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# Indenting and Dedenting

The shape of multi-line data fields and text boxes can be changed to allow for an indent at the top left corner and/or a dedent at the bottom right corner. By indenting and dedenting text boxes and data fields, you can nest text boxes and data fields together on your form. You can also apply indents and dedents to system text boxes. It may be useful if you are using them to display form properties. It is probably not useful for page numbering.

## Applying indents and dedents

You can apply indents and dedents by changing the settings on the Object property page or by using your mouse. Usually, it is easiest to create them initially with your mouse. You can tweak them on the property page to make “fine” adjustments if necessary.

To apply indents and dedents with the mouse

1. Click on the data field or text box you want to indent and/or dedent. You will note that the field has two additional diamond-shaped handles in addition to the sizing handles:

2. To apply an indent, do the following:

- Place your mouse pointer on the indent handle.

- When the pointer changes to,drag your mouse right until you have indented the first line as far as you want:

3. To apply a dedent, do the following:

- Place your mouse pointer on the dedent handle.

- When the pointer changes to,drag your mouse left until you have dedented the last line as far as you want:

To apply indents or dedents through the property pane

1. Select the data field or text box.

2. To apply an indent, do the following:

- Click on the Indent value field on the Object tab:

- Enter the measurement you want for your indent.

3. To apply a dedent, do the following:

- Click on the Dedent value field:

- Enter the measurement you want for your dedent.

## Nesting text and data fields

With indented and dedented fields, you can nest your text and data fields together into a single sentence or paragraph. Indented data fields sometimes have an advantage over inline fields in paragraphs because you can control the size of the field:

To nest indented and dedented data fields

1. Create the data field.

2. Assign the number of characters you want to allow in the data field and keep the number of lines set at 1. The data field description will wrap to the next line. If you see asterisks, increase the height of the data field.

3. Stretch the data field from margin to margin and indent the field from the left to fit the text. The description will wrap. If you see asterisks, increase the height of the data field.

4. Dedent the field from the right to fit the number of characters.

5. Move the field into position so it nests with the text.

Hint:

If you have spaces in your data field description, the description will not wrap properly and will be split at the space(s). To eliminate this problem, you may want to hide descriptions while you are working on a form with indented/dedented data fields. Then the fields will wrap correctly.

To nest indented and dedented text boxes

1. Create the text box and stretch it from margin to margin.

2. Indent the text box to fit around the data field.

3. Move the text box into position so it nests with the data field.

4. If a dedent is needed, dedent the text box to fit the text. Otherwise, leave the text box as is.

Hint:

If you are justifying text and you have text boxes nested between data fields, set the justification to All Lines to distribute the text evenly.