Setting Tab Stops


The next and most important part to working with tabs is to set the tab stops or the formatting controls that set where the text should stop after it is forced to jump to a new position. This alignment is controlled using the Tabs palette.

To open the Tabs palette:

  • Choose Type > Tabs. The Tabs palette appears above the text frame .

    The Tabs palette contains the controls for inserting tab stops and aligning the tabs.

    Tip

    The Tabs palette can be kept onscreen like any other palette.

    Tip

    If the Tabs palette is not positioned above the text, click the Magnet icon in the palette to automatically move the palette to the correct position.

To set tab stops:

1.

Select the text.

2.

Choose the type of tab alignment from the four tab icons in the ruler . The four alignments work as follows :

  • Left aligns the left side of the text at the tab stop.

  • Center centers the text on either side of the tab stop.

  • Right aligns the right side of the text at the tab stop.

  • Decimal aligns the text at the decimal point or period of the text.

Choose one of the four tab alignment icons to control how the text is aligned.

Examples of how the four tab alignments control the text.

3.

Click the ruler area where you want the tab stop to be positioned.

or

Type a number in the Position field. A small tab arrow corresponding to the tab type appears that indicates the position of the tab stop.

Tip

The default tab stops are invisible left-aligned tabs positioned every half inch. Adding tab stops to the ruler overrides all tab stops to the left of the new tab.

To change tab settings:

1.

Select the text.

2.

Open the Tabs palette.

3.

To change the alignment of a tab stop, select the tab arrow and then click a new alignment icon.

or

Hold the Opt/Alt key and click the tab arrow in the ruler.

4.

To change the position of a tab stop, drag the tab arrow to a new position.

Tip

As you move a tab stop along the ruler, a line extends through the text, even if the Tabs palette is not aligned to the text frame . This helps you judge the position of the tab stop.

As you move a tab stop, a line extends through the text to help you position the tab stop correctly.

Many times you will want to have tab stops repeated at the same interval. InDesign makes it easy to set repeating tabs.

To set a repeating tab:

1.

Position the first tab stop on the ruler.

2.

With the tab stop still selected, choose Repeat Tab from the Tabs palette menu . This adds new tab stops at the same interval along the ruler .

The Tabs palette menu gives you two important commands for working with tabs.

The Repeat Tab command allows you to easily add tab stops at the same interval along the ruler.

Tip

The tab stops created by the Repeat Tab command are not linked and move independently.

Once you have added tab stops to the Tabs palette ruler, you can remove them easily.

To remove tab stops:

1.

Select the tab stop on the Tabs palette ruler.

2.

Drag the tab stop off the ruler. This deletes the tab stop .

To remove a tab stop, drag it off the Tabs palette ruler.

Tip

If there are no tab stops to the left of the one you removed, this restores the invisible, default tab stops at the nearest half-inch position.

If you have many tab stops on the Tabs palette ruler, it may be easier to delete all the tab stops with a single command.

To clear all the tabs off the ruler:

  • Choose Clear All from the Tabs palette ruler . This restores the invisible, default tab stops at every half-inch mark.

The Decimal tab aligns numerical data to a decimal point. However, you may need to align text to a different character. For instance, some European currency uses a comma instead of a decimal. InDesign lets you set a custom alignment character.

To set a custom alignment character:

1.

Choose the Decimal Tab icon.

2.

Add a tab stop to the ruler.

3.

Replace the period in the Align On field with a different character. The text aligns around that character .

You can enter a custom alignment character for the Align On field. Here the text aligns to the hyphen.



InDesign CS2 for Macintosh and Windows(c) Visual QuickStart Guide
InDesign CS4 for Macintosh and Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide
ISBN: 0321573579
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 309
Authors: Sandee Cohen

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