What happened to my tabs?

[Steve]

I've had a couple of people write to ask about tabs, so I thought I'd post a quick tip.

 

The style sheets in the Novel and Screenplay template do not define tab stops since the tab (and return) key style shortcuts handle most of the situations you would use tabs for and the styles themselves take care of things like indentation and centering (and require fewer keystrokes).

 

But what if I just want my tabs, thank you very much?

1. In the Text Editing preferences, select the "General" tab and make sure "Pressing Tab in an empty paragraph cycles through styles" is unchecked.
   
2. Place the cursor in some text (e.g. some section text).
   
3. Make the rulers visible (View > Show Rulers).
   
4. Add some tab stops by clicking in the ruler.
   
5. Select Format > Styles > Redefine Style From Selection to update your style sheet so that all section text now includes tab stop settings.
   

 

Another option (if you are not writing a screenplay), is to start with the Blank or the Hero Journey template. Both templates define tab stops.

 

-Steve

[Steve E]

You got me excited there for a moment. When you said "tab" you meant "tab", not "link". What's going on with tabs/links? (You might as well answer in feature requests.)

 

Thanks for the tabs refresher. This should probably go in the Help file or the manual.

-Thoth