How to Use the Ruler in Microsoft Word to Make Documents Neat and Professional

The ruler in Microsoft Word is an often overlooked tool, but it’s very useful to help you organize and edit documents more efficiently.

Microsoft Word has a variety of features and functions that can help you create, edit, and format documents easily and quickly. One feature that is often overlooked by many users is the ruler.

A ruler is a tool that functions like a regular ruler, which is to measure and adjust the distance, width, height, and position of text, images, tables, and other objects in a document. By using a ruler, you can make your documents more neat, organized, and professional.

However, not everyone knows how to use the ruler in Microsoft Word correctly and effectively. Therefore, in this article, we will explain in full detail how to enable, customize, and utilize rulers in Microsoft Word for various purposes. Check out the following review to the end.

How to Enable Ruler in Microsoft Word

Before you can use the ruler in Microsoft Word, you must first enable it. By default, the ruler may not be visible on your screen. To display the ruler, there are several ways you can do this, depending on the version of Microsoft Word that you are using.

If you are using Microsoft Word 2010 or later versions, you can enable the ruler in the following ways:

1. Open the document that you want to work on in Microsoft Word.
2. Select the “View” tab located at the top of the screen.
3. Under the “Show” group, check the “Ruler” box. You can also use the shortcut “Alt + Shift + F9” to turn the ruler on or off.

After that, you’ll see a horizontal ruler at the top of the document and a vertical ruler at the left of the document.

How to Adjust the Ruler in Microsoft Word

Once you enable the ruler in Microsoft Word, you can customize it according to your needs and preferences. There are several things you can do to adjust the ruler, namely:

• Change the ruler’s unit of measure
• Set document margins using the ruler
• Set the stop tab using the ruler
• Set paragraph indentation using the ruler
• Change the ruler’s orientation

Here is a more explanation of how to adjust the ruler in Microsoft Word for each of the above.

1] How to Change the Ruler’s Unit of Measure

By default, rulers in Microsoft Word use inches. However, you can change the ruler’s unit of measure to another unit, such as centimeters, points, or pixels. To change the ruler unit of measure, you can do the following steps:

1. Open the document that you want to work on in Microsoft Word.
2. Right-click on the horizontal or vertical ruler.
3. Select the unit of measure you want from the menu that appears. You can choose between Inches, Centimeters, Millimeters, Points, or Picas.

After that, the ruler will display the unit of measure you selected.

2] How to Set Document Margins Using the Ruler

Margins are the distance between the edges of a document and text, images, tables, or other objects in the document. Margins can affect the look and readability of your document. You can set the margins of a document using the ruler in the following ways:

1. Open the document that you want to work on in Microsoft Word.
2. Make sure you are in the “Print Layout view”. You can select it from the “View” tab under the “Views” group.
3. Hover over the top or left end of the ruler until you see a white rectangle symbol with a black line inside.
4. Click and drag the symbol inward or outward to adjust the top or left margin of the document. You can see the margin value in the pop-up box that appears when you drag the symbol.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to adjust the bottom or right margin of the document.

After that, the margins of your document will change according to the settings you made.

3] How to Set Stop Tab Using Ruler

Tab stops are reference points that determine the position of text when you press the Tab key on the keyboard. The stop tab can help you align text horizontally easily and quickly. You can set the stop tab using the ruler in the following ways:

1. Open the document that you want to work on in Microsoft Word.
2. Select the paragraph or section of text for which you want to set the stop tab.
3. Click on the selector tab located at the left end of the horizontal ruler until the type of stop tab you want appears. There are five types of stop tabs that you can choose from, namely:
   • Left Tab: Aligns text to the left from the stop tab position.
   • Center Tab: Aligns text to the center of the stop tab position.
   • Right Tab: Aligns text to the right of the stop tab position.
   • Decimal Tab: Aligns numbers based on their decimal point at the tab stop position.
   • Tab Bar: Adds a vertical line to the stop tab position.
4. Click on the horizontal ruler where you want to add the stop tab. You can add more than one stop tab on the ruler.
5. If you want to remove or move a stop tab, click and drag it up to remove it or left or right to move it.

After that, the stop tab will be added, removed, or moved according to the settings you made.

4] How to Set Paragraph Indentation Using Ruler

Indentation is the distance between the margin and the beginning of a line in a paragraph. Indentation can make your paragraphs neater and easier to read. There are two types of indentation that you can set using a ruler, namely:

• Left indentation: The distance between the left margin and the beginning of a line in a paragraph.
• Right indentation: The distance between the right margin and the end of a line in a paragraph.

In addition, there are also two special types of indentation that you can set using a ruler, namely:

• First line indentation: The distance between the left margin and the beginning of the first line in a paragraph.
• Hanging indentation: The distance between the left margin and the beginning of the second line and so on in the paragraph.

To set paragraph indentation using the ruler, you can perform the following steps:

1. Open the document that you want to work on in Microsoft Word.
2. Select the paragraph or section of text that you want to set indentation for.
3. Hover over the symbols located under the selector’s tab on the horizontal ruler. There are three symbols that you can use to set the indentation, namely:
   • Top triangle symbol: Set the left indent of the first row.
   • Bottom triangle symbol: Set the left indent of the second row and so on.
   • Square symbol: Sets the right indentation of all rows.
4. Click and drag the symbols left or right to adjust paragraph indentation. You can see the indentation value in the pop-up box that appears when you drag the symbols.

After that, the indentation of your paragraphs will change according to the settings you made.

5] How to Change the Ruler Orientation

The ruler orientation is the direction the ruler is displayed on the screen. By default, the horizontal ruler is displayed horizontally and the vertical ruler is displayed vertically. However, you can change the orientation of the ruler to diagonal if you want to create a document with an unusual angle. To change the orientation of the ruler, you can perform the following steps:

1. Open the document that you want to work on in Microsoft Word.
2. Select the “Layout” tab located at the top of the screen.
3. Under the “Page Setup” group, click the “Orientation” button.
4. Select “Diagonal” from the menu that appears.

After that, the horizontal and vertical rulers will turn diagonal and you can measure and arrange text, images, tables, and other objects at different angles.