How to Align Paragraphs in Word Using Tabs
(Note: Suitable for users of Word, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021 and Word for Microsoft 365.)
Objective
Learn how to use tabs in Word to line up text, paragraphs, and other items in a document.
Tabs Explained
We can setup tab stops in Word to help us align paragraphs and text items in a Word document. They are an easier option than inserting a table and formatting it to get the alignment correct.
It’s worth mentioning at this point that Word has default tab stops. If we press the TAB key on the keyboard, our cursor moves ½ inch along the ruler, allowing us to type at varying indentation levels.
However, we might want to set our own tab stops and define how far each tab stop is from the margin.
There are different types of tab stop: Left, Right, Center, Decimal, and Bar.
Left Tab – Ensures text is aligned to the left-hand side.
Right Tab – Ensure text is aligned to the right-hand side.
Center Tab – Aligns text to the center.
Decimal Tab – Aligns numbers by the decimal point.
Bar Tab – Adds a bar separator in between columns.
In the example below, we set up two tab stops to ensure our columns look neat and perfectly aligned.
The Name column is aligned by default to the margin. The Age column is aligned to the center using a center tab, and the Location column is aligned to the right using the right tab.
We can apply tab stops to the whole document or split our document into sections and apply different tab stops to different parts of the document.
There are two methods we can use to set tab stops.
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Add Tab Stops from the Paragraph Group
We can add tab stops from the paragraph group in Word.
- From the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click the small diagonal area in the bottom right-hand corner.
- Click Tabs.
From the Tabs dialog box, we can set up our tab stop type and position.
- In the Tab stop position field, type how far along the ruler to place the tab stop. (Note: my ruler is set to inches).
- Select the alignment for the tab stop. This is also the tab type.
- Choose if you would like a leader. A leader will place dots, dashes, etc., between each tab stop, which can assist readability.
- Click Set
The tab stop will be added to the list, and we can set another tab stop immediately. This time we will set a decimal tab stop so that the decimal point lines numbers up.
Finally, we will add a right tab stop at 6 inches.
- Click OK.
The tab stops will be marked on the horizontal ruler. We can use the TAB key to move between them.
- Click on the left-hand side by the margin.
- Type some text. Note how the text is aligned to the left.
- Press the TAB key.
- Type a number. Note how the decimal point aligns with the number.
- Press the TAB key.
- Type some text. Note how the text is aligned to the right.
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Add Tab Stops Manually
We can also add tab stops manually. We can cycle through the different tab stops from the ruler area.
The default is a right-aligned tab stop. We can change this by clicking on the tab stop icon.
- Click until the tab stop type is bar.
- Click on the horizontal ruler where the tab stop is to be placed.
We’ve added a bar tab stop at 3” and a right-aligned tab stop just before 6”.
This is the result.
Clear Tab Stops
We may decide we no longer want tab stops in our document or need to clear tab stops from a document shared with us. We can do this in a couple of ways.
- Drag the tab stop of the horizontal rule, OR,
- From the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click the diagonal arrow in the corner.
- From the Indents and Spacing tab, click Tabs.
- Click on the tab to clear and click Clear.
To clear all tabs from the document, click Clear All.
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Deborah Ashby
Deborah Ashby is a TAP Accredited IT Trainer, specializing in the design, delivery, and facilitation of Microsoft courses both online and in the classroom.She has over 11 years of IT Training Experience and 24 years in the IT Industry. To date, she's trained over 10,000 people in the UK and overseas at companies such as HMRC, the Metropolitan Police, Parliament, SKY, Microsoft, Kew Gardens, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP.She's a qualified MOS Master for 2010, 2013, and 2016 editions of Microsoft Office and is COLF and TAP Accredited and a member of The British Learning Institute.
