Practice Typing Rulers

Practice typing rulers can help you find out the purpose of the two rulers in your Word program.  It is located above the white page on the left side.

Practice typing rulers advice can be very rewarding.

Rulers are used for:

  • Placing different types of tabs in different locations across the page.
  • Measuring pictures
  • Measuring spaces between paragraphs

Measure white spaces between paragraphs using the ruler

If you have to give two inches between two paragraphs the ruler on the left side of your white page can be used to measure the white space between them. If they do not match up to the exact number on the ruler you can count how many strokes make up the two inches and you will have your spaces.

Practice typing rulers -Measure a picture using the rulers

You can also practice typing using the rulers to measure the size of your picture. First you need to

  1. Right-click on the picture,
  2. choose 'Text wrapping’ and choose
  3. 'Behind Text' or choose 'Format Picture'.
  4. Click the 'Layout' tab and then choose 'Behind Text'.

In this way your picture will now be able to be dragged freely at the top or left side of the ruler to get an accurate measurement.

Practice typing rulers can also show you how to move your picture.

Just make sure you are pointing to the middle of the picture.

  • Press the left side of the mouse a four-headed arrow will appear.
  • Drag the picture close to the ruler to measure.

Practice typing rulers -Placing tabs using the rulers

Tabs can be placed on the ruler by finding first the type of tab you are setting. For example there is the

  • left,
  • centre,
  • right,
  • *decimal, etc.

Choose them from the tab selector (a square toggle box) located above the left ruler or in line with the top ruler.

By continually clicking the selector a new tab will show in the box. A screen tip appears identifying each tab. This is a little box that appears for a few seconds. When you have chosen your tab, click on the ruler to where you will like it to be located on your page.

When you are finished setting the tab; on the top ruler, always click back for the left tab which is the default tab, if you are not choosing another one.

Practice typing rulers -
Moving your tabs around using the ruler

You can move your tabs to a new location on the ruler by pointing to it then drag it using the left side of the mouse to its new location.

Practice typing rulers - Removing tabs from the ruler

To remove a tab, point to the tab pressing the left side of the mouse and drag it down to the white page. It will disappear.

Keep trying out these tabs.  First type a table, then set different tab at a time to see how the table looks by setting them on the ruler, moving them around and deleting them.

*Remember Decimal tabs are for figures

Use the tab key to move from one to the other.