10 Minute Guide to Word for Windows 95

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Setting Tabs

In this lesson, you'll learn how to use and set tabs.

What Are Tabs?

Tabs provide a way for you to control the indentation and vertical alignment of text in your document. When you press the Tab key, Word inserts a tab in the document, which moves the cursor (and any text to the right of it) to the next tab stop. By default, Word has tab stops at 0.5-inch intervals across the width of the page. You can modify the location of tab stops and control the way that text aligns at a tab stop.

Types of Tab Stops

There are four types of tab stops; each aligns text differently:


Figure 13.1 illustrates the effects of the four tab alignment options. This figure also shows the four different symbols that are displayed on the ruler to indicate the position of tab stops.

Figure 13.1
The four tab stop alignment options.

Changing the Default Tab Stops

You cannot delete the default tab stops, but you can change the spacing between them. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Select Format Tabs to display the Tabs dialog box.

2. In the Default Tab Stops box, click the up or down arrow to increase or decrease the spacing between default tab stops.

3. Select OK.

The default tab stop spacing affects the entire document.


Timesaaver Tip: Good-bye Tab To effectively "delete" the default tab stops, set the spacing between them to a value larger than the page width.

Creating Custom Tab Stops

If the default tab stops are not suited to your needs, you can add custom tab stops.

1. Select the paragraphs that will have custom tabs. If no text is selected, the new tabs will affect text that you type at the insertion point.

2. Click the tab symbol at the left end of the ruler until it displays the symbol for the type of tab you want to insert (see Figure 13.1).

3. Point at the approximate tab stop location on the ruler, and press and hold the left mouse button. A dashed vertical line will extend down through the document showing the tab stop position relative to your text.

4. Move the mouse left or right until the tab stop is at the desired location.

5. Release the mouse button.


Timesaver Tip: If your Ruler is not displayed, select View, Ruler.

When you add a custom tab stop, all of the default tab stops to the left are temporarily inactivated. This ensures that the custom tab stop will take precedence. Custom tab stops' symbols are displayed on the ruler for the paragraph containing the insertion point.

Moving and Deleting Custom Tab Stops

Follow these steps to move a custom tab stop to a new position:

1. Point at the tab stop symbol on the ruler.

2. Press and hold the left mouse button.

3. Drag the tab stop to the new position.

4. Release the mouse button.

To delete a custom tab stop, follow the same steps, but, in step 3, drag the tab stop symbol off the Ruler, then release the mouse button.

Using Tab Leader Characters

A tab leader character is a character displayed in the blank space to the left of text that has been positioned using a tab. Typically, periods or hyphens are used for leader characters to create effects such as that shown in Figure 13.2. This menu was created by setting a decimal align tab stop with a dot leader character at the 5.25" position. To change the leader character for a custom tab stop:

1. Point at the tab stop symbol on the Ruler and double-click. Word displays the Tabs dialog box.

2. Under Leader, select the desired leader character.

3. Select OK.

In this lesson, you learned how to set and use tabs. The next lesson shows you how to indent and justify text.

Figure 13.2.
Using tabs with a leader character.


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