I can't believe I've used Word for so long now and I've not heard this (I guess it's because the computers I use are set to Turkish instructions). I was preparing a manuscript when I noticed the submission guidelines said: Please indent the first line of paragraphs using a tab, or paragraph formatting (not spaces). The manuscript at the moment has all the paragraphs, including the first, indented 5 spaces--as I usually do. Um...now what?
What are you asking? How to indent using the tab? Using Microsoft Word, look at one of the bars at the top that looks like a little ruler or a timeline. There are two arrows; one at the bottom facing up, one at the top facing down. Drag the one facing down to 1.25. Next time you press the space bar to make a new paragraph, it should indent automatically. If it doesn't, go to the beginning of the paragraph and press tab, and it should do the same. At least, that's how it's worked for me. I hope I answered your question...?
Better yet, replace all 5-space sequences with nothing. All your paragraphs are probably now flush with the left margin. Now change your Normal text paragraph style. In Word 2007: On the Home tab, right click on Normal in the Styles section and select Modify... At the bottom left of the dialog box, click Format and select Paragraph... In the Paragraph formatting dialogue, Indent section, select First line from the Special dropdown, and set the By value to 0.5" You can also use this dialogue box to set paragraph style to double-spaced, with no additional spacing between paragraphs, for manuscripts. In other versions of Word, you can do the same thing, but the navigation to get to the paragraph formatting dialog differs.
doesn't your tab automatically indent .5" or 5 spaces?... it should, no matter what language it's set for... if not, then just reset it for that and use the tab from now on, instead of having to hit the space bar 5 times every time you go to a new paragraph...
It's okay, but in an electronic submission, those tabs have to be filtered out. Also, if you want to view the manuscript in "magazine layout" (spacing between paragraphs, no first line indents), or export to another format without the first line indents, you can do it if you only change the paragraph formatting properties. If the tabs are "hard-wired" in, you don't have that flexibility. The tabs are not properly part of the submission, so if you can leave them out by using the document properties, why not do so?
