A hanging indent is often used in a "Works Cited" page for MLA formatting and a "References" page for APA formatting. It is when all the lines of your entire paragraph is indented except for the first line.
Most students will play around with the "Tab" or "Space bar" buttons to get this correct. However, in post-secondary education, the MLA and APA style guides contain measurements that are exact for this indent. It is important that students go through the correct process.