Press Ctrl + A on your keyboard to select your entire document or select the portion of your document to which you want to apply the tab.Skip to step 3 if your ruler is already visible. However, that process is less user-friendly than the ruler method, so it will be presented in a separate, advanced tutorial. You can also create and adjust tabs using the Tabs dialog box. OK button How to Create, Change, and Delete Tabs on Word’s Ruler Select the OK button to close the Tabs dialog box.įigure 5.Alternatively, you can type a new number directly into the text box. Use the increment arrows to adjust the default tab stop in the Tabs dialog box.Select the Tabs button in the Paragraph dialog box.Select the dialog box launcher in the Paragraph group.įigure 2.(Technically, this is not a tab it is for formatting multi-column lists.) The bar tab creates a vertical line at the tab stop.The decimal tab aligns text based on the first decimal placed on the tab stop.The right tab places right-aligned text to the left of the tab stop.The center tab centers text on the tab stop.The left tab places left-aligned text to the right of the tab stop.See “ Three Ways to Indent Paragraphs in Microsoft Word” for more information.īefore starting the tutorial, let’s look at the different types of tab stops you can use in Word. Important Note: Although tabs can be used to indent paragraphs, Word’s built-in indent options are more efficient and reliable for longer documents.

This tutorial shows (1) how to change Word’s default tab and (2) how to create, change, and delete tabs in Word on the ruler. Tabs can be used to indent paragraphs, but they can also be used for other purposes including creating single- and multi-column lists. When you press the Tab key while working in Microsoft Word, your cursor moves to a specific location called a tab stop.

Word turn on tab ruler