2007, and generate some paragraphs to work with. Do this by typing either:

=rand() (This will give you three paragraphs in English)

or

=lorem(4,5) (This will generate 4 paragraphs in Latin that are 5 sentences apiece.)

What you are going to do is apply each of the different indent styles to multiple paragraphs to identify how each looks, to experience the ease of applying them to multiple paragraphs, and explore the different ways to apply them.

First Line Indent (using the Ruler)

1. Use Ctrl + A to select all the paragraphs.
2. Using the Ruler, drag the first line indent button to the half-inch mark. (You’ll know your pointing at the right spot as a pop-up will say “First Line Indent.”)

The first line in each paragraph now is indented, and without any line or paragraph spacing applied, the indent helps each paragraph to stand out.

Hanging Indent (using Paragraph box)

1. Use Ctrl + A to select all the paragraphs.
2. In the Paragraph group, click the Paragraph box button.
3. In the Indentation section, under Special:, change to Hanging, then click OK.

Using a Hanging indent, you see the first line of each paragraph starting at the left margin, the rest of the paragraph indented a half-inch. It doesn’t look so good on this example, but if it were a list of terms with definitions, or names with descriptions, it would be easy to scan down to pick out a specific term or name.

To get rid of the hanging indent, make sure everything is selected, then you could Undo (Ctrl + Z) back to having no indents, or in the Font group, click the Clear Formatting button.

Left and Right Indents (using Paragraph box)

Triple-click on the middle paragraph of the three paragraphs. You’re only going to change the one paragraph this time.

1. Open the Paragraph box.
2. In the Indentation section, set both the Left and Right to one inch.
3. Click OK.

Notice how that paragraph stands out from the other two paragraphs, but would look better with some paragraph spacing applied.

Bonus Practice: Changing Paragraph Spacing

1. Ctrl + A to select all text.
2. In the Paragraph group, click the Line Spacing button, then choose Add Space After Paragraph.

The applied Paragraph Spacing gives it a more balanced, finished look.

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