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# WD: Word Ruler Supports Only Mouse Commands

Article ID: 110376

Article Last Modified on 8/16/2005

APPLIES TO

- Microsoft Word 6.0 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Word 6.0a
- Microsoft Word 6.0c
- Microsoft Word 95 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Word 6.0 for Macintosh
- Microsoft Word 6.01 for Macintosh
- Microsoft Word 98 for Macintosh

This article was previously published under Q110376

## SUMMARY

Microsoft Word version 6.0 and later do not have a keyboard activated ruler like Word 2.0 for Windows does. (In Word 2.0, you can press CTRL+SHIFT+F10 to make the ruler active.) The ruler in Word 6.0 and later is accessible only by using a mouse. As the result of customer feedback, Microsoft increased the functionality of the ruler starting with Word 6.0. To prevent too much complexity, the additional mouse functionality required a loss of keyboard functionality. As a result, there is no longer a ruler mode you can activate to allow setting tabs and indents directly from the keyboard.

## MORE INFORMATION

New functions and changes to the ruler in Word 6.0 and later include:

- The indent and margin modes were combined.
- You automatically switch to table mode when in a table.
- Page layout view now has a vertical ruler.
- You can set all indents using the mouse without keyboard intervention. (Previously you had to hold down the SHIFT key to drag the body indent triangle.)
- You can choose the type of tab from the ruler.
- The visual style has been improved to make it easier to use.

To set all paragraph settings using the keyboard, click either Paragraph or Tabs on the Format menu.

Keywords: kbinfo kbui KB110376