Do you know how to create a hanging indent? Do you know what a hanging indent is?
A hanging indent is the strange format of a bibliography note that is required in most writing styles. The first line of each note is flush to the left, but the subsequent lines of the individual notes are indented.
So why do I bring it up? You're probably touching up a final paper about now, and there is a common mistake you can avoid by knowing how to form a hanging indent properly.
It is very important that you create the indented lines in the citation in the proper way (instead of hitting the tab or space bar). If you don't, you can mess up the entire spacing of your bibliography and spend hours trying to get it to look right on the page.
To do it right, you need to write each citation without inserting any hard returns (hitting the enter button) or any tabs. Then, highlight the entire note (a single one or the entire page of notes) for editing purposes. If you are using Microsoft Word 2003, go to FORMAT and PARAGRAPH. Somewhere in the menu (normally under SPECIAL), find the term HANGING and select it. The correct spacing will appear automatically.
In Microsoft Word 2007, you select the tab for PAGE LAYOUT on the bar at the top of the page. Then find the PARAGRAPH box. The tiny little arrow in the bottom right-hand corner will expand the box, when clicked. There you will find the SPECIAL menu where you'll see HANGING. Select the HANGING command and your highlighted text will be formatted correctly.
You can also find the method for creating a hanging indent in Open Office in this step-by-step.
Comments
You saved my day!
Thanks. I used to know how to do this, and I just couldn’t remember it!! This was a huge help.
this website sucks. i did not recieve the information that i needed. thanks for nothing.
This was great. I relayed the info to my whole class and it helped a lot of people out.
Thank you! My teacher marked me off for not having a “hanging indent” reference page. Being an ‘older’ student, I never heard of it, so thank you for the helpful information!
Thanks so much!!!
THANK U SO MUCH, UR A SAINT!!! <3
This works, but if you have Open Office, they literally do not have the “hanging” option, you have to set the values for it yourself. Open Office sucks, but most schools nowadays use the program, so your article doesn’t help anybody any more.
Try this: Hanging Indent in Open Office.
so helpful! Thanks!
Thank you so much. I’d have been lost without you, and this paper is due in 16 hours.
Not sure why people have to leave unnecessary negative comments.
I’m getting brochures printed and the printer suggested hanging indents to make the dot points easier to read.
This article was very useful.. only thing I would add is a photo of a hanging indent, so you can reach out to those who just want to know what it is.
Cheers
Thank you for providing the detailed instructions for creating a hanging indent!! Very helpful for my MLA report.
Amanda
this was of absolutely no help whatsoever – get up to date
there is no format tab on my version of office
Great for homework on school’s macs!
So useful! Thanks a lot!
Thank you lots, very informative!!!
Thanks a lot, you saved my life.
Thanks!! Saved the day and helped me out alot!!
THIS WAS ACTUALLY HELPFUL!! The rest of the internet didn’t explain it well but I just looked at this once and saved about 10000000 hours of attempting it on my own! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!
THANKS SO MUCH
I hate people who make such negative comments! If you have nothing positive to say……. say NOTHING!!!!
Thanks for the help, it was exactly what i was looking for!! I lost marks before because I didn’t use hanging indent but this wont happen again!
Thank- you so much. I have a paper due tomorrow and I really needed this-it was the first one I found that was easy to understand and worked. You saved my day, and my Social Studies grade!