
Tips.Net > WordTips Home > Formatting > Paragraph Formatting > Adding Tabs at the Beginning of a Line
Summary: Press Tab at the beginning of a line, and chances are good that Word will simply indent the paragraph rather than inserting an actual tab character. This tip explains how you can insert a real tab character, as well as how to configure Word so it doesn’t indent paragraphs when you press Tab. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, and Word 2003.)
One of the annoying features of Word is that the program assumes that if you press the Tab key at the beginning of a line, you want to indent the line. The program then proceeds to adjust the left margin by the distance of a normal tab stop. While this can be helpful in some circumstances, I can think of many times when I really want the tab character inserted in the document instead of adjusting margin information.
If you want to make sure that Word inserts a tab character, simply press Ctrl+Tab. This will work any time in Word, but is of the most use at the beginning of lines. As an alternative, you can turn off the indent feature completely by following these steps in Word 97 and Word 2000:
If you are using Word 2002 or Word 2003, then you need to follow these steps:
Tip #1075 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
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