Adding Tabs at the Beginning of a Line

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:

1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. This displays the Options dialog box.
2. Click on the Edit tab. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Make sure that the Tabs and Backspace Set Left Indent check box is not selected.
4. Click on OK.

If you are using Word 2002 or Word 2003, then you need to follow these steps:

1. Choose AutoCorrect Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the AutoCorrect dialog box.
2. Click on the AutoFormat As You Type tab. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Make sure that the Set Left- and First-Indent with Tabs and Backspaces check box is not selected.
4. Click on OK.