While the three above gentlemen are absolutely correct, one thing I would like to point out:



While it is possible to adjust paragraph margins on the ruler, you REALLY do not want to do that. More often than not, the adjustment ends up being imprecise-- .5 " ends up .49" , for instance.

That may seem like an insignificant difference, but it is enough to noticeably disrupt alignment.

I would go farther than this and say you NEVER want to adjust margins using the Ruler. Indents, perhaps; margins, NEVER.
Margins and Indents in Word

For an important document, use Styles to adjust your formatting.

• Importance of Styles in Word
• Basic Concepts of Microsoft Word - from Shauna Kelly

Firstly, thanks for the quick responses.

Because I couldn't move the text forward by using the space bar, but could adjust that text (once selected) with the horizontal ruler, I had assumed the rulers were responsible.
This only occurs with copied and pasted text from other sources, so I guess I've been confusing paragraph formatting with ruler alignment.

Thanks again for the swift replies.

Sark