hanging indents in tables

[Cathie100]

I have MS Word 2002. I created a list of items which have varying levels of
hanging indents. I create the hanging indents by tabbing the second line of
each item until the second line indents where I want it. When I try to
convert this text to a table, I lose the first tab and the hanging indents.
Then, I also can't create hanging indents in the table rows.

When I create this doc in Wordperfect 10 and convert the text to a table, I
keep all the hanging indents. Then, when I pull this doc into Word, I also
keep the hanging indents in the tables. Creating the hanging indents is also
easier and faster (fewer keystrokes or clicks) in Wordperfect. However, if I
convert the doc to Word, I can't figure out how to do more hanging indents in
the table if I decide to do later revisions. I would keep the doc in WP until
I am ready to go with a final version but I still wish I could work with the
hanging indents in Word if I need to.

I'm working with someone who only uses WPerfect and I want to be able to
convert their text list into a table with hanging indents. I seem to be able
to do it in Wordperfect but not in Word unless I do all the formatting in
Wordperfect and then convert the doc to Word.

Help! Any easy way to convert this work so I don't lose the indenting the
original writer does? Also, any easy way to do hanging indents in Word tables?

Thanks.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Well, to begin with, if you're creating hanging indents with tab characters,
you're not actually using hanging indents. To do that, you need to set a
hanging indent in the Format Paragraph dialog or by dragging the Hanging
Indent marker on the ruler (or using Ctrl+T). You can do this in tables as
easily as in regular text. If what you mean is that you have created list
items with graduated left indents, then you can still do this in a table,
too, though it will be easier if you're applying styles that are linked to
an outline-numbered list.

 

[Cathie100]

Thanks, Suzanne, I've investigated outlining in Word and can now see how to
make this work. My writer sets up the doc in Wordperfedt using indents (not
tabs) but no other outline numbering or lettering. He saves the file as RTF
(because otherwise there are problems with apostrophes transferring
correctly).

I retrieve the file in Word and save as Word doc. Then, block the indented
text and apply the outline style I customized to be what I want. Then, block
the outline and apply the "Convert text to table." Then, the outline
transfers perfectly.

My final element is that I also need to create a Powerpoint presentation
from this outline. I found that PPT has a converter so that you can insert a
Word outline into PPT and it converts it into slides. The I, II, III level of
heads convert to slide titles and the lower levels convert to the slide text
bullets. You still have to delete the numbering and lettering but this seems
to work quite well.

This system should save me an enormous amount of time and keystrokes while
still keeping an easy system for my WP writer.

Thanks for sending me in the direction of outlining.