Setting tab stops


    Tab stops apply to an entire paragraph. The first tab you set deletes all default tab stops to its left. Subsequent tabs delete all default tabs between the tabs you set.

To set tab stops:

  1. Do one of the following:
    • Select a type object using a selection tool.
    • Set an insertion point or select a range of text using a type tool.
  2. Click a tab-alignment button in the Tabs palette to specify how text will align to the tab's position:
    • Left-Justified Tab Left-Justified Tab to align horizontal text to the left, keeping the right margin ragged.
    • Center-Justified Tab Center-Justified Tab to center text on the tab mark.
    • Right-Justified Tab Right-Justified Tab to align horizontal text to the right, keeping the left margin ragged.
    • Bottom-Justified Tab Bottom-Justified Tab to align vertical text to the bottom margin, keeping the top margin ragged.
    • Top-Justified Tab Top-Justified Tab to align vertical text to the top margin, keeping the bottom margin ragged.
    • Decimal-Justified Tab Decimal-Justified Tab to place text in alignment with a specified character, such as a period or a dollar sign. This option is useful for creating columns of numbers.
  3. Do one of the following:
    • Click a location on the tab ruler to position a new tab stop.
    • Type a position in the X box (for horizontal text) or Y box (for vertical text), and press Enter or Return. If the X or Y value is selected, press the Up Arrow or Down Arrow key to increase or decrease the tab value by 1 point, respectively.

    Note: You cannot set tab stops using increments smaller than one point using the tab ruler, but you can set tab stops to within 0.01-point accuracy by entering a value.

  4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 to add additional tab stops.
  5. Select a type tool, and click to set an insertion point in the text. Then press Tab to move the text to the next tab stop.

To repeat a tab stop:

  1. In the Tabs palette, select a tab stop on the ruler.
  2. Choose Repeat Tab from the palette menu.
  3. The Repeat Tab command creates multiple tabs based on the distance between the tab and the left indent or the previous tab stop.

    Repeated tabs
    Repeated tabs

To move a tab stop:

  1. In the Tabs palette, select a tab stop on the ruler.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • Type a new location in the X box (for horizontal text) or Y box (for vertical text), and press Enter or Return.
    • Drag the tab to a new location.
    • To move all tab stops simultaneously, Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS) a tab.

    As you move a tab stop, a visual guide appears in the selected text.

To remove tab stops:

    Do one of the following:

    • Drag the tab off the tab ruler.
    • Select the tab, and choose Delete Tab from the palette menu.
    • To return to the default tab stops, choose Clear All from the palette menu.

To change a tab stop from one alignment to another:

  1. In the Tabs palette, select a tab stop on the ruler.
  2. Click a tab-alignment button.

To specify a character for a decimal tab:

  1. In the Tabs palette, create or select a decimal tab Decimal-Justified Tab on the tab ruler.
  2. In the Align On box, type the character to which you want to align. You can type or paste any character. Make sure that the paragraphs you're aligning contain the character you specified.
  3. Text aligned on the x character using a decimal tab
    Text aligned on the x character using a decimal tab