Ruler in MS Word and its uses

In this blog we discuss about ruler in MS Word.

What is ruler?

In Word’s rulers let you control the margins of your page and the indentation of paragraphs. They’re great for precisely lining up images, text, and other elements. If you’re printing a document, the rulers can help ensure that what you see on your screen translates into what you’ll get on the printed page.

Show the ruler:

Go to View and select Ruler.

To show the vertical ruler

·        Go to File > Options > Advanced

·        Select the Show vertical ruler in Print Layout view under Display.

Access the Page Setup Window:
Double-click any empty space on the ruler to open the Page Setup window. This is the same window you can open from the Layout tab on the Ribbon.

The “Page Setup” window shows you most of the physical layout properties of the document. The “Margins” tab lets you set the margins for the top, bottom, left, and right, which you can verify with the markers on the ruler.

What are tab stops?

A tab stop is the location your cursor moves to when you hit the Tab key. A default Word document has no tab stops, so each time you hit the Tab key, the cursor jumps ahead about eight characters. Setting tab stops lets you better control and line up text.

Settings:

Clicking this button lets you cycle through the different types of tab stops Word makes available. Here they are:

·         Left: Left tabs are Word’s default tap stop. They’re what most people think of when they think of tab stops, and what you’ll likely use most of the time. Text is aligned against the left edge of the tab stop.

·         Centre: Centre tabs align the text around the centre of the tab stop.

·         Right: Right tabs align text against the tab stop’s right edge and are a great way to align the rightmost digits of lengthy lists of numbers as you enter them.

·         Decimal: Decimal tabs align numbers based on decimal points. They are great for aligning currency figures. Be careful, though. Text is also aligned on decimals, so if you type a sentence with a period, the period will align on the tab stop.

·         Bar Tab: Bar tabs do not create an actual tab stop. Instead, they create a vertical line wherever you insert them. You could use these for putting vertical lines between tabbed columns in instances where you’d rather not use a table.

·         Indents: Select first line and hanging indent options and then click anywhere in the active ruler space to place the indent there. This works the same as dragging the indent markers the way we discussed in the previous section.