Using the Tabs Pane
To set tabs in InDesign you use the Tabs pane, which floats above your text so that you can keep it open until you're finished experimenting with tabs. To open the Tabs pane, choose Window ‚ Type & Tables ‚ Tabs or press Shift+ z +T or Ctrl+Shift+T. Figure 21-2 shows the Tabs pane along with a simple table created using two tab stops.
Figure 21-2: The Tabs pane and a simple table created with two tab stops.
| Tip ‚ | If you find yourself adjusting tab settings and indents at the same time, you might wish to combine the Tabs pane and the Paragraph pane. Simply drag the Tabs pane into the Paragraph pane or vice versa. Use the palette menu on the Paragraph pane to change its orientation to vertical so the palettes work together better. (By default, Adobe combines the Paragraph, Character, and Transform panes ‚ we recommend you split the Paragraph and Character panes into separate palettes so you can see all your text formatting at once.) |
When importing text, the most common problem a designer encounters is that writers try to line up the text on their screen by using multiple tabs between columns , rather than setting appropriate tab stops in the first place and having one tab between each " cell ." That's because word processors also have default tabs stops of 0.5", and most users use those defaults rather than figure out how to set tabs themselves . When you import the file with these tabs, the chances of items lining up in InDesign as they did in the word processor are pretty close to zero. That means a lot of cleanup work for the designer.
Before you start setting tabs in InDesign, take a look at the tabs already entered in the text. You can check this out in your word processor or in text that has been placed in InDesign. To view tab characters in InDesign, choose Type ‚ Show Hidden Characters, or press Option+ z +I or Ctrl+Alt+I. The light-blue double greater-than symbols (>>) are tabs.
To set effective tabs for columns of data, each line or row of information should be its own paragraph, and each column of data should be separated by only one tab character. If there's only one tab between each column, you need to set only one tab stop per column and you can more carefully control a single tab stop rather than several.
Since the text is not in its final font or text frame, the current tab placement does not matter. But if necessary, the writer can change tab settings in Word to align the columns for proofreading or editing purposes.
As with multiple tabs stops, if there are extra paragraph returns between the rows or information or if each line ends in a soft return or line break (Shift+Return or Shift+Enter) rather than a paragraph return (Return or Enter), you should fix these with search and replace in your word processor or Find/Change (Edit ‚ Find/Change, or z +F or Ctrl+F) in InDesign.
It's best to insist that any word processor documents imported into InDesign be created so there is only one tab between each entry on a line, no matter how it looks in the word processor. Then you can set up the appropriate tab stops in InDesign.
Tab style buttons
Four buttons on the Tabs pane let you control how the text aligns with the tab you're creating:
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Left: The default tab stops are left-aligned, which means that the left side of the text touches the tab stop as if it were a left margin. Most tabs you create for text will be left-aligned.
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Center: Centered tab stops are like the centered paragraph alignment, with text balanced evenly on either side of the tab stop. Center tabs are often used for table headings.
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Right: When you set right-aligned tabs, the right edge of text touches the tab stop. This is commonly used for aligning numbers that do not include decimals or for the last column in a table.
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Align On: By default, the last tab style button is for decimal tabs, which means that a period in the text aligns on the tab stop. If there's no period in the text, InDesign pretends that there is one after the last character. Instead of aligning on a period, you can specify a different character ‚ such as a comma or dollar sign ‚ for an Align On tab, and text will align to that character. You do this using the Align On field, covered later in this section.
Tip ‚ If you need a tab flush with the right margin, for example to position a dingbat at the end of the story, click the Right Tab Style button and position it on the right side of the tab ruler. Then drag the right-aligned tab on top of the right indent arrow. (You can't actually click to place a tab on top of the arrow, but you can drag a tab on top of it.) An even faster way is to choose Type ‚ Special Characters ‚ Right Indent or press Shift+Tab.
X (position) field
The X field of the Tabs pane lets you specify a position for a new tab stop. You can enter a value in this field in 0.01-point increments , then press Shift+Enter or Shift+Return to create a tab. InDesign positions tabs relative to the left edge of the text frame or column. Or you can just click the mouse on the ruler where you want the tab to be, as described later.
| Tip ‚ | Why enter numbers when you can just use the mouse? The reason is to get more accurate positioning than using the mouse usually allows, especially when you know exactly where the tab stop should be. Of course, you can add a tab via the mouse, then click it and enter a more precise value in the X field. |
| Note ‚ | If a text frame has Inset Spacing specified for its left edge in the Text Frame Options dialog box (Object ‚ Text Frame Options, or z +B or Ctrl+B), InDesign measures tabs from the text inset rather than from the frame. |
As with other fields in InDesign, the X field can perform mathematical computations for you. So you can set a tab at half of 0.125 without figuring out that value, or you can move a tab by adding to or subtracting from its current value. It may seem unlikely that you would ever do this, but it's extremely handy for changing tab settings so they're, say, half as far apart as they used to be, or half as far apart plus 2 points to the right.
| Note ‚ | The operands for performing math in fields are + (addition), ‚ (subtraction), * (multiplication), and / (division). If you want to combine these operands ‚ for example, add 5 then subtract 2 ‚ you'll have to remember back to middle school and Algebra I to enter the operands in the correct order: multiply, divide, add, then subtract. |
Leader field
A tab leader is a character or series of characters that fills the white space between tabs ‚ like the periods you see between a table of contents entry and its page number. They got the name leader because they lead your eyes across the page. Figure 21-2 shows a dot leader in use between the donor's name and the donation amount.
InDesign lets you specify up to eight characters, including special characters, that will repeat to fill any white space. When you set a leader for a tab stop, the leaders actually fill any space prior to that tab stop (between the previous text and the tab location).
To spread out the leader characters, type spaces between the characters you enter. Don't enter spaces before and after a single character though, as that will result in two spaces between the character when the pattern repeats (unless that's the look you're going for). You can't enter special types of spaces ‚ such as thin spaces or hair spaces ‚ in the Leader field; you will always get em spaces.
| Note ‚ | The reason to use tab leaders is to help the reader. Unless the design is more important than the content, you probably shouldn't use eight-character tab leaders even though you can. A cacophony of characters draws too much attention to itself and can be confusing. Because the pattern of leaders repeats, one space and a period are usually sufficient. |
| Note ‚ | To enter special characters in the Leader field, use keyboard commands, InDesign's Glyph pane, or a utility such as PopChar X or Character Map. If you use InDesign's Insert Special Character command (Type ‚ Insert Character) or the Glyph pane (Type ‚ Glyph), you'll insert a character into your text, which you'll have to cut and paste into the Leader field. It won't be inserted directly in the Leader field as you would expect. |
Align On field
The Align On tab style defaults to a period, but you can replace the period with any character, including special characters. When that character is found in tabbed text, it will align on the tab stop. If that character is not found, InDesign pretends that it follows the last character in the tabbed string. The most common characters entered in the Align On field include a comma (,), dollar sign ($), cents symbol ( ‚ ), and opening or closing parentheses (( and )).
Tab ruler
Rather than entering values in the X field, you can position tabs by clicking on the ruler at the bottom of the Tabs pane. The Tab ruler has the following characteristics:
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It displays in the same measurement system as the document, with 0 specifying the edges of the column. If Inset Spacing is specified for the left edge of the text frame in the Text Frame Options dialog box (Object ‚ Text Frame Options, or z +B or Ctrl+B), the ruler starts after the text inset in the first column.
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The ruler provides arrows for controlling and displaying the selected paragraph's first-line, left, and right indents. Dragging the two left arrows changes both the paragraph's first line and left indent, while dragging the top arrow changes only the first-line indent. Dragging the arrow at right changes the right indents. These arrows help you see indents in relation to tabs that you're setting.
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Icons that match the tab styles display on the rulers to show you where and what type of tabs are already set. You can drag these around to reposition existing tabs, and you can drag them off the ruler to delete tabs.
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You can scroll through the ruler by clicking on it and dragging to the left or right. This lets you set tabs beyond the current column or text box width, such as for text that flows into text boxes of different widths.
Magnet icon
Under the right circumstances, clicking the Magnet icon in the lower-left corner of the Tabs pane snaps the pane and the ruler to the selected text frame or column. The idea is to make it easier to see the tab stops in relation to an actual area of text.
For this to work, you need to make sure the top of the text frame is visible on-screen, the Type tool is selected, and you've placed the cursor in text or highlighted text. If you don't meet all these prerequisites, nothing happens.
Once you manage to get the Tabs pane positioned correctly, it's quite useful. You can add and adjust tabs in relation to the text (provided that the text is at the top of the text frame!) and you can always see from where the tabs are measured. Even better, if you move the cursor to another column in the text frame, you can click the Magnet again to position the Tabs pane over that column.
Tabs pane menu
In addition to setting tabs in the Tabs pane, InDesign provides two additional options through the palette menu: Clear All and Repeat Tab:
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The Clear All command deletes any tabs you've created, and any text positioned with tabs reverts to the position of the default tab stops. (You can delete an individual tab stop by dragging its icon off the ruler.)
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The Repeat Tab command lets you create a string of tabs across the ruler that are all the same distance apart. When you select a tab on the ruler and choose this command, InDesign measures the distance between the selected tab and the previous tab (or, if it's the first tab on the ruler, the distance between the selected tab and the left indent/text inset). The program then uses this distance to place new tabs, with the same alignment, all the way across the ruler. InDesign repeats tabs only to the right of the selected tab, but it will insert tabs between other tab stops.
