🔊
In Short.
To do a Hanging Indent in Microsoft Word, select the paragraph and use the Paragraph Dialog Box to choose "Hanging" under the Special dropdown menu. Alternatively, enable the ruler and drag the upward-facing triangle to the right.

Microsoft Word is one of the most popular word processors across the globe, and a lot of users depend on it, both for personal and professional work. One of the reasons behind its huge userbase is because it has been in the market for decades. Moreover, it offers a lot of features that many other similar processors do not.

One such feature is the ‘Hanging Indent’, which can easily be done on Word. In ‘Hanging Indent’, all the lines of a paragraph are indented (moved to the right), except the first one. It is sometimes also referred to as ‘Negative Indent’.

Doing Hanging Indent on Microsoft Word

You can do a Hanging Indent on Word using two methods, and we will be discussing both in detail.

With Paragraph Dialog Box

The paragraph dialog box method is to be used when you want precision. Select the paragraph, and then click on the small arrow at the bottom of the paragraph group. This will open the paragraph dialog box.

In the ‘Indent & Spacing’ tab, click on the box under special, select ‘Hanging’ from the drop-down menu, and then click on ‘OK’ at the bottom. You can also change the indent value using the text box under ‘By’. Moreover, you can see also how the text will look after you apply the changes under the ‘Preview’ section at the bottom.

The selected paragraph has now been formatted to a ‘Hanging Indent’.

Using the Ruler

You can do a ‘Hanging Indent’ using the ruler in no time. The ruler is visible at the top and left of the screen. If the ruler has been disabled on your system, go to the ‘View’ tab at the top.

Next, click on checkbox right behind ‘Ruler’ in the ‘Show’ group to show the ruler on the screen.

Highlight the paragraph where you want to a ‘Hanging Indent’. Now, hold and drag the upward-facing triangle towards the right by the required amount. The upward-facing triangle is a shortcut for ‘Hanging Indent’.

In the example below, the lines have been indented by 0.5 inches as is evident from the ruler.

You can now easily do a ‘Hanging Indent’ on Microsoft Word using either of the methods mentioned above. If you want to make other changes as well rather than simply doing a ‘Hanging Indent’, go with the first method.