Default Tab Settings and Potential Problems

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Default Tab Settings and Potential Problems

By default, there are 1/2-inch, left-aligned tab settings across the page. Setting any tab manually overrides the default tab settings up to that point from the left of the page. For instance, setting a left-aligned tab at the 3-inch mark effectively “erases” all of the 1/2-inch tabs set by default up to the 3-inch mark. The 1/2-inch default tabs beyond the three-inch mark remain.

Default tabs are barely viewable on the horizontal ruler, which can be confusing. If you look closely, however, you’ll see the default tab settings.

Figure 8-2 depicts first the horizontal ruler with default tabs only, then enlarged so that you can see the small, gray tick-mark indicators, and then with a 3-inch, manually set tab.

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Figure 8-2: Reading Tab Settings on the Horizontal Ruler

As a result of the default tab settings, many users type columns of information, as shown in Figure 8-3. This is not the desired method, which is shown in Figure 8-4.

Note the difference in the number of tabs required. In a large document, you could save considerable file size by the reduction of unnecessary characters (tabs).

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Figure 8-3: List Using Default Tab Settings (Wrong Method)

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Figure 8-4: List Using Manually Set Tabs (Right Method)

I recently received a file that was about 9 columns wide and 11 pages long, and used the wrong method. The list should probably have been created in Excel in the first place because it was just for reference. Ultimately, we were to get this data into an Access table. Formatting like an Excel workbook or even a Word table would have been great for this purpose. Unfortunately, we could not automate getting the list into the required layout.

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Tip 17: Turning Tabbed Columns into a Data File

Turning Word text formatted in columns, as in Figure 8-4, into a table is fairly simple. Just select the text beginning at the left of the first tab, through to and including the last paragraph return. Hit Table Convert Text to Table. You could then copy and paste this right into an Excel worksheet.

If your text contains more than one tab between each item, you must first run a Find and Replace from the Edit menu to replace two tabs with one, until zero replacements have been made.

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The problem arises when your text extends beyond the left alignment measure of the following tab. So, many people set their list as shown in Figure 8-5. Then, when an attempt is made to convert this data to some other format, it simply does not work.


Figure 8-5: List Text That Exceeds the Column Width (Wrong Method)

I have found that the best way to create all types of columned lists is to place them in tables in the first place and then just remove the borders of the table, if desired. Long bulleted lists are best handled this way too.

If you cannot use tables, then type your list using NO tab at the beginning of the line and only one tab between each column. When you’ve finished typing the list, THEN select it all and set your left indent and appropriate tabs. Depending on the length of text you type in any given column, you may have to change your tab width, so you might as well finish the list before formatting.



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Dreamboat on Word
Dreamboat on Word: Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003 (On Office series)
ISBN: 0972425845
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 130
Authors: Anne Troy

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