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The Default Tab Stops value should still be set to the new value you entered. Now, position the insertion point somewhere else in the document and again display the Tabs dialog box. The dialog box closes, and the default is changed. To test this out, change the Default Tab Stops value to something different from what it is, then click on OK.
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This value applies to the entire document, even though every other setting in the dialog box applies only to the current paragraph. In the upper-right corner of the dialog box is the Default Tab Stops value. Word displays the Paragraph dialog box and you should click the Tabs button, at the lower-left of the dialog box. Display the Home tab of the ribbon and click the small icon at the lower-right of the Paragraph group. To see what this means, position your insertion point anywhere within your document it doesn't matter where. There is a single default tab stop distance that you can set in Word, although you do it from the Tabs dialog box, which is definitely a paragraph-level formatting dialog box. The setting in mind, of course, is for the default tab stop distance. The way in which the setting is presented in Word is a bit deceiving, however. We normally think of tab stops as being a "paragraph-level setting." However, there is one tab stop option that applies to the entire document, not just to a particular paragraph. Some formatting settings apply to characters, others to paragraphs, still others to sections, and finally there are formatting settings that apply to the entire document.
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Word has many different levels of formatting that you can do in a document.
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