I’m trying to update my resume in WORD and am having major formatting problems because I can’t figure out how to set the tabs on the ruler-thingie at the top of the page. I drag them where I want them but they don’t stay put, and now I’ve got messed up margins, crazy tabbing, etc all through my resume.
This whole margins-and-tabs system seems counterintuitive to me, but I’m sure it makes sense to somebody. Anyone willing to share their tips for setting margins in a WORD document so they stay consistent?
You have to highlight all the text where you want the new tab and margin settings to apply. If you apply it to one line, it goes back to the default on the next line.
The theory is that you may want to adjust different margins and tabs for different paragraphs. Word requires you specify what you want change by highlighting it; otherwise it assumes you just want the line where the cursor is.
Try going to the Format menu and choose Style and Formatting. A window on the right hand side (assuming that you are using Word 2000 onwards), which shows all the formatting styles.
Right click on that says Normal.
Choose Modify from the pop-up menu.
Click on the Format button (it has a downward pointing arrow)
Chooses Paragraph
There you can adjust the indentations, tab-stops and the like.
A little bit. Can you talk me through setting up wide margins and a simple tab or two on a blank document (onto which I’ll copy my messed up resume)? It’s not clear to me what I need to do to “adjust the indentations, tab-stops and the like” in your item 6.
Before we even start, I’ll need to know if this sounds like a sensible plan: blank document, setting margins and tabs, copying a messed up document into that. Is there a better way to procede?
I often do that when the document I’m starting with has horrible formatting. Just make sure when you copy the text into the new document you choose “paste special” then “unformatted text” from the edit menu. Otherwise, you’ll bring the formatting from the old document with you.
Not really. But if you just tell me what to do when I open a blank document to get it formatted, that would be a start. I’m not sure how to change the margins that pop up when I open a new blank dociment, for example. Dragging them to where I want them doesn’t seem to work very well. When I try to drag what looks like my left margin, for example, the thing moves in its top half and bottom half separately, and each half refuses to stay in place, so obviously I’m doing something very wrong here, possibly not even changing the margins at all.
Also while we’re at it, you WORD-experts may be able to tell me why, when I tried to print a different document from my messed-up resume, my printer started printing out, a line per page, my messed resume instead, with all sort of weird symbols (and a word or two of my messed up resume).
I find it infuriating that I can’t just cancel this printing job easily. How do I do that? If it were a person, I could simply instruct it “Please stop doing that print job now,” but I can’t find the way to so instruct the computer to stop.
The first few lines of my resume (name, phone numbers, etc) I want to be justified right AND left. I’ve had this done on a previous version so I know it’s possible, but in the FORMAT>PARAGRAPHING menu, there seems to be no option for r and l justification, only “left” , “centered” “right” and something called “justified,” which doesn’t seem to do anything at all. Is this way to justify parts of the document: highlight, go to format, go to paragraphing, go to “general alignment” and select one of t hese options? Or is there a better way to change the justification on parts of my document?
I’m not sure I understand what you mean by right and left justification for those lines. I would expect you would want them centered (i.e. equidistant from the left and right margins). Justified means that every line in a paragraph evenly reaches the right margin. Try typing out your name, phone number, etc., pressing “enter” after each line, then highlight what you typed and click “center” under alignment in the formatting menu (alternatively, you can click center first, then start typing, then change back to left alignment when you’re done with your heading).
First of all, everything will be much smoother if you have the icons you need on your toolbar. Do you have the Formatting toolbar open? It should have icons that look like lines of text to the right, to the left, centered, and maybe the justified one. Highlight what you want to position and click the icon. Much easier.
For tabs, as mentioned above, highlight the block you want and then pull off any tab markings that appear in the ruler at the top. Just grab them and throw them off into space. Then click for the ones you want. If you start a brand-new document of course there won’t be any in there unless you paste old text from an already-formatted doc into it.
Left and right justification means that items line up at the left margin and at the right margins, basically how books line up.
I’ve done what you suggested, I think, yet this demonic machine persists in printing out a job I never ordered, one fucked up line at a time, It’s driving me mad.
Alignment–Left: Text is left-justified only
Alignment–Right: text is right-justified only
Alignment–Centered: text is centered and not justifed to either margin
Alignment–Justified: lines up at left and right margins like a book
I think I’ve fixed it, though they sure don’t make it self-explanatory. Thanks for the help.
Can we get back to my reformatting issues? I just don’t begin to get how to adjust magins and tabs. Does the dragging on the ruler-bar at the top help, or is that simpy wrong? Is there any on-line source for how to use WORD that makes sense? Is there a good all-purpose guide available?
So, highlight the section of text you want the margin and tab selections to apply to. To adjust the margins, grab the gray triangly thing to the left or to the right and drag it to where you want the margin(s) to be.
To adjust the tabs, position your cursor in the ruler and click. You should see a black tab “L” shaped mark show up. That tab setting will apply to the highlighted text.
If your text already exists you may have to add or take out spaces or tabs in the text, but your format of margins and tabs will be in effect.
Please be realistic. There’s only so much we can explain with text on a message board. Word is a complicated program. Frankly, I wonder whether you wouldn’t do better using Notepad. Not as spiffy, but much easier. Anyhoo, I’ll try to point you at a few things.
First, margins. Counterintuitively, you won’t find those under Format. Rather, those settings are under File - Page Setup.
Second, justification. Format - Paragraph - Justify is what you’re calling right-and-left justification, except that it doesn’t apply to the last line of text in the paragraph. Think what you’re used to seeing in books and newspapers. So, it won’t justify a one-line paragraph. The best way to do what I think you’re trying to do is to use tabs. There are several ways to adjust those (of which ExtraKun’s is only one.) The simplest is to select (highlight) all the text you want to format and go to Format - Tabs. Notice the Allignment option. That’s where you can force a tab to justify right, even if it’s a one-line paragraph.
Third, the print-job-from-hell. As has been suggested, this sounds like a printer driver problem. You halt a job in process by first snatching the paper from the printer, second cancelling the print job on your computer (right-click the printer icon on the lower right of your screen, select the document and kill), then third, resetting your printer (on mine, it’s easiest just to unplug it).
Pardon me; you can pull the gray bars on the ruler to the left and right so that the white area in between them is wider or narrower for the whole document.
The gray triangle thingies are just for margins for the highlighted section.