Using Indent Vs. Using The Target Symbol - There Is A Difference

What is this about?  Let's say preference and functionality.  

We are talking about finished labels.  When you run a merge or place labels on a sheet let us say 2x4 size, they have a tendency to come in to the left of the label thus leaving a lot of empty space to the right on each label.

People generally want to center the address of each label so it is nice and balanced on the label.  Centering for purposes of this discussion should be thought of in 1 of 2 ways.  One way is to literally center each individual label by use of the center icon or Control E. 

Some people do not like the look of the label when each individual line of the address is centered.  Instead, they like to adjust the left margin and push it so to speak to the center while keeping the left aligned look of the label.  This is the essence of what I want to talk about. The two ways in which we can adjust the left margin in order to better center each address in the individual labels on the sheet.

1.  Try this first.  Make sure your ruler is on.  Sweep across and highlight the first 6 labels.  By sweeping across  the labels rather than selecting the "target symbol" that comes up on the left side of the table when in print layout view, your ruler will be visible and so will the hour glass looking figure on the left side of your ruler.

2.  By hour glass figure, I am referring to the First Line Indent, Hanging Indent and Left Margin when all lined up on top of each other.  Anyway, when you sweep across the labels and highlight them in that way, you can go to the bottom block of the hour glass on the ruler and tug it toward toward the left and all the highlighted labels will react uniformly at once and this is very visual in terms of lining something up in this case, centering address info comfortably on each label.

3.  The other method to center the labels but keep the left aligned aspect is to use the target symbol on the top left of the table which will select the entire table at once.  Your ruler will now disappear.

4.  Go to Paragraph and go to Left Indent and place a figure in such as 1.5 and see how the labels respond meaning how they sit within each individual label.

5.  If the info is nicely centered on the label then great.  If not, with the entire table selected, adjust the left indent setting by increasing or decreasing the indentation setting until the labels sit nicely centered.  Get comfortable with both methods of adjusting the left margin.

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