problems with indents/margins - SOLVED, THANKS

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ArtsyAmy

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Problem solved (and so quickly--I should have asked here hours earlier instead of struggling). Thanks for your help.

I've been searching here for an answer to this, but not finding an one. I'd sure appreciate kindly advice.

I'm trying to follow novel manuscript formatting guidelines that call for 1-inch margins on all sides, and a half-inch indent for each new paragraph. (I'll be submitting part of the manuscript in the body of an e-mail.) I'm using MS Word 2003. Here's how I've set it.
Alignment
Left
Indentation
Left: 1"
First line: 0.5"
Right: 1"
I'm pretty sure I'm doing this wrong. It doesn't look right on my screen. The text seems too narrow, and the header extends past the sides of the text. Thank you for your help.
 
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robjvargas

Rob J. Vargas
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I'm going to try some things, but I don't think the header uses the body's page settings. When you're editing the header (the actual header of a MS Word page, right? Not just the first text in your document?), go to Page Settings. You'll probably find 0.5" margins.
 

ArtsyAmy

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Page settings! That's what I think I need to know about. Very helpful, Rob. Just searched page settings, and saw that going there will take me to "Margins," which is what I think I need instead of "Indentations." I'm going to play around with it. Thanks for your help, Rob.
 

robjvargas

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My pleasure, Amy.

FWIW, I had a head-slap moment learning about page settings. When someone pointed that out to me back when, I banged my head on the desk and wondered why I didn't think of setting the page instead of the paragraph.

One word of caution, though. MS Word isn't a typesetting program. It won't "lock" those settings down. You aren't likely to run into a problem, because all printers (that I know of) have minimum margin settings smaller than one inch. But *if* the file is opened and the default printer doesn't accept the page settings, Word will rearrange the document to match the printer, *and* it will save with the *new* settings if you save the file there.
 

ArtsyAmy

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Very good to know, Rob. Thanks again!
 
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