WD: How to Create an F4/F7 Hanging Indent Paragraph in Word (149944)

SUMMARY

This article describes how to create a hanging indent (often described as an "F4 indent" or "F7 indent" by WordPerfect users). A hanging indent is a paragraph that has a little text at the left, and the rest of the paragraph is indented, as in the following example:

 1. <TAB>  text text text text text text text text text text text text
           text text text text text text text text text text

 Education: <TAB> text text text text text text text text text text text
                  text text text text text text text text text text text
                  text text

In Microsoft Word 6.x and 7.x, Help for WordPerfect Users indicates that you cannot indent a single line of a paragraph in Microsoft Word, and that a hanging indent is created by pressing CTRL+M (Windows) or COMMAND+M (Macintosh). This is incorrect.

Actually, you can create a hanging indent by pressing CTRL+T (Windows) or COMMAND+T (Macintosh).

The "More Information" section below includes the following parts:

Apply This Formatting Now
Customizing a Hanging Indent
Tips
Formatting Methods to Avoid

MORE INFORMATION

Apply This Formatting Now

If you have already applied paragraph formatting to your text, remove it by selecting the paragraphs and pressing CTRL+Q (Windows) or OPTION+COMMAND+Q (Macintosh). Then use any of the following methods:

If you want numbers to appear at the left of your text, use the automatic numbering feature in Word. Select the text and click the Numbering button on the Formatting toolbar. If you already had numbers applied to some or all of your text, Word may remove them. Click the Numbering button again to make the numbers come back.
If you want bullets to appear at the beginning of each paragraph, use the same method as above, but click the Bullets button instead.
If you have different text that you want to use along the left margin, select all the paragraphs, and press CTRL+T (Windows) or COMMAND+T (Macintosh). Then press the TAB key after the left-most text at the beginning of each line. This method is described in greater detail below.

Customizing a Hanging Indent

If the default settings aren't in the right place for your document, you can customize where the bulk of the text lines up. You can do this with the mouse and the ruler, or with the Format menus.

With the Mouse and Ruler:

In a sample paragraph, press CTRL+Q (Windows) or OPTION+COMMAND+Q (Macintosh).
Move the mouse to the ruler. Drag the bottom triangle and square to where you want the text to line up.
Between the text at the left and the rest of the paragraph, press the TAB key.

With the Format Menus:

On the Format menu, click Paragraph.
Select the Indents and Spacing tab.
In the Special box (under Indentation), click Hanging. In the By box, type the amount you want the text to move from the left margin and then click OK.
Move the insertion point between the text on the left, and press the TAB key.

Tips

If the paragraph already has custom tabs, when you press CTRL+T, the second and subsequent lines move to the first tab stop.
If you indent too many times and want to go back one tab stop, press CTRL+SHIFT+T (Windows) or COMMAND+SHIFT+T (Macintosh).

Formatting Methods to Avoid

Do not use spaces to line up text. Using multiple spaces causes text to wrap at odd points.
If you have more than one line of text that you want to appear at the left, don't use a hanging indent. A hanging indent only allows one line to appear by itself on the left. A table is better suited for this task; to create a table, click Insert Table on the Table menu.

Example of a Table

   Educational         text text text text text text text text text text
   Background          text text text text text text text text text text
                       text text text text text text