Tabs and hanging indents

[Michael A. Burstein]

There's probably an answer to this in help or in the manual, but I
can't find it.

It used to be, in Word 5, that when I indented a paragraph, I just hit
the TAB key. That created the indent.

Now, when I do that, Word automatically and "helpfully" moves the
indent in the ruler, so every time I hit return for a new paragraph,
the new paragraph is automatically indented.

The problem is that I don't want it to do that. For example, if I
copy the document into an email, all my paragraph indents disappear
because they don't exist as TABs in the first place. They're
automatically indented.

Could someone please tell me how to turn this feature off for good, so
it doesn't keep reappearing in odd ways? I just want it gone.

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

What I think is happening:
Unless you have changed it, all of your text is in the Normal style by
default in a new doc. Sometimes Word will helpfully update the style
according to the manual formatting you apply.

A couple of things.

Under Tools | AutoCorrect, AutoFormat as you Type tab, uncheck most of the
options, especially any you don't understand, and especially "define styles
based on your formatting." (that dialog is the source of most of Word's
"helpful" habits)

Then go to Format | Style. The dialog should come up with the Normal style
already selected. Make sure its definition does not include a tab. If you
need to, click on Modify, check add to template but *not* automatically
update, and use the Format menu at the bottom of the dialog to change the
tab settings.

Hope that helps,
DM

 

[Michael A. Burstein]

This seems to solve the problem partly, but not completely.

Let's say I have a word at the end of the paragraph, but I want to
move it to the start of a new paragraph. So I hit return just before
the word, which moves it to the start of a new line.

Now, if I hit TAB before that word, instead of giving me a TAB, it
still gives me that annoying indent.

On the other hand, if I simply hit return with nothing in front of the
return, and then hit TAB, it keeps the TAB just fine.

Any further suggestions from anyone?

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word]]

Word>Preferences>Edit>Tabs and backspace set left indent.... Turn it OFF.

Cheers


This responds to article <[email protected]>,

This seems to solve the problem partly, but not completely.

Let's say I have a word at the end of the paragraph, but I want to
move it to the start of a new paragraph. So I hit return just before
the word, which moves it to the start of a new line.

Now, if I hit TAB before that word, instead of giving me a TAB, it
still gives me that annoying indent.

On the other hand, if I simply hit return with nothing in front of the
return, and then hit TAB, it keeps the TAB just fine.

Any further suggestions from anyone?

--

Please respond only to the newsgroup to preserve the thread.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Michael A. Burstein]

Thank you! That was the last piece of the puzzle.