Usually once I have taught people how to use their Rule in Word documents, they are so surprised at how much easier and quicker it can be once they know how! I hope that will be your reaction as well.
Before I start, the first thing you need to do is make sure your Ruler is visible. If you do not see it at the top of your Word document, follow the steps below to enable it.
On your Ribbon, on the View tab, select Ruler to enable it.
Ok, now that we know how to enable the Ruler, I can show you how much you are going to love using it. First I will cover how to set a Tab Stop using your Ruler. Yes, I covered this in an earlier post but this has a bit more detail.
Follow the steps below to learn how:
Select Left Tab at the end of your horizontal Ruler to change it to the type of tab you would like to use.
Select one of the types below by simply clicking on the L shown above to cycle through the different options.
A let tab stop sets the left end of your text line. As you key in text, it fills toward the right.
A Center tab stop sets the position at the center of your text line. As you key in text, it fills to the left.
A Right tab stop sets the right end of your text line. As you key in text, the text fills to the left.
A Decimal tab stop aligns numbers around a decimal point. Regardless of the number of digits, your decimal point will remain in
the same position.
A Bar tab stop does not position your text. Instead, it inserts a vertical bar at the tab position. The Bar tab stop will be
added to your text the minute you click it. A small caveat with this one – if you fail to clear the bar stop before you
print your document, the vertical line will be printed.
Click or tap the bottom of your horizontal ruler where you would like your tab stop to appear.
I still remember when I learned how to use this years ago and how much easier it made my job. I worked in a law firm and I had so many uses for these! I hope this post is just as helpful to you!