What are they exactly and what do I use them for?

Hiya Gordon

Well sir a hanging indent is a way of showing sub catagories of related text for example if you have more infomation to mention on a certain subject like some extra bullet point then you can create a hanging indent

They are created very easy, either go to the increase indent button on the formatting toolbar when you are at the beginning of the line you want hanging or you could make it easier by pressing the tab button on your keyboard (which is the forth button up on the left hand side of your keyboard

hope this makes things clearer

Mark East