Need help with tabs

R

Ronald Mason

I am using Word 2003

When I select a paragraph and set right and left tabs nothing happens.
If I correctly understand Word Help, the paragraph should change to
the tab stops.

What am I missing?

Thanks
 
J

Jay Freedman

I am using Word 2003

When I select a paragraph and set right and left tabs nothing happens.
If I correctly understand Word Help, the paragraph should change to
the tab stops.

What am I missing?

Thanks
Click to expand...

You're misunderstanding the purpose of tabs (more correctly, "tab
stops"). If you want to affect the distance between the document
margins and the edges of the current paragraph, you should be setting
the paragraph's indents, not its tab stops.

Here's a discussion of tabs:
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/SettingTabs.htm

Indents are explained here:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/UsingRulers.htm

Finally, if this is something you do often, you should be using styles
instead of direct formatting. There's a built-in style called Block
Text that has a 1" indent on both left and right, which might be the
effect you were looking for.
 
C

CyberTaz

Tab settings only come into play if you press the Tab key. When you press
Tab the insertion point moves to the next available Tab setting on the line.
IOW, just setting tab "stops" doesn't automatically separate the text.
 
R

Ronald Mason

You're misunderstanding the purpose of tabs (more correctly, "tab
stops"). If you want to affect the distance between the document
margins and the edges of the current paragraph, you should be setting
the paragraph's indents, not its tab stops.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I should have been more explicit. I do use indents (or is it
styles?) for that purpose.

For example, I want to type a paragraph that is two inches from the
left and right edges of the paper. All other text will have a margin
of one inch. Seems to me it would be more efficient to set desired tab
stops for the one paragraph, type the text, and then finish typing the
remainder of the document using the previously set one inch margins.

Thanks for your response
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

FWIW, you don't have to have the paragraph selected when setting tabs. The
only reason for a selection is to set tabs for more than one paragraph.
 
J

Jay Freedman

Ronald said:
Sorry, I should have been more explicit. I do use indents (or is it
styles?) for that purpose.

For example, I want to type a paragraph that is two inches from the
left and right edges of the paper. All other text will have a margin
of one inch. Seems to me it would be more efficient to set desired tab
stops for the one paragraph, type the text, and then finish typing the
remainder of the document using the previously set one inch margins.

Thanks for your response
Click to expand...

I don't know what you mean by "more efficient" -- something that doesn't
work because it wasn't meant for that purpose won't be efficient at all. I
repeat, setting tab stops has no effect on the distance from the margins to
the text boundaries. Setting left and right indents does have that effect.

You can set indents directly for one or a few paragraphs, or you can include
them in a style definition and apply that style to particular paragraphs.

Did you look at either of the articles I mentioned? Here are the links
again:

Here's a discussion of tabs:
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/SettingTabs.htm

Indents are explained here:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/UsingRulers.htm

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
S

Stefan Blom

FWIW, indents, as well as tab stops, do transfer to the new paragraph added
when pressing Enter.

But note that for an efficient approach, you should be using a style with
left and right indents specified, for example, the built-in Block Text
style (already suggested by Jay earlier in this thread).

Note that you can change the default indents of 1" (2.54 cm), if you find
them excessive, as I do.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message
 
Top