I can see you're quite right Charles,and were I to use Word seriously or consistently I'd study it in detail. For infrequent use I can get away with Google and the Dummies book (which isn't as much help as anticipated). The problem is finding the answer to the one thing you want, as opposed to screeds of stuff usually with everything but what you want.
I can't select text and setting the tab stops you want for that text. It is what you'd think is right, but for me that just blanks all the tabs (or tab stops) gizmos on the ruler.If I want to adjust one I've learned to delete them, all, d-click on the ruler, then enter them all again into the dialog window (or whatever it's called). Any attempt to add. move etc.just mucks everything up.Styles are unknown and much trouble to learn with not enough hours in the day, I'm happy with being able to choose a font and attribute. I've a project on right now, but once done it could be months before I need Word again. But thank you for the suggestions and help.