Google Docs – How to Change Default Tab-Indentation Width

As noted by Felipe Alvarez, this is no longer available as an option. Therefore, while this answer was correct two years ago when the product was Google Docs, it no longer applies to the current Google Drive app.

Assuming you mean opening documents from your list, that's in the Google Docs settings on the "General" tab.

Where items open:

Your choices are:

• In a new window
• In the current window

Screen shot:

Select the latter for what you want.

Yes, there are ways to control the indentation of paragraphs in Drive, and there are ways to create itemized lists. All of these options are available in the text formatting icons at the top of your document (shown in image)

Here is advice on both:

For paragraph indentations:

You can increase or decrease the paragraph indents by using the icons on the right:

This will increase the indent, and keep it there until you change the indentation levels.

You can also access these options by going to Format > Paragraph styles

Update - adding info on keyboard shortcuts

A keyboard solution is to use the Tab key. If you hit Tab at the beginning of a line that already contains characters, it will indent the text and preserve the indentation level on subsequent lines (Shift + Tab at the beginning will decrease the indent). Any tabbing done in the middle of a line or at the start of a new line without existing characters will produce the regular Tab without preserving the indentation level on future lines.

For bulleted and numbered lists

You can get there by using the icons in the text formatting bar found at the top of the page. Look for the little numbered or unnumbered list icons next to the paragraph indentations.

Some keyboard shortcuts are:

• For a numbered list, the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl + Shift + 7
• For an unordered (bulleted) list, the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl + Shift + 8