First Line Indent

 
Word Processing

Assignment 10

Now we are going to work with some of the more subtle controls that effect the way our documents look. 

 

Indents

The indents are where a line of typing begins and ends on the page showing on your screen.  The little markers on your ruler at the top of the page control indents.

 

                      

Some of you like to have the first line of a paragraph indented when you type a letter or document.  The marker on top of the ruler at the Left Side controls if the first line of your paragraph is indented or not.  It is called the "First Line Indent."   Note that in the picture above, it is even with the bottom markers.  This indicates that you want paragraphs to be identified by a double space between them, and the first line will not be indented (as is this paragraph.)  If you want the first line of a new paragraph to be indented simply grab the top marker with your cursor and drag it to the 0.5 in. or 1 in. marker.  Note also that the Right Side has no marker on top.  This is because the lines at the end of a paragraph always end at the Right Indent. 

 

Exercise: 

There are a pair of indents on the bottom of your ruler at the Left Side.  The upper of these is called a "Hanging Indent."  The main use for this is when you have bullets, the Hanging Indent controls the space between the bullet and your text.

 

Tabs  By default, Left Aligned Tab Stops, (they automatically align words so that the left side of the word is at the tab and forms a column) are set at 1/2 in. increments between the page margins.  These are not visible on the ruler, but are indicated by small vertical markers at 1/2 in. intervals under the ruler. 

Set your own tabs  You can set tabs wherever you like on your page.  Exercise: 

You can place as many tabs as you like on your page and move them after they are placed to arrange your columns as you like.

 

Delete your Tab  If you decide that you don't want the tab on your ruler any more, grab it with your mouse and drag it straight down off of the ruler onto your page.  It will disappear from the ruler.

 

Margins  Margins determine the space between the edges of the page and your text.  By default, top and bottom margins are set to 1 inch and left and right margins to 1.25 inches.  You can change them to whatever you want for your document.

 

Let's look at the margins on our page.  Go to your drop down text menu at the top of your screen and click on File -> Page SetUp.  Look at the Margins Tab.  Decrease Top and Bottom Margins to 0.7 inch.

 

Note that you can apply margins to "This Page" or the Whole Document."

Insert Page Numbers - Page numbers can be inserted in a multi-page document by selecting "Insert" from the drop down menu.  Make the "Page Numbers" selection and then choose where to place your numbering system.

Headers and Footers -  Headers and Footers allow you to place notes, or logos on every page of a document.  Go to the "View" drop down menu and select "Header and Footer".  This takes you to a page view where you can only edit the Header and Footer areas.  Note that the main part of your text is now grayed out.  To return to your normal Word view, select "View" and then "Print Layout".

 

Zoom  Look for the Zoom Control on your toolbar.  It will look like the window shown below.

                                                                       

The zoom control allows you to look at your page at different magnifications.  For example,  at 100 % you may not be able to see both sides of your page at the same time, and find this somewhat annoying.  You can force the screen to show you the entire page by changing the zoom control to 75%.  This is a comfortable magnification for normal use.  The zoom control has no effect on how your document prints.  It is only for controlling how you see it on your screen.

 

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