If your text look a little disorganised in your Word document, you may want to use Tab Stops to align the text into neat columns.  You can use tabs instead of putting text into tables and then hiding the borders.  You can set them on the horizontal ruler at the top of the page.  (If you can’t see your ruler, go to View > Show grouping > Ruler and tick the checkbox).

There are 5 different tab stops, each with different properties:

• Left – aligns the left edge of the text with the tab stop.
• Centre – centres the text under the tab stop.
• Right – aligns the right edge of the text with the tab stop.
• Decimal – aligns any decimal point under the tab stop.
• Bar –automatically  inserts a vertical line under the tab stop.

Set up your tabs using the Tab Alignment button to the far left of your ruler.  The button shows the type of tab you will insert.  Hover over the tab stop for a second and Word will give you a Tip as to which one it is set.  To select a different type of tab to place, click on the Tab Alignment button and it will scroll through the various tabs and indent markers. (We’ll leave the indent markers until another time).

To set a custom tab on the ruler:

1. Select the text you want to set the tab stops for.
2. Click the Tab Alignment button to select the type of tab you want to use.
3. Select the location of your tab stop on the ruler.

There is another button I use frequently when setting and sorting out my tab stops and that is in the Home tab > Paragraph grouping > Show/Hide button to display my paragraph marks.  (The one that looks like a reverse P).  It show my tab markers and helps me to tidy up messy text.

One final tip on moving tabs is that you can simply drag your tabs to a new location on the ruler.  It is important to remember that you need to select the whole paragraph or pieces of text for which you want the tabs to move. The tabbed text moves with the tab stop so you can see how the change will affect your text.

Also read Quickly Apply Formats to Text