Hanging indents û in which second and subsequent lines of a paragraph are indented - are a popular form of paragraph formatting, particularly for resumes, lists and other kinds of slick-looking documents. Although this format is easy to create, there's more to it than you might immediately realise. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of this feature.

Word 7 through 2000:

* To format one or more paragraphs with a hanging indent, just place the cursor in the paragraph, or select multiple paragraphs, and then press <Ctrl>-T.

* To increase the amount of indentation, press <Ctrl>-T again. Each time you do this, the indent will increase by one tab stop.

* To reduce the amount of paragraph indentation, or to remove just a single hanging indent, press <Shift>-<Ctrl>-T.

* To adjust the amount of indentation with your mouse, click and drag the tab marker on Word's ruler that corresponds with the indentation. Hint: Holding down <Alt> while you do this will allow you to see the actual measurement in Word's ruler.

* For more precise control of hanging indents, select Format*Paragraph, choose Hanging in the 'Special' drop-down list, and then set your desired amount of indentation in the 'By' field (see FIGURE 3).

* Since bulleted and numbered lists use hanging indent formatting, these tips apply to those kinds of paragraphs as well, but note that indentation changes will apply only to second and subsequent lines of each item.

WordPerfect 8:

* To format a paragraph or paragraphs with a hanging indent, place the cursor at the beginning of the paragraph, or select multiple paragraphs, then press <Ctrl>-<F7> (or select Format*Paragraph*Hanging Indent). Hint: Since this type of formatting does not carry forward to the next paragraph when you press <Enter>, save some valuable time by first formatting all paragraphs that require a hanging indent.

* Alternately, simply position your cursor at the beginning of the second line, or any subsequent line, and press <Tab>.

* To remove a hanging indent from a paragraph, position the cursor at the beginning of the second line of the paragraph and press <Backspace>.

* To adjust indentation using the mouse for a single paragraph or multiple selected paragraphs, click and drag the first tab marker on the ruler to a new position. Hold down <Shift> as you do so to view the exact measurement on WordPerfect's ruler.