The practice of indenting the first line of a paragraph is a common form of fiction and scholarly essays to do hanging indent on word.
In contrast, it is common with outdated, bibliographic references, and other references.
This is also the default setting for built-in or numbered lists. Here’s how to create a hanging indent correctly.
In word processing applications, if you see a paragraph that has all the lines but the first line is indented, that is what hanging indent is called. This feature “Hanging Indent” is also called a “Hanging Paragraph.”
This Hanging Indent feature is alternatively referred to as a negative indent. This feature is an indent that indents all the text except the text on the first line of the paragraph.
Many article writers, blog writers, content writers, and researchers use this hanging indent feature in their paragraphs to give their paragraphs a classic and good look. This feature has often used in a bibliography.
Most of you guys are probably familiar with the practice of applying this hanging indent feature by indenting the very first line of the first paragraph within the text. It has been a common style for fiction and academic paper-making.
The opposite of this feature, outdenting is found to be very common with bibliographical references and other document making. AmazeInvent
This comes as a default setting when you are writing something on bulleted or numbered list paragraphs. In this article, I will be describing for you the way how you can create a hanging indent correctly and successfully.
How to Set Up a Hanging Indent?
I will be sharing with you all the basic steps you should apply to set up a hanging indent.
- First of all, you need to open the document file you have to edit. Select the paragraph you want to have this feature of hanging indent applied on. Select “Home” on the ribbon.
- Then, in the Paragraph group, you will need to select the dialog box launcher.
- The Paragraph dialog box will open up for you, and in that Paragraph dialog box, select the tab which says “Indent and Spacing.”
- After clicking this “Indent and Spacing” tab you will see the Indentation section, select the “Special” menu and it will drop down for you some options, locate and choose “Hanging.”
- Just beside the “Special” dropdown menu, you will see an option saying “By”. Under this “By” option, you have to enter a positive value using the quarter-inch percentage increase.
- After you put the value under the “By” option, to see how your text will look and to have an idea of the value you put is accurate or not, the Preview section at the bottom of this dialog box will show you a testing example.
- Check if the value you put is accurate according to your needs, if not, settle it accordingly and then click “OK”.
- After clicking “OK” you will see the paragraph you selected will now be having a hanging indent.
NOTE: If you want another paragraph to have hanging indent feature, then all you need to do is to place your cursor at the end of that paragraph and then press “Enter” on your keyboard. You will see that this new paragraph has a hanging indent now. - If you want to use an alternative way to set up a hanging indent on your paragraph then using the ruler can be an alternative way to do it.
Ruler under the ribbon can have used to set a hanging indent if you don’t see the ruler, select the “View” option on the ribbon. - Select the “Ruler” option in the “Show” group.
- After selecting the “Ruler”, locate and select the paragraph you want to have the hanging indent feature on. Move the up-arrow (bottom slider) on the ruler to shift the text in the second row and below accordingly.
All these steps I have mentioned above can have applied to add and use a hanging indent in your documents.
If you want to use a hanging indent for References, Works Cited or Bibliography list, I will provide you with the correct format and procedure of how to do it.
Hanging Indent for References, Bibliography List or Works Cited
Follow the steps I am going to mention below to create a hanging indent for References, Works Cited, or Bibliography List.
- First of all, open your list, reference or work cited. Highlight one or more entries, which you want to have a hanging indent feature to be applied on.
- Select the paragraph and then Right Click on it. A menu with several options will pop up on your screen, and then select the option “Paragraph.”
- A dialog box of “Paragraph” will appear on the screen, locate the Indentation section, and in that Indentation section, you will have to select the “Special” menu.
- After you select the “Special” option, you will see a dropdown menu offering a lot of options. You will have to locate and select “Hanging”.
- There see the option “By” besides the “Special” menu. You will have to select and enter a positive number under the “By” option according to the quarter-inch percentage.
- After setting up the numbers accordingly, select “OK”.
- All the entries that you selected and wanted to get this feature on, you will see all those entries reflect the hanging indentation.
The procedure of creating a Hanging Indent in Microsoft Word is very simple. You just have to follow the steps just as I have mentioned them above and you will create a hanging indent on the paragraph of your own choice. Offical support.
