Please help...

  • Thread starter Thread starter em1912
  • Start date Start date
E

em1912

I am so frustrated...

I want my backspace key to make the level of my outline go back when I
hit it after the tab key. So basically, I want it to work like this:

I. (enter)
II.

Becomes

I.
a. (tab)

Becomes

I.
II. (backspace)

Can someone help? I have Office 2003. Thank you so much!!!
 
In Word 97 and 2000, click on Tools | Options | Edit | check the
"Tabs and backspace set left indent" box | OK.

In Word 2002 and 2003, click on Tools | AutoCorrect Options |
AutoFormat As You Type | check the "Set left- and first-indent
with tabs and backspaces" box | OK.
 
I already tried that and it doesn't work. I had this happen once
before and there was a set of keystrokes that fixed it. :(

Thanks, though, garfield n odie.
 
Try using Tab and Shift+Tab. Also, note that you can promote and demote
members of a properly set up outline-numbered list using
Alt+Shift+Right/Left Arrow.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
About five minutes before I posted this topic, my backspace key worked
if used after the tab key. This has happened one other time before,
and I figured out how to fix it from a Google search. It didn't
involve going into any menus, I just used keys on the keyboard to tell
it how I wanted it to work.

I don't like doing shift + tab because I only use the left shift button
and so it's hard to hit both with my left hand. I can retrain myself,
but I'm a law student, so I spend ALL my time outlining and it's been
very difficult to adjust without missing things in class. :(

If anyone can figure this out I'll love you forever...if no one can,
I'll probably search for it online again and take office off and put it
back on again over the holiday break because it's just that important
to me...

Thanks everyone!!
 
You can't demote what hasn't been promoted, so it would make sense that you
can't use Backspace if you haven't previously used Tab. That is, Word
doesn't have an "margin release" feature such as WordPerfect has. To create
a negative indent, you have to use the ruler or the Format Paragraph dialog.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Yes, I understand all this. Oh, except the WordPerfect part because
I've never used it. Yesterday I could hit tab and then backspace and
it would demote the line in the outline. Then I hit something wrong
and it doesn't work anymore. I want it to go back to the way that it
was.
 
I figured it out...just trying things. It's Ctrl, then Tab, then Tab
again. Do it very quickly and it makes it work again. Thanks all for
your assistance.
 
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