Yes, but each line where you want to use the tabs has to be an individual paragraph with the tab stops set in the paragraph. The easiest way to set the tab stops in the paragraph is to create a paragraph style and set the tab stops in the paragraph style.
When I hit tab, it no longer indents the bullet-point in a list Steps to reproduce:. Create a bulleted list. Hit Enter to move to the next line; a bullet-point is created. Hit Tab to indent the bullet-point to the next level In the past, step three would work. However, now, it just adds a tab (white space), and I have to actually click the increase-indentation button in order to move that bullet-point to the next level.
(Hitting-shift-tab also adds a tab (white space) rather than reducing the level of the bullet-point) I probably tweaked a setting in my flailing-style. Any ideas on fixing this? I can't find the setting. Update: MS Word 2010. For 2007 it’s:.
Office button → “Word Options” → “Proofing” → “AutoCorrect Options” → “AutoFormat As You Type”. Check the “Set left- and first-indent with tabs and backspaces” box. For 2010 it’s essentially the same:.
“File” menu → “Options” → “Proofing” → “AutoCorrect Options ” button → “AutoFormat As You Type” tab → “Automatically as you type” section. If you can’t find the “Proofing” panel as described above, try “File” menu → “Options” → “Mail” tab → “Editor Options” button → “Proofing” tab. Check the “Set left- and first-indent with tabs and backspaces” box.
For 2013 it’s:. Select the line you want to indent back. There is a button in the “Home” tab titled “decrease indent” or “decrease list level”. Left click this button. So going to the AutoFormat options didn't work for me (the option to 'Set left- and first-indent with tabs and backspaces' was already set, and reset it a couple of times did nothing - tabbing jumped to the next Heading style I had formatted), and the other answer listed here at the time of me writing this, to just use the indent buttons on the toolbar works, but gets incredibly annoying as a workaround.
Here's what happened with me, what I tried that ultimately fixed it: I found that this issue is document-specific - not a global setting in Word that got unset and needs to be rechecked. I opened another, blank Word document. I hit the bullet button.
Now, if you hit Tab you should see the bullet indent. It won't change 'level', from that solid to a hollow bullet, because that requires entering some text on that line, then hit Enter, then you should be able to hit Tab on the new, 2nd bullet and it should indent and change the level of the bullet from the solid to the hollow one. Once you have made sure that works, you can proceed.
(If it doesn't for some reason, I recommend closing all Word documents, then finding and deleting the Normal.dot in your Local Settings folder under your profile folder in C: Users. Search for it, it should be somewhere if you have Word 2013 or prior - this shouldn't be a problem/issue in Word 2016 as they no longer seem to have that file. But in those previous versions, Word should re-create it the next time you launch the program. Then you can proceed with these instructions.) What I initially tried was copying the content from my old Word doc onto this blank, new one. That doesn't work because I found that just copies the formatting issue/problem over to the new one (this was also how I figured out it was document-specific). So, open Notepad, copy/paste all of your content from your bad Word document into that using Ctrl+A (select all), Ctrl+X (cut), then in Notepad, paste with Ctrl+V. Then grab the content from Notepad: Ctrl+A to 'Select All' of the text in Notepad, Ctrl+X to cut it all out of Notepad, and go to the new Word document to Ctrl+V and paste it into Word.
Now to fix those pesky, misaligned bullets. On each bullet, you're going to have to fix it manually.
Click next to/just ahead of one, so your cursor is sitting in front of it. I hit the Bullet button in the toolbar.
Once you do that, if you put your cursor at the end of it, hit Enter, a new bullet at the same level should appear. Hitting Tab should indent the bullet and give you the hollow one for the next level. So you can do this individually (safest, but tedious), or for the more adventure-loving, you can highlight all of the pasted in text/all of your bullets and click the Bullet button, then go back and indent the bullets that need indenting, using your previous Word document as a guide until you are complete with all bullet indenting and restoring any formatting/styling you once had - then you can exit your old document, and save this new Word document over top of your old one and discard the Notepad text by closing Notepad without saving. Or, if you are using SharePoint/Office 365, once you've performed all of your old styling on your headers and fixed this new Word document up to get it back to the point of your old one, you can then do a Ctrl+A (select all), Ctrl+X (cut), and then Ctrl+A on the old Word document and Ctrl+V to paste this fixed up content over top of the old document that is still attached to SharePoint/the cloud. It will now work.
Save the document. If you want to be sure you're good, close and re-launch the document - your tabbing of your bullets should indent them, now.
I'm not sure what's going on here, but whenever I go to a new line, tab doesn't work. It doesn't work in other lines of the same paragraph either, but if I go back to a previous paragraph, hit tab, delete the tab in that paragraph, and then go down to where I want the tab, it lets me do it. But then the problem will pop up again in the next paragraph. How can I fix this problem and what is causing it? After further experimentation, I've found that just clicking into another paragraph and clicking back does the trick, most of the time anyway. After even more experimentation, I've discovered that by inserting a blank line at the end of the document, I can solve the problem for the most part.
It usually only occurs when I'm trying to put a tab on the last line of a document. However, this isn't a perfect solution and I'm still having the issue sometimes. I experience the problem of tabs not working when making math tests. The problem is very repeatable, and can be replicated in the following simple experiment:.
Get a new document and set one tab (say a left tab at 3.0 inches). Type 'Solve ' and insert a formula, say '2x=6'. Use the right arrow to exit from the formula.
You may now type any non-tab characters that you wish, but hitting the 'tab' key does not insert a (tab) character. To fix the problem, do any of the following after leaving the formula:. Type (spacebar) (left arrow) (tab), OR.
Paste a previously copied (tab), OR. Click to place the cursor at any point not within the formula, and click to place the cursor at the end of the line. Now type (tab).
My theory is that a flag is set to keep the (tab) character from being used within formulas, and that exiting the formula using the right arrow key does not reset the flag, but clicking outside the formula or backspacing does. It's hard to tell exactly what's going on without seeing the document and Word itself, or maybe screenshots showing the Word window including UI when the problem is occurring, and when the problem is not occurring. But let me make an informed guess. Fix the problem by going to the paragraph where the problem occurs. Move the pointer to the blank vertical space just to the left of the text; the pointer will switch to an arrow pointing 'northeast' (up and to the right).
Click in the blank space; the entire paragraph will be selected. Clear Formatting. Then select Format. Style.; the Style dialog box appears. In the list.Styles, select Normal. Then click Apply.
The content of the misbehaving paragraph should change, and the tabs should work as expected now. What I suspect is happening is that the final paragraph of the document is set to some with unexpected tab stops. Your workarounds have the effect of changing the formatting or the style of the final paragraph, getting expected behaviour. But I expect that the style also specifies that the 'next paragraph' will have the same oddly-behaving style. This is why the problem recurs every time you add a paragraph. The more comprehensive fix is to understand the styles your document uses, and to improve them. Microsoft has a which might be helpful place to start.
This problem showed up for me after my bird trotted across the keyboard, so I had to experiment to see what she had stepped on (not the first time!). What fixed this problem was making sure that function keys that affect repeat times were not turned on. In Windows 10, search for 'keyboard shortcuts' and it will bring up the option 'press one key at a time for keyboard shortcuts'. Make sure the Filter Keys option is off. This removes the function that delays repeated entries (such as double-letters) and will allow you to tab freely again.
It's actually a keyboard setting.