Tab leaders are used on menus, price lists, and contents pages. Their purpose is to guide the eye from one piece of text to the next. There are other solutions, arguably preferable, that don't introduce gaping holes between the item and its page number or price, but so long as the distance between the text and the number isn't too wide, this can be a good solution.
Figure 12.4. This menu uses a right tab with leader characters (a period followed by a space) to separate the menu item and its price.
Part I: Character Formats
Getting Started
Going with the Flow
Character Reference
Getting the Lead Out
Kern, Baby, Kern
Sweating the Small Stuff: Special Characters, White Space, and Glyphs
OpenType: The New Frontier in Font Technology
Part II: Paragraph Formats
Aligning Your Type
Paragraph Indents and Spacing
First Impressions: Creating Great Opening Paragraphs
Dont Fear the Hyphen
Mastering Tabs and Tables
Part III: Styles
Stylin with Paragraph and Character Styles
Mo Style
Part IV: Page Layout
Setting Up Your Document
Everything in Its Right Place: Using Grids
Text Wraps: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Type Effects