Paragraph formatting can be thought of as encompassing two concepts:

• Structural formatting—Attributes that affect the overall structure of the text, such as alignment, indentation, tabs, etc.
• Decorative formatting—Attributes that affect the interior appearance of the text, such as shading, borders, numbering, and bullets

This section deals with structural formatting. Decorative formatting is detailed in the section that follows.

Indentation
Indentation typically is used for automatically indenting the first line of paragraphs, block indenting quotes, and setting up hanging indentation for bulleted or numbered text. Preset indentation can be set using the Decrease Indent and Increase Indent controls in the Paragraph group of the Home tab on the Ribbon.

When this setting is enabled, the Tab and Backspace (also Shift+Tab, if you prefer symmetry) work as advertised, but only when the paragraph is not empty, and only if the insertion point is as far left as it can go (in any line in the paragraph). If the insertion point is anywhere else, then the keys have their normal effects. Note that the first press of the Tab key (if the insertion point is at the beginning of the paragraph) indents only the first line of the paragraph. Subsequent presses indent the entire paragraph.

Special rules apply for the Backspace key. Backspace decreases the indent only when an indentation is actually set. If there is a negative indent and a first-line or hanging indent, the first press of Backspace removes the hanging or first-line indent. If there is a negative indent and no hanging/first-line indent, then Backspace resets the indent to 0.

This is all potentially confusing enough that you might want to turn the setting off. In any case, if you turn it on, watch the ruler and the text when you press Tab or Backspace. One last thing: To insert an actual tab at the beginning of a paragraph when this setting is enabled, press Shift+Tab. This is also how you insert a tab into a table.

More precise indentation can be set using the Indent Left and Right settings controls in the Page Layout tab of the Ribbon. First-line indent or hanging indent typically are set using the mouse drag controls on the horizontal ruler, as shown in Figure 6-6.

If you press the Alt key while manipulating the ruler’s indent controls, Word displays the measurement, allowing for more informed positioning.

Depending on your mouse’s resolution, however, you might sometimes need to use the Paragraph dialog box’s Special settings, shown in Figure 6-7. Here, the settings are identical to those shown in Figure 6-6.

Mirror Indents
Word 2007 isn’t all just a flashy new interface. Keen observers who’ve used Word 2003 or earlier versions no doubt notice the Mirror Indents addition to the Paragraph dialog box. When enabled, left and right become Inside and Outside, as shown in Figure 6-8. This enables your indent settings to accommodate book style printing. Note that this is different from Mirror Margins, which is a Page Setup setting discussed in Chapter 8, “Page Setup and Sections.”

Alignment
Horizontal alignment determines how any given paragraph is oriented. The four options are Left, Right, Centered, and Justified. Settings can be made using the respective controls in the Paragraph group in the Home tab of the Ribbon. They can also be made using the four Alignment options in the Paragraph dialog box. And finally, they can be set using Ctrl+L, Ctrl+R, Ctrl+E (don’t ask), and Ctrl+J. How Ctrl+E ever came to mean “center” is a mystery to me, but it seems to mean “center” in a wide variety of Windows programs. Maybe it’s because it contains two e’s.

Tabs
Tab is largely passé for many modern computer users. That’s because better control can be effected using tables. Ever wonder about why we call them tabs and tables? We call them tabs because that’s short for tabulation.

And we call them tables for the same reason. (If you want the exact etymology, try the Oxford English Dictionary [OED].) By default, a new document doesn’t have any explicit tabs set. However, when no explicit tabs are set, Word uses default preset tabs every .5″. When you set a tab, all of the built-in preset tabs to the left of the one you set are removed, leaving the manually inserted tab and all remaining preset tabs to the right.

Tabs can be set using the horizontal ruler line or the Tabs dialog box. Using the ruler line, you first determine the type of tab by clicking the tab control at the left end of the ruler. As indicated earlier, this control cycles not only among Word’s built-in five tabs, but among first and hanging indent controls as well. The five built-in tab types are shown in Figure 6-9. When the desired tab type is displayed, click the lower portion of the ruler (below the 1?8-inch notches) to set the desired tab(s). You can drag them for better placement; holding the Alt key while dragging shows you the exact location.

To remove a tab using the ruler, simply drag it down and away from the ruler until the mouse pointer is no longer in the ruler area.

If you prefer the steadiness and precision of being able to type the settings you want, use the Tabs dialog box, shown in Figure 6-10. Activate the Tabs dialog box by choosing Tabs from the Paragraph dialog box, or by double-clicking any existing tab in the ruler line.

Notice that the Tab dialog box also lets you set tab leaders, typically used to help the reader visually line up text and numbers. Tab leaders often are used in tables of contents and indexes, such as the one shown in Figure 6-11.

Tabs versus tables
If you can use tabs, and you can use tables, when should you use which? Years of using Word has convinced me that pseudo tables, as I like to call tables that are created using tabs, are a lot more fragile than actual tables. They’re also a lot less flexible.

Even so, there are times when tabs give you precisely what you want, and in a way that a table either can’t or can’t without jumping through hoops. If you want tab leader lines, while there are other ways to accomplish the same effect, it’s almost always faster and easier to use tab leaders.

If you need to create an underscored area for a signature or other fill-in information on a paper form, the solid tab leader line is definitely the way to go, even though you could draw lines where you want them instead (holding down the Shift key to keep it horizontal, of course). However, graphical lines have a way of not always staying where you put them, so you’ll usually find that it’s much more efficient and predictable to just use a leader line.

Incidentally, using a table, you can create a fill-in area that looks identical to that one. Create a table with one row. Size it so that Name is a narrower column and the second column ends where you want the fill-in area to end. Next, use the Borders tool to turn off all borders in the table. Finally, use the Bottom Border tool to turn on just the bottom border in the second column’s cell. For me, however, this is a lot more work just to prove a point.

Another situation when tabs give you what you want is with simple document headers. The default header for Word 2007 documents contains a center tab and a right-align tab. This enables you to easily create a header with text to the left, centered text, and right-aligned text, simply by separating those three components with tabs. Tabs also can be useful inside actual tables for aligning numbers at the decimal point.

(As noted earlier, to insert a tab inside a table, press Ctrl+Tab.) However, for more complex presentations of information, particularly when you might need organizational control (copying and moving rows and columns), it’s much better and much more natural to use a table.

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