In this article, we explain hanging indents and explore different ways to apply a hanging indent in Word. Knowing how to apply hanging indents is helpful when writing an academic research paper or similar document that follows a particular citation style.

Hanging indents make it easy for readers to distinguish between consecutive references, citations and bibliographies and quickly identify the author's name or title of work. Hanging indents are a formatting style where the first line of a paragraph starts at the margin and all subsequent lines begin half-inch away from the margin.