When indenting paragraphs

When indenting paragraphs?

How many spaces do you indent on MS (Microsoft Word)?

Do you use the tab function, or manually space out the paragraph? Finally, for dialogue, do you indent four spaces?

I'm asking because, once again it seems a number of writers/novelists seem to vary when using MS. I've even seen people who use as far as seven spaces to indent a paragraph!

For me, I use the standard five, and it looks perfect. Yet, some people will use three-four just to indent. Is there a literary rule which states it has to be a certain amount of spaces? Or, as long as the margin and indented paragraphs still look professional, it is deemed ok?

Some people may chew my head off for asking this... it's just I've seen so many manuscripts -- especially in my creative writing class -- in which their manuscript layout differs drasticly. I'm not one for thinking I'm always right either, this is why it's made me question the format for paragraph indentation.

Thank you. I look forward to your answers.

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