Topic: Tabs and Tab Stops

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Accurately Setting Tabs on the Ruler If you try to set tabs by clicking on the Ruler, you may not be able to set them exactly where you want. This is normally due to a setting used for aligning graphics, but you can easily change it. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Adding Tabs at the Beginning of a Line Press Tab at the beginning of a line, and chances are good that Word will simply indent the paragraph rather than inserting an actual tab character. This tip explains how you can insert a real tab character, as well as how to configure Word so it doesn’t indent paragraphs when you press Tab. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Aligning Plus/Minus Symbols When entering tabular data of a statistical variety, you may need to include a +/- symbol. For the sake of appearance it is beneficial if these symbols can line up horizontally in a column of figures. This tip explains several ways you can accomplish this task. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Aligning Text on a Specific Character Want to use tab stops to align text according to the position of a certain character? It’s easy to do if that character is a decimal point (period), but can also be done for many other characters. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Automatically Setting Right Leader Tabs If you have a constant need to define tabs at the edge of the right margin, you’ll love the macro-based technique provided in this tip. You can, just by running the macro, set the requisite tab and include either dot or underscore leaders for the tab. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Changing Default Tab Stops By default, Word sets your tabs every 1/2 inch. Here's how to change that setting. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Changing Tabs Using the Ruler Got tab stops in a paragraph? Change them quickly and easily be dragging them around on the ruler. This tip explains how. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Clearing All Tab Stops in a Paragraph Removing all the tab stops in a paragraph (or a selection of paragraphs) is easy. Just select Format | Tabs and use the controls in the Tabs dialog box, as described in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Deleting Tab Stops Tabs are used to align information horizontally. You can add as many tab stops to a paragraph as you need, but at some time you may need to delete them. This tip explains two ways that you can remove unneeded tab stops from a paragraph. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Entering Tabs in a Table If the insertion point is located in a table, pressing the Tab key results in the insertion point moving to the next cell in the table. If you want to actually insert a tab character within a cell, just remember to hold down the Ctrl key as you press Tab. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Flush Left and Flush Right On the Same Line Do you need some information to appear left-aligned and right-aligned on the same line? This tip describes how you can use tabs to accomplish this formatting task. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Indenting a Paragraph to the Next Tab Stop Need to indent a paragraph from the left margin? It's easy to do when you use the Indent tool, as described in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Misbehaving Leader Dots What do you do if your leader dots don't print out correctly? Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Numbering Equations Word allows you to easily number a variety of elements in your document. Not so with equations; there is no automatic numbering feature for them. You can use other tools in the program to get your number to appear just as you want it to, as highlighted in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Precisely Adjusting Tab Stops A great way to get your tab stops positioned just where you want them is to use the Tabs dialog box. This tip explains how to use the dialog box to make the exact changes you need. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Quickly Changing Tab Alignment How to replace tab stops using search and replace. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Quickly Displaying the Tabs Dialog Box Want a quick way to jump to the Tabs dialog box so you can modify the tabs in a paragraph? All you need to do is double-click at the bottom of the ruler, as described in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Removing Tabs Used to Indent a Paragraph Someone sends you a document, and it has a lot of tabs in it that are used to indent paragraphs. This tip explains how you can get rid of those tabs as a first step in cleaning up the text. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Removing Tabs Used to Indent a Paragraph with WordBasic An easy little WordBasic macro to strip tabs from the beginning of a paragraph. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95

Replacing Multiple Spaces with Tabs If you get a document or some text that has multiple consecutive spaces used to align information, you’ll undoubtedly be looking for a quick way to replace those spaces with tabs. Here’s the absolute fastest way to do the replacing. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Searching for Tabs Tabs don’t normally show up in your printed document, but Word allows you to still search for them. All you need to do is use the special code (^t) recognized by Word as a tab character. This tip explains how to utilize that code when searching. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Setting Decimal Tabs in a Table Using the Keyboard Most people use the mouse to set tab stops in the paragraphs in a table. If you prefer to not use the mouse, then you’ll be interested in the techniques for keyboard tab setting, as described in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Setting Tab Stops Using Menus Tabs are a very common way to format text in a paragraph. Using Word’s menus you can easily set exactly the type of tabs that you need for formatting your text. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Sorting Tabular Tables Got a table that doesn't use the table tool (you used tabs instead)? Want to sort the information in that table? Here's how. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Understanding Decimal Tabs Word offers a variety of tabs that define different ways to align text. If you need to align numeric values, you’ll become quite familiar with the decimal tab, described in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Understanding Default Tab Stops When you press the Tab key, Word checks to see if you’ve already set a tab location for that paragraph. If not, it uses a default tab stop, over which you have complete control. This tip shows how you can adjust the default tab stops used by Word. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Using Dot Leaders in a Paragraph How to add dot leaders to a paragraph. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Using Leaders with Tab Stops Tab stops allow you to format the positioning of text within a paragraph. If you want, you can instruct Word to include leader characters (dots, dashes, or underlines) with your tabs. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Vertical Lines in Word Lines are a common addition to documents. Word provides several different methods by which you can add vertical lines to your document. This tip describes each of these methods so you can pick the one that best matches your needs. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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