difference between a tab and a first-line indent in Word

First-line indents and tabs are different and do not need to be used in place of one another. These two options in Word have specific purposes for using them in a document. A tab is placed on the ruler and is used to control the placing of the text. There are five tab styles available on Microsoft: left, center, right, decimal, and bar. Tabs can be very useful in a document, but they do not need to be used to indent the first line of the paragraph. Tabs are hard to keep consistent throughout a paper, and they are also difficult to keep the exact format. If you need to erase something, it is a struggle to reformat the tab to be identical to the others in the paper. Tabs do not need to be used over first-line indent in word. First-line indent is a paragraph- formatting technique used to set the first line of a paragraph to the right to show that a new paragraph is started. This is mainly used to signal the start of a new paragraph. An indent is how far a paragraph starts from the left margin. The tab and first-line indent are similar, but they need to be used for certain things in a document depending on what you are doing to the text.

This is an example of tab, and how it is used:

This is an example of a first-line indent being used in a document:

These two features in Word need to be used in order for the document to be formatted correctly.