Look up "hanging indent" in Help. That's the name of the feature you want.

One way: Type your numbers and para, select the para, hover over the
three-piece hourglass on the ruler until the screen tip tells you that you
are on the "hanging indent", drag it to the place you want the text indented
to. This is nearly impossible to describe online--Help has illustrations so
go there first if you do not understand.

Then click on the ruler to set a tab where you want the "a", and it will
leap back--what happened here is that setting the hanging indent has wiped
out the default tab stops so you have to replace it. Using the Format |
Tabs dialog may be easier for you, see this link on that:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/SettingTabs.htm

See also, for general purposes:

How Word differs from WordPerfect
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...ordPerfect.htm

Some Tips and "Gotchas" for those who are new to Word
Especially if migrating from WordPerfect
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...AndGotchas.htm

Is There Life After "Reveal Codes"?
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RevealCodes.htm

WordPerfect to Word converters (and why none of them are perfect)
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...Converters.htm



On 2/4/05 11:03 AM, " wrote:

Can anyone answer my question?

This is a very, very simple, routine typing thing I'm trying to do. In
WordPerfect, you do it by pressing F7. That's it. In the typewriter
days, you did it by returning the carriage to the place where you
wanted the indent.

I appreciate your suggestions but you refer me to entire families of
web pages, containing thousands of words, which explain how to do all
kinds of things I'm not interested in. As can be seen from my query, I
don't want to create a standard number list. I don't want to create
"Styles" that will always apply -- in fact, just the opposite. I want
to be able to type a paragraph with two indents -- with only the text,
and not the headings themselves, being indented.

This is a simple question. Can anyone guide me, step by step, on how
to do this (and only this) one thing? (Sorry for sounding exasperated
but I've been reading those pages you referred me to.) Thanks.


--
Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
Word FAQ: http://www.word.mvps.org/
MacWord Tips: http://www.word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/
What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/