Right Tab Stop to the right of the Right Indent - Not Working

Anonymous
2013-11-20T18:08:50+00:00

You used to be able to place a right tab stop outside of the right indent, so that the tab actually appeared on the ruler to the right of the right indent. This was how a table of contents would be formatted so that if the heading title was longer than one line, the text would only go as far right as the right indent as it wrapped onto multiple lines, and then the page number would align farther right of the heading text at the tab stop. It now appears that Word 2013 (when it is not in Compatibility Mode) cannot recognize a tab stop if it is to the right of the right indent, so I cannot figure out how to get this alignment if the heading title is longer than one line.

The only way I can find that you can is to use manual returns at the end of each line of text with a dot leader tab on the last line, like this example:

   Really long heading title that is tremendously long so it goes longer than one line of text (RETURN)

   and in fact just keeps going on and on so that it spans multiple lines in the document (RETURN)

   instead of all fitting on one line of the document……………………………………………………………..............……….…3

How do I create an alignment like this within the paragraph settings without manually adding returns?

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Stefan Blom 353K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2017-06-22T11:17:31+00:00

Well, I have the same problem with WORD2016 now and even though I am glad I found your posts about the problems with the 2013 version, I am still frustrated that this problem is not addressed and solved in the new version.

I now followed an old reply found here and saved my document in the .doc format - and voila... it now does what I want. But can this be the solution?? To go back to save it in an ancient format???

If you are running Word for Mac, you should start a new thread.

In Word 2016 (or in Word 2013 with the most recent updates) for Windows, you can set a tab stop to the right of a right indent, but NOT to the right of the right margin. This is by design. See screen shot below.

Also, you must use the Tab dialog box; you can't add such a tab stop by double-clicking the horizontal ruler.

Older file formats still support the older behavior, which is to be expected.

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-11-21T02:55:33+00:00

    You assume correctly. It is no longer possible to place a tab stop to the right of a right indent using the ruler, and only with the update installed will Word even honor a tab stop to the right of the indent. Even with the update, tab stops to the right of the right margin are not honored in new documents, though I believe they still work in unconverted legacy documents.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-11-21T00:19:54+00:00

    Thanks Stefan. I'm running Word 2010, but the only way you can insert a right tab off of the right margin is to place it to the left of the right margin and then drag it over. 

    The op said "You used to be able to place a right tab stop outside of the right indent, so that the tab actually appeared on the ruler to the right of the right indent."

    I assumed that he could not place the tab off of the right margin, so I thought he may have the ability to drag it over to the right.  From your reaction, I'm assuming it does not work with the 2013 version.

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  3. Stefan Blom 353K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-11-20T23:29:25+00:00

    Not sure exactly what the issue is, but if you add the right tab” just to the left of the “right indent” marker on the ruler, you can just drag it as far as needed on the right margin.

    Have you actually tried that, in Word 2013? Which release are you running?

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-11-20T21:11:01+00:00

    Not sure exactly what the issue is, but if you add the right tab” just to the left of the “right indent” marker on the ruler, you can just drag it as far as needed on the right margin.

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