Cannot Use Spaces to Indent a Wrapped Line

ID: Q94241

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 2.0, 2.0a, 2.0a-CD, 2.0b, 2.0c, 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c
Microsoft Word for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SUMMARY

You cannot use spaces to indent a line of text that is wrapped from a previous line. If you insert spaces at the beginning of a wrapped line, the spaces attach themselves to the end of the previous line. If you continue to enter spaces they will run on past the right margin instead of wrapping and appearing at the beginning of the following line.

There are four ways to work around this problem:

1. Use hanging indents.

   Hanging indents allow you to set different indents for the first line of
   a paragraph and its subsequent lines. To use a hanging indent with a
   paragraph, follow these steps:

   a. Highlight the text you want to indent.

   b. From the Format menu, choose Paragraph.

   c. In the Indentation section, enter your desired measurements.

   For example, if you do not want the first line to be indented at all,
   but you want the subsequent lines to be indented by half an inch, enter
   the following measurements:

   Left:  0.5"
   Right:   0"
   First Line: -0.5"

   You can also set indent measurements by dragging the indent markers on
   the ruler.

2. Use nonbreaking spaces.

   Insert nonbreaking spaces at the beginning of the wrapped line. To
   insert nonbreaking spaces, position your insertion point at the
   beginning of the line and press CTRL+SHIFT+SPACEBAR.

   Word treats nonbreaking spaces like printable characters. Unlike regular
   spaces, nonbreaking spaces follow the standard rules regarding text
   wrapping.

3. Enter a hard-carriage return.

   Before entering spaces at the beginning of the line you wish to indent,
   press the ENTER key once. This severs the line you are on from the
   previous line; it is no longer wrapped. Spaces you enter will now push
   the text on the line forward.

4. Use tab characters.

   Instead of entering spaces at the beginning of the line, press TAB to
   insert a tab character instead.

For more information on using hanging indents in Word, see pages 171-174 in the "Microsoft Word User's Guide."

For more information on using nonbreaking spaces in Word, see pages 90-91 in the "Microsoft Word User's Guide."

For more information on how Word wraps text, see page 87 in the "Microsoft Word User's Guide."

KBCategory: kbusage KBSubcategory: kbformat Additional query words: 2.0 2.0a 2.0b 2.0c 2.0a-CD winword word6 6.0a 6.0c 7.0 word95 winword2 wordwrap align spacebar 7.0a word97 word7

Keywords          : kbformat 
Version           : 1.x 6.0 6.0a 6.0c 7.0 7.0a
Platform          : WINDOWS

Last Reviewed: February 6, 1998