[Ronald Mason]

I am using Word 2003

When I select a paragraph and set right and left tabs nothing happens.
If I correctly understand Word Help, the paragraph should change to
the tab stops.

What am I missing?

Thanks

[Jay Freedman]

On Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:07:29 -0600, Ronald Mason
wrote:

I am using Word 2003

When I select a paragraph and set right and left tabs nothing happens.
If I correctly understand Word Help, the paragraph should change to
the tab stops.

What am I missing?

Thanks

You're misunderstanding the purpose of tabs (more correctly, "tab
stops"). If you want to affect the distance between the document
margins and the edges of the current paragraph, you should be setting
the paragraph's indents, not its tab stops.

Here's a discussion of tabs:
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Format...ettingTabs.htm

Indents are explained he
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/UsingRulers.htm

Finally, if this is something you do often, you should be using styles
instead of direct formatting. There's a built-in style called Block
Text that has a 1" indent on both left and right, which might be the
effect you were looking for.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit.

[CyberTaz]

Tab settings only come into play if you press the Tab key. When you press
Tab the insertion point moves to the next available Tab setting on the line.
IOW, just setting tab "stops" doesn't automatically separate the text.
--
HTH |:)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

"Ronald Mason" wrote in message
...
I am using Word 2003

When I select a paragraph and set right and left tabs nothing happens.
If I correctly understand Word Help, the paragraph should change to
the tab stops.

What am I missing?

Thanks

[Ronald Mason]

I am using Word 2003

When I select a paragraph and set right and left tabs nothing happens.
If I correctly understand Word Help, the paragraph should change to
the tab stops.

What am I missing?

Thanks

You're misunderstanding the purpose of tabs (more correctly, "tab
stops"). If you want to affect the distance between the document
margins and the edges of the current paragraph, you should be setting
the paragraph's indents, not its tab stops.

Sorry, I should have been more explicit. I do use indents (or is it
styles?) for that purpose.

For example, I want to type a paragraph that is two inches from the
left and right edges of the paper. All other text will have a margin
of one inch. Seems to me it would be more efficient to set desired tab
stops for the one paragraph, type the text, and then finish typing the
remainder of the document using the previously set one inch margins.

Thanks for your response

[Ronald Mason]

On Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:25:29 -0500, "CyberTaz"
typegeneraltaz1ATcomcastdotnet wrote:

Tab settings only come into play if you press the Tab key. When you press
Tab the insertion point moves to the next available Tab setting on the line.
IOW, just setting tab "stops" doesn't automatically separate the text.

Thanks for the response, Bob

Below is a quote from Word 2003 Help:

"Select the paragraph in which you want to set a tab stop.
Do one of the following:

To set tabs

Click Left Tab at the far left of the horizontal ruler until it
changes to the type of tab you want: Left Tab , Right Tab , Center Tab
, Decimal Tab , or Bar Tab .

Click the horizontal ruler where you want to set a tab stop."

This is what I did to an existing paragraph. I did hit the Tab key
after setting the Tab stops - the paragraph was deleted because it was
selected, I assume.

The unquoted second part of the instructions refer to setting tabs
with leader characters, which I am not trying to do.

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

FWIW, you don't have to have the paragraph selected when setting tabs. The
only reason for a selection is to set tabs for more than one paragraph.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

"Ronald Mason" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:25:29 -0500, "CyberTaz"
typegeneraltaz1ATcomcastdotnet wrote:

Tab settings only come into play if you press the Tab key. When you press
Tab the insertion point moves to the next available Tab setting on the
line.
IOW, just setting tab "stops" doesn't automatically separate the text.

Thanks for the response, Bob

Below is a quote from Word 2003 Help:

"Select the paragraph in which you want to set a tab stop.
Do one of the following:

To set tabs

Click Left Tab at the far left of the horizontal ruler until it
changes to the type of tab you want: Left Tab , Right Tab , Center Tab
, Decimal Tab , or Bar Tab .

Click the horizontal ruler where you want to set a tab stop."

This is what I did to an existing paragraph. I did hit the Tab key
after setting the Tab stops - the paragraph was deleted because it was
selected, I assume.

The unquoted second part of the instructions refer to setting tabs
with leader characters, which I am not trying to do.

[Jay Freedman]

Ronald Mason wrote:
I am using Word 2003

When I select a paragraph and set right and left tabs nothing
happens. If I correctly understand Word Help, the paragraph should
change to the tab stops.

What am I missing?

Thanks

You're misunderstanding the purpose of tabs (more correctly, "tab
stops"). If you want to affect the distance between the document
margins and the edges of the current paragraph, you should be setting
the paragraph's indents, not its tab stops.

Sorry, I should have been more explicit. I do use indents (or is it
styles?) for that purpose.

For example, I want to type a paragraph that is two inches from the
left and right edges of the paper. All other text will have a margin
of one inch. Seems to me it would be more efficient to set desired tab
stops for the one paragraph, type the text, and then finish typing the
remainder of the document using the previously set one inch margins.

Thanks for your response

I don't know what you mean by "more efficient" -- something that doesn't
work because it wasn't meant for that purpose won't be efficient at all. I
repeat, setting tab stops has no effect on the distance from the margins to
the text boundaries. Setting left and right indents does have that effect.

You can set indents directly for one or a few paragraphs, or you can include
them in a style definition and apply that style to particular paragraphs.

Did you look at either of the articles I mentioned? Here are the links
again:

Here's a discussion of tabs:
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Format...ettingTabs.htm

Indents are explained he
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/UsingRulers.htm

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

[Stefan Blom]

FWIW, indents, as well as tab stops, do transfer to the new paragraph added
when pressing Enter.

But note that for an efficient approach, you should be using a style with
left and right indents specified, for example, the built-in Block Text
style (already suggested by Jay earlier in this thread).

Note that you can change the default indents of 1" (2.54 cm), if you find
them excessive, as I do.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


"Ronald Mason" wrote in message
...

I am using Word 2003

When I select a paragraph and set right and left tabs nothing happens.
If I correctly understand Word Help, the paragraph should change to
the tab stops.

What am I missing?

Thanks

You're misunderstanding the purpose of tabs (more correctly, "tab
stops"). If you want to affect the distance between the document
margins and the edges of the current paragraph, you should be setting
the paragraph's indents, not its tab stops.

Sorry, I should have been more explicit. I do use indents (or is it
styles?) for that purpose.

For example, I want to type a paragraph that is two inches from the
left and right edges of the paper. All other text will have a margin
of one inch. Seems to me it would be more efficient to set desired tab
stops for the one paragraph, type the text, and then finish typing the
remainder of the document using the previously set one inch margins.

Thanks for your response