About Indents

Indenting a paragraph enables text to be set away from the margins to distinguish it from the rest of the text in a letter. Indents can affect the left and right sides of text in a paragraph, as well as the first line of text within a paragraph, as shown in the following example.

The ruler contains three indent markers as shown in the following image. These markers can be moved manually, using your mouse, or via the Paragraph settings window.

First Line Indent marker   This marker indents only the first line of the selected paragraph. This may be set to the left or right of the Left indent marker to create a Hanging indent or an indent. A hanging indent starts the first line to the left of the remaining lines of the paragraph.

Left Indent marker   This marker indents the left margin of the selected paragraph. Dragging this marker moves both the First Line and Left Indent markers together.

Right indent marker    Setting this marker indents the right end of the paragraph from the right margin of the selected paragraph.

Indent settings are also available on the Paragraph window, accessible via Format > Paragraph.

Within the Paragraph window you can set indent settings for both the left and right indents, or one of two 'Special' indent types, 'First Line' or 'Hanging'. A First Line indent will indent only the first line of your selected paragraph. A Hanging indent will indent every select line in the select paragraph except the first line.

Applying Indents

Indenting can either be set before you begin typing, or can be applied to one of more selected paragraphs. Regardless of when you choose to set indenting, it is applied by either manually positioning the indent markers in the ruler, or selecting Format > Paragraph and entering indent measurements in the fields provided on the Paragraph window. Once you have defined indent settings, they will be applied to each paragraph from that point, until you redefine them.