Deleting Tab Stops

There may be times when you don't want to clear all the tab stops in your document—you only want to clear a few of them. To clear individual tab stops for a paragraph, follow these steps:

1. Make sure the insertion point is in the paragraph whose tabs you wish to clear.
2. Display the Tabs dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.) In Word 2007 display the Home tab of the ribbon, click the small icon at the bottom-right of the Paragraph group, then click Tabs. In older versions of Word click Format | Tabs.
3. In the tab list below the Tab Stop Position box, select the tab stop you want to clear.
4. Click on Clear.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each tab stop you want to clear.
6. Click on OK.

If you have the ruler displayed on-screen, then you can also delete tabs by following these steps:

1. Make sure the insertion point is in the paragraph whose tabs you wish to clear.
2. Use the horizontal scroll bar to scroll left or right until you can see the offending tab on the ruler.
3. On the ruler, click on the tab indicator and drag it off the ruler. When you release the mouse button, the tab should disappear from the ruler.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each tab stop you wish to clear.