Hello,

I would like to change the interval of the ruler steps, i.e. the distance between each location where I can easily setup/move a tab or move the margins or paragraph indents directly on the ruler with the mouse (without having to hold down the Alt key).


For instance, the ruler is presently setup so that I can easily set/drag tabs or margins every 2.5mm. I would like to change this interval to 1mm...

I knew how to do it until version 2003... but no more with the new version!

Can anybody help me?

You can change the unit of measurement (via File tab | Options | Advanced) but you can't change the "scale" on the ruler.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Thank you Stefan.

It's a pitty! This was possible in older versions...
Hope it will be put back in next update.

I don't remember that "rescaling" the ruler has ever been possible. In which version did you do it?

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Rescaling the ruler isn't possible in Word 2003. However, when you drag a tab-stop across the ruler, it movers in very small increments. In Word 2010 & later (not sure about 2007) it appears to jump from one ruler increment to the next.

Probably a design decision in response to feedback from people who found the old approach made it unnecessarily difficult to use this method to align tab-stops in different paragraphs.

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Unfortunately I don't have any more access to Word2000 or 2003, but if I do remember, there was an option in the grid options (I usually could get it from the Grid setup icon in the drawing bar, if I do remember).
Maybe the option was not specific to the ruler (I don't remember the name of the option) but it did affect the ruler behaviour.
And as I could setup the step scale, it was very easy to define default increments in the ruler.
But I agree that the factory default setup was not very user friendly.

Yes, the settings for gridlines can be changed in Word. You can still do that in Word 2013 (Page Layout tab | Align | Grid Settings) but it won't affect the appearance of the horizontal ruler.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional