To make a hanging indent in Word, select the paragraphs you want to format, open the Paragraph settings from the Home tab, and choose Special > Hanging. Set the By amount required by your assignment or style guide, then choose OK. The first line of each selected paragraph stays at the left margin while later lines move inward. This is common in reference lists.
Apply a hanging indent to references
- Open the document and select only the reference entries that need the indent. Leave the References or Works Cited heading unselected unless its formatting should change too.
- On Home, select the small Paragraph dialog launcher in the corner of the Paragraph group.
- In Indents and Spacing, find the Special menu and choose Hanging.
- Set the By measurement. Half an inch is common for many citation formats, but follow the requirements for your document.
- Choose OK. Check a reference long enough to wrap onto a second line: its first line should start farther left than the rest.
Each citation should be its own paragraph. If you inserted manual line breaks within one entry, Word may treat the lines differently from separate paragraphs. Select the entire reference list before applying the setting so new entries have a consistent look.
Use the shortcut or ruler
In Word for Windows, select the paragraphs and press Ctrl+T to create a hanging indent. Press Ctrl+Shift+T to reduce or remove it. These shortcuts change the indent in increments; use the Paragraph dialog when you need a precise measurement. Microsoft lists both shortcuts in its Word keyboard reference.
You can also show the ruler from the View tab and adjust its indent markers for the selected paragraphs. Move the lower marker to set where the second and later lines begin, while the upper marker controls the first line. This gives quick visual feedback, but it is easy to drag the wrong marker. Use the Paragraph dialog to verify the exact value afterward.
Fix a hanging indent that looks wrong
- Only one entry changes: Select every reference paragraph before setting the indent. A cursor inside one paragraph affects only that paragraph.
- The whole paragraph moves: Check that Special is set to Hanging, not that you increased the ordinary left indent or pressed Tab at the start.
- Every line starts in the same place: The text may use manual line breaks, tabs, or spaces. Remove those makeshift indents and use paragraph formatting.
- The heading is indented: Select the heading separately and set Special to None or restore its intended style.
- The space between entries changes: Hanging indent controls horizontal position, not line or paragraph spacing. See our guide to Word paragraph spacing for that setting.
Check the reference list as a whole
Look at more than the first entry before submitting. A short citation that stays on one line will not reveal whether the hanging indent works, so inspect at least one entry that wraps. Check that each new citation begins at the same left edge and that its continuation lines line up with the others. If an entry is a single paragraph, the setting will keep working when you add or remove words. If you built the alignment with spaces, later edits can break it.
Remove or reuse the setting
To remove a hanging indent, select the affected paragraphs, reopen Paragraph settings, and change Special to None. If you repeatedly create reference lists, update or create a paragraph style with the correct hanging indent and spacing. Applying that style is more reliable than adding tabs by hand every time.
On Word for Mac, select the paragraphs and choose Format > Paragraph, then choose Hanging under Special. In Word for the web, Microsoft directs you to the Paragraph dialog from Home and the same Special setting. Menu placement may differ by version, so use the visible Paragraph settings to verify the result.
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Matt has been writing about Microsoft Windows and other Microsoft products since the days of Windows XP. He spends much of his time writing for sites like WindowBrain.com