hello my name is Aaron I'm a
professional copy editor who shares
writing tips for the real world on this
channel and on my blog at Aaron Wright
writing calm today's tutorial shows how
to create change and delete tabs in
Microsoft Word
at the end we'll also look at how to
change your default tab when you press
the tab key while working in word your
cursor moves to a specific location
called a tab stop tabs can be used to
indent paragraphs but they can also be
used for other purposes including
creating single and multi column lists
please note that although tabs can be
used to indent paragraphs words built-in
indent options are more efficient and
reliable for longer documents please see
my other video titled three ways to
indent paragraphs in Microsoft Word for
more information today I'll be using
word for office 365 which is currently
the same as word 2019 the steps are the
same in word 2016 or 2013 and word 2010
before starting the tutorial let's
quickly look at the different types of
tab stops you can use in Word
word includes five different tab stops
the left tab places left align text to
the right of the stop this is the most
common tab stop the center tab
centers text on the stop the right tab
places right align text to the left of
the stop the decimal tab aligns text
based on the first decimal placed on the
stop and the bar tab creates a vertical
line at the stop but technically this
isn't a tab
it's a formatting device primarily used
for multi column lists now we're going
to create change and delete tabs by
using the ruler you can also perform
these actions in the tabs dialog box
however that process is less
user-friendly than the ruler method so
it will be presented in a separate
tutorial most importantly please note
that these steps don't apply to your
default tab which we'll cover later in
this video if your ruler isn't visible
select the View tab in the ribbon and
then select ruler in the show group if
you want to add tabs to existing text
press ctrl-a on your keyboard to select
the entire document or select the
portion of your document to which you
want to apply the tab if you don't
select all or part of your existing
document before creating your new tab it
will only be accessible to the paragraph
your cursor is currently in or to newly
created text next click the tab selector
button until it changes to the symbol
representing the tab you want you can
hover your pointer over each symbol in
the tab selector for a tooltip
explaining each symbol I'm going to
select the left tab once you've made
your selection click the location on the
ruler where you would like to place the
tab stop the tab symbol
will then appear on the ruler note that
you can place multiple tab stops on the
ruler each time you press the tab key
your cursor will move to the next stop
if you want to change the location of a
tab stop and update all the text
formatted with that tab select only that
text then slide the tab symbol to a new
location on the ruler
if you want to delete a tab from the
ruler first ensure that no text is
selected then pull the tab symbol
downward and release it it will be
removed from the ruler if you
accidentally delete a tab immediately
press control Z on your keyboard to undo
the deletion now let's change your
default tab
if you haven't manually created any tabs
word moves your cursor half an inch to
the right when you press the tab key on
your keyboard however you can change the
length of your default left tab stop
without creating a new tab the following
steps only affect your current document
if you want to change the default tab
for all future documents you have to
modify your normal template will cover
that advanced topic in a separate
tutorial also note that the default tab
doesn't appear on the ruler like the
tabs we just created manually to begin
select the Home tab in the ribbon then
select the dialog box launcher in the
paragraph group now select the tabs
button in the paragraph dialog box use
the increment arrows to adjust the
default tab stop in the tabs dialog box
alternatively you can type a new number
directly into the text box I'm going to
change my default tab to one-inch
when you're finished select the ok'
button to close the tabs dialog box now
when I press the tab key on my keyboard
my cursor moves one inch the companion
blog post for this video listing all the
steps we just performed appears on Aaron
Wright writing comm which is linked
below feel free to leave me a comment if
there's a specific topic related to
Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat that
you'd like me to address in the future
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it helpful thank you so much for
watching