A French indent is used to place the first line of each paragraph against the margin, with each additional line indented. If you want to add hanging indents to a Microsoft Word document, this is what to do.
You will see hanging indents applied when adding bibliographies in Microsoft Word to satisfy the style guide requirements of certain types of academic documents. Despite this, you can use hanging indents for any reason, since they allow you to emphasize the beginning of each new paragraph for clarity.
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Add a French indent to a Microsoft Word document
You can apply a French indent to individual paragraphs or to the document as a whole. Applying a French indentation will keep the first line in the usual position, square against the margins of your document, with each additional line indented inward.
If you want to indent a single paragraph, place the blinking cursor on that paragraph of text first or select the paragraph as a whole. You can also apply the settings to several blocks of text at the same time by selecting multiple paragraphs.
If you want to apply these settings to your entire document, may do so at a later stage. For now, you can place the blinking cursor anywhere in your document.
Once you have selected your text, click on the tab “Beginning” on the ribbon bar. From here, select the icon “Additional options” in the lower right corner of the section “Paragraph”.
This will open the settings window of “Paragraph”. Click on the drop-down menu “Special”, found in section “Indentation” of the tab “Spacing between lines and paragraphs”.
From here, select option “Hang up”.
you can select how much the text bleeds by changing the size in the box “By” next to this configuration, with the size shown in centimeters.
A preview is displayed at the bottom, allowing you to see what the text will look like once the settings are applied.
French indent only selected text
If you want to apply the French indent setting only to the text you have selected, Click the button “To accept” at the bottom of the settings window “Paragraph”.
This will ensure that any text that you have not selected is not affected by the changes you have made here.
French indent the entire document
If you want to use this setting as the default in your current document (or in all future documents), click the option “Determine as default” at the bottom of the window “Paragraph”.
You will be asked if you want to apply this change to your current document or apply it to all future documents. Select alternatives “Only this document” O “All documents based on the Normal.dotm template”, then click “To accept” to confirm your choice.
You will see a red border around your screen indicating that the screen is being shared “This document only”, French indentation will be applied to all text in your current document. You will see a red border around your screen indicating that the screen is being shared “All documents based on the Normal.dotm template”, a French indent will be applied to your current document, as well as all future documents you create.
