The indentation varies, depending on what documentation style you are following. Another use of indentation is in outlining, in which each subordinate entry is indented under its major entry. A long quotation may be indented in a manuscript instead of being enclosed in quotation marks.

'The most common use of indentation is at the beginning of a paragraph, where the first line is usually indented five spaces.

You indent at the beginning of a paragraph to signal, 'Hey, Reader! I'm shifting gears now.' All of the ideas in this paragraph are about the same main thing. The indent-a nice big indent of at least half an inch-also makes things easier on the reader's eyes.' (Gloria Levine, The Princeton Review Roadmap to the Virginia SOL.

'The whole idea of a paragraph is to make things easier for the reader.

Next to 'Special,' click the drop-down and choose 'Hanging. Click the up or down arrows next to By to adjust the depth of the indent. In the Indentation section of the Paragraph pop-up window, click the drop-down next to Special, and select Hanging from the list. In Word on the web, click 'Paragraph Options' in the drop-down.ĥ.

If you're using Word on the web, click the More Options icon of three horizontal dots at the far-right of the ribbon, and select Paragraph Options. In Word on a PC, click the small icon in the bottom-right corner of the 'Paragraph' section.

If you're using Word on a PC, click the arrow icon in the bottom-right corner of the Paragraph section, and in the pop-up window, go to the Indents and Spacing tab.

First line indent in word