How to indent the first line in word

What is a first-line indent?

The first-line indent is as it sounds; the first line of a paragraph is slightly indented in comparison to the remainder of the text in the paragraph.

Adding the first-line indent makes it easy for your reader to identify where a new paragraph or topic starts. They are not ‘required’ but are commonly used in Microsoft Word Documents to provide readers with a user-friendly layout.

There are two ways to insert the first-line indent, manually, by pressing ‘Tab’. Using the Tab button to insert an indent will move your text to the right by 1/2 and inch.

If you are looking to customise or change the size of your first-line indent, continue reading the steps below.

Adding or Changing the first-line indent in Word

1. Open Word
2. Place your cursor where you would like the insert or edit the first-line indent
3. Right Click
4. Click Paragraph

1. Select First Line under ‘Special’

1. Customise the indentation you would like on the first line

You have now successfully inserted and customised the first line indent in your Microsoft Word Document.

Need a simple solution to your collaboration problems?

Collaborating together in a Microsoft Word document is something most of us will do during our working careers. Some more than others, some may even collaborate daily, which is why collaborating with ease is so important.

When it’s your turn to review and edit a shared Word Document you usually received an email in your inbox ‘for your review’, you open the email, click the attachment and a Word Document pops up.

You start reading the text, making some edits, add a few comments and then press save.

Where do you save the document? Does this live deep in your company shared drive somewhere, under Client>2020>reports>Q3Report>Draft>Final? Your guess is as good as anyone else’s, so you save it here hoping that’s the right spot and move on.

Without realising it you have accidentally saved your find in the wrong spot, making it near impossible to source later. You also forgot to turn on tracked changes when you made your edits (don’t worry, you’re not alone, most of us do this monthly). With no tracked changes, there is no way of knowing what edits you made, to then re-do them or highlight them for your manager. So you are forced to start all over again.

It’s painful and time-consuming and happens to the majority of people collaborating in Word.

Luckily, there are some new purpose built tools on the market that were built with seamless collaboration in mind. Tools such as Simul Docs.

Simul Docs was built to ensure you never forget to turn on tracked changes again, in fact, Simul will track your changes automatically. Open a document, start making changes and Simul will begin tracking them. It sounds simple, and it is, but it is something that makes a huge difference when collaborating in Word.

Not sure where to save your document?

Simul has you covered.

Simul will keep track of every, single version your team creates. If the document is opened and a change made, Simul will automatically save this as a new version. Because, if there are new edits or changes you probably don’t want to miss them.

Automatically saving new versions is one thing, but Simul thought they would take it one step further, just to make sure you never have to stress about where your files are again. Simul manages version control on your behalf. When a new version is created, Simul will save it and give it a new version number such as 0.0.2 or 0.0.3, depending on how many versions of the document currently exist.

As your team continues collaborating, Simul will continue saving and managing your version control. Keeping track of every change and every file, while storing them neatly in a Versions List for you to review at any time.

If you want to pull a document out of Simul and save it or forward it on in an email, no worries, you can do that directly from Simul as well.

Simul allows you to access your documents from anywhere, anytime. without the need for shared drive or server access. If you have an internet connection (or not, because Simul is happy for you to work offline too), you can access all of your files.

Is there honestly anything Simul Docs can’t do?

We haven’t found it yet.

• Students
• Staff
• Schools & services
• Sussex Direct
• Canvas

Microsoft Word 2016

One method is:

1. Select the paragraph to be indented;
2. From the Home tab, Paragraph group, click on the Increase Indent button - this will indent the paragraph on the left by 1.27 cm
   Every time you click this button the paragraph will be indented by a further 1.27 cms.

There is an alternative method:

1. Select the paragraph to be indented;
2. From the Home tab, Paragraph group, select the dialog box launcher;
3. Check that the Indents and Spacing tab is selected;
4. In the Indentation section set the indent value you require.

Please suggest an improvement
(login needed, link opens in new window)

Your views are welcome and will help other readers of this page.

This is question number 293, which appears in the following categories:

/en/word/using-find-and-replace/content/

Introduction

Indenting text adds structure to your document by allowing you to separate information. Whether you'd like to move a single line or an entire paragraph, you can use the tab selector and the horizontal ruler to set tabs and indents.

Optional: Download our practice document.

Watch the video below to learn more about how to use indents and tabs in Word.

In many types of documents, you may want to indent only the first line of each paragraph. This helps to visually separate paragraphs from one another.

It's also possible to indent every line except for the first line, which is known as a hanging indent.

To indent using the Tab key:

A quick way to indent is to use the Tab key. This will create a first-line indent of 1/2 inch.

1. Place the insertion point at the very beginning of the paragraph you want to indent.
   

2. Press the Tab key. On the Ruler, you should see the first-line indent marker move to the right by 1/2 inch.
3. The first line of the paragraph will be indented.
   

If you can't see the Ruler, select the View tab, then click the checkbox next to the Ruler.

Indent markers

In some cases, you may want to have more control over indents. Word provides indent markers that allow you to indent paragraphs to the location you want.

The indent markers are located to the left of the horizontal ruler, and they provide several indenting options:

• First-line indent marker
  
  adjusts the first-line indent
• Hanging indent marker
  
  adjusts the hanging indent
• Left indent marker
  
  moves both the first-line indent and hanging indent markers at the same time (indenting all lines in a paragraph)

To indent using the indent markers:

1. Place the insertion point anywhere in the paragraph you want to indent, or select one or more paragraphs.
   

2. Click and drag the desired indent marker. In our example, we'll click and drag the left indent marker.
   

3. Release the mouse. The paragraphs will be indented.
   

To indent using the Indent commands:

If you want to indent multiple lines of text or all lines of a paragraph, you can use the Indent commands. The Indent commands will adjust the indent by 1/2-inch increments.

1. Select the text you want to indent.
   

2. On the Home tab, click the Increase Indent or Decrease Indent command.
   

3. The text will indent.
   

To customize the indent amounts, select the Layout tab near the desired values in the boxes under Indent.

Tabs

Using tabs gives you more control over the placement of text. By default, every time you press the Tab key, the insertion point will move 1/2 inch to the right. Adding tab stops to the Ruler allows you to change the size of the tabs, and Word even allows you to apply more than one tab stop to a single line. For example, on a resume you could left-align the beginning of a line and right-align the end of the line by adding a Right Tab, as shown in the image below.

Pressing the Tab key can either add a tab or create a first-line indent, depending on where the insertion point is. Generally, if the insertion point is at the beginning of an existing paragraph, it will create a first-line indent; otherwise, it will create a tab.

The tab selector

The tab selector is located above the vertical ruler on the left. Hover the mouse over the tab selector to see the name of the active tab stop.

Types of tab stops:

• Left Tab
  
  left-aligns the text at the tab stop
• Center Tab
  
  centers the text around the tab stop
• Right Tab
  
  right-aligns the text at the tab stop
• Decimal Tab
  
  aligns decimal numbers using the decimal point
• Bar Tab
  
  draws a vertical line on the document
• First Line Indent
  
  inserts the indent marker on the Ruler and indents the first line of text in a paragraph
• Hanging Indent
  
  inserts the hanging indent marker and indents all lines other than the first line

Although Bar Tab, First Line Indent, and Hanging Indent appear on the tab selector, they're not technically tabs.

To add tab stops:

1. Select the paragraph or paragraphs you want to add tab stops to. If you don't select any paragraphs, the tab stops will apply to the current paragraph and any new paragraphs you type below it.
   

2. Click the tab selector until the tab stop you want to use appears. In our example, we'll select Right Tab.
   

3. Click the location on the horizontal ruler where you want your text to appear (it helps to click the bottom edge of the Ruler). You can add as many tab stops as you want.
   

4. Place the insertion point in front of the text you want to tab, then press the Tab key. The text will jump to the next tab stop. In our example, we will move each date range to the tab stop we created.
   

Removing tab stops

It's a good idea to remove any tab stops you aren't using so they don't get in the way. To remove a tab stop, first select all of the text that uses the tab stop. Then click and drag it off of the Ruler.

Word can also display hidden formatting symbols such as spaces (

Challenge!

1. Open our practice document.
2. Use the Tab key to indent the beginning of each paragraph in the body of the cover letter. These start with I am exceedingly interested, While working toward, and Enclosed is a copy.
3. When you're finished, the first page should look like this:
   

4. Scroll to page 2.
5. Select all of the text below Training & Education on page 2.
6. Place a right tab at the 6" (15.25 cm) mark.
7. Insert your cursor before each date range, then press the Tab key. These dates include 2008, 1997-2001, and 1995-1997.
8. Select each job description under the Experience section, and move the left indent to the 0.25" (50 mm) mark.
9. When you're finished, page 2 should look something like this:
   

/en/word/line-and-paragraph-spacing/content/