Hi all.



I know how to hide rulers, but can you turn off their effect, so they don't affect the formatting of text.

Sometimes I want to create a few lines as follows:

Note: Sometimes I want to create a few lines like this
.........but I'm forced to do as follows.

Note: Sometimes I want to create a few lines as above
but I'm forced to do this.

I know I can use rulers to do this, or even bullets. but there are times when i just want to tidy up some pasted text and it won't let me. I can push the second line forward with more text, but not with spaces.
Using rulers starts to affect other text.
Probably my bad implementation, but just hitting the space bar would be so much easier when pasting in and tidying a text article.

Thanks in advance,

Sark

The rulers have no effect on formatting. They are a tool to display some of current formatting and let you change it. What is affecting formatting is the paragraph formatting, perhaps set in a style.

Learn styles.

• Importance of Styles in Word
• 3. Using Styles to Format Text by Shawna Kelly
• Basic Formatting in Microsoft Word

P.S. You do want to leave them turned on so you can see some of that formatting. Word's Reveal Formatting Codes

I agree 100%.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

If you mean that you want a hanging indent, there is an option for it in the Paragraph dialog box. However, using styles to make the formatting consistent is always recommended, as Paul and Charles have already said.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

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

I again urge you to read Basic concepts of Microsoft Word: An introduction | ShaunaKelly.com

Will do...

sark