A hanging indent is an indentation used in bibliographies and citation styles such as APA and Chicago. It works by indenting all lines of the paragraph other than the first line.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to do a hanging indent in Google Slides using two methods.
Method #1: Using the Ruler
- Open your Google Slide presentation.
Open the Google Slide presentation. - Navigate to the paragraph where you want to apply a hanging indent.
Select the paragraph on the slide. - Next, go to View in the top menu and select Show ruler. Once enabled, a check mark will appear on its left. The ruler will now appear above and to the left of your slides.
Go to the View menu and select Show ruler. The rulers will be placed below the Menu bar and beside the Preview pane. - After adding the ruler, highlight the paragraph you want to do a hanging indent in.
Highlight the paragraph. - Go to the ruler’s indent tool. It has two parts:
The upper rectangle represents the First Line Indent.
The lower arrow represents the Left Indent.Parts of the indent tool. - To do a hanging indent, click and drag the left indent and set it to the position you want the whole paragraph to be indented. In this guide, we’ll move it to 0.5 inches from the left, which is the standard indentation to create a hanging indent.Note: A measurement will be displayed as you move it to guide you on the distance you use for your indent.
Click and drag the left indent to 0.5 inches. - Next, click and drag the upper part of the indent tool back to its original position. Ideally, you want it to be displayed as 0.00 inches on the ruler.
Drag the first line indent to zero inches. The selected paragraph will now have a hanging indent!
Paragraph with a hanging indent.
Method #2: Using Keyboard Shortcuts
- Navigate to the paragraph you want to hanging indent.
Navigate to a paragraph in the slide. - Place your cursor on the second line of the paragraph and press Shift + Enter (Shift + Return on Mac). This will prevent the other lines from moving, except the second line.
Place the cursor on the second line, and press Shift + Enter (Shift + Return on Mac). - Then, press the Tab key on your keyboard. The second line will be indented.
Press Tab to indent the second line. - Repeat the process for all lines except the first line to do a hanging indent.
Repeat the process for the rest of the lines.