Controlling Automatic Indenting

You've done it before—you are typing along, minding your own business, when you press the Tab key at the beginning of a paragraph and notice that everything in the paragraph is automatically indented. If you are like me, you probably scream a bit, and then delete the paragraph and continue typing.

What you have just experienced is the automatic indenting feature in Word. It simply means that Word assumes you want to indent the paragraph if you start it out by pressing the Tab key. So, it dutifully indents for you. If you don't like this feature and want Word to accept your tabs for exactly what they are (tabs), then you need to turn off the feature by following these steps if you are using Word 2007:

1. Click the Office button and then click Word Options. Word displays the Word Options dialog box.
2. At the left side of the dialog box click Proofing.
3. Click AutoCorrect Options button. Word displays the AutoCorrect dialog box.
4. Make sure the AutoFormat As You Type tab is displayed. (Click here to see a related figure.)
5. Make sure the Set Left- and First-Indent with Tabs and Backspace option is cleared.
6. Click OK to dismiss the AutoCorrect dialog box.
7. Click OK to dismiss the Word Options dialog box.

If you are using an older version of Word, follow these steps instead:

1. Choose AutoCorrect Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the AutoCorrect dialog box.
2. Make sure the AutoFormat As You Type tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Make sure the Set Left- and First-Indent with Tabs and Backspace option is cleared.
4. Click on OK.

Now any new tabs that you type are nothing but lowly tabs, and you are back in control of your backspaces.