For more than a decade now, I have been using the Tab key to demote a title in Outline view, and Shift + Tab to promote it. This almost always works.



However, in some rare instances, it stops working, and indents the text instead, without changing the outline level. Things usually come back to normal a while later.

I've never been able to find what changes this state. Actually, I have never found documented the demoting/promoting action of Tab and Shift + Tab. All my Word books mention instead Alt + Shift + right and left arrows, which I have never used.

Can anyone help me solve that mystery ? Thank you.

Generally, Tab and Shift+Tab may fail if Word can't interpret what it is supposed to do. For example, this can happen if the document doesn't contain any heading paragraphs or if it contains text paragraphs that are part of a multilevel list.

The Tab and Shift+Tab shortcuts appear to fail less often in Outline view than they do in Print Layout view, though.

In a situation when Tab or Shift+Tab fails, see if the alternative shortcuts Alt+Shift+Left arrow or Alt+Shift+Right arrow work better.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Aaaah, thank you ! So Tab and Tab + Shift do get temperamental sometimes, it's not me giving bad vibes to my copy of Word, at least it's good to know.

When it fails, there are always plenty of headings in my document, and I don't even know how to make a multilevel list. So there's something else Word does not like.

In that case, Alt + Shift + arrows always work -- not that I revert to them for a long time. I hit at random at the keyboard like a monkey, and usually things come back in order after a while.

Also, I've just found Tab and Tab + Shift in Outline View listed in Word 2003 for Dummies.

As an aside, it's extraordinary the way some Word books say different things about the same features -- I'm thinking about templates. And I'm talking about good books : Special Edition Using Word 2003, Special Edition using Office 2003, Word 2003 Bible, Word 2003 Inside Out... Word 2003 for Dummies even contradicts itself on the subject in two different places.