 Tabs panel, you see that the Right Indent marker (the triangle) is back in its original position. That’s because every paragraph has its own settings.
To change the settings of more than one paragraph at once, select all the paragraphs you want to change. (These paragraphs must be contiguous, or connected to each other, to select them.)
The Tabs panel ruler has invisible tab settings every half inch.
As soon as you set your own tab, every default tab setting to the left of that new tab disappears.
Task 2 Experiment with a tab marker
Make sure the Ruler across the top of the screen is showing (from the View menu).
Make sure the Ruler is in inches for now. If it isn’t displaying inches, you can change it: Control-click or right-click on the Ruler; from the menu that appears, choose “Inches.”
- Create a text frame three or four inches wide.
- Hit the Tab key, then type a silly word, such as Dogfood.
If the Tabs panel is open, single-click on its magnet icon to make it snap to the text frame you just made. Or open the Tabs panel (from the Type menu), and it will position itself directly over the text box. The word you typed is aligned with the half-inch mark.
- Single-click in the Tabs panel ruler near the 2-inch mark; the word you typed will instantly jump to that new marker because all the invisible default tab settings to its left have disappeared.
Drag that tab marker left or right and watch the word snap to that new position.
Tabs are cumulative, and they accumulate in the word you type after you hit the Tab key.
Huh? Well, if you hit the Tab key three times and then type the word Rosalind, that word Rosalind holds onto those three tabs. Rosalind will jump over to the third tab she can find (which does not necessarily mean the third tab in the Tabs panel!).
If you then hit two more tabs and type the word Celia, the word Celia holds onto five tabs—the tabs accumulate. And again, Celia will jump to the fifth tab she can find.
I say “the fifth tab she can find” because perhaps Rosalind’s name is too long and extends past the fourth tab in the ruler; in that case, Celia doesn’t count that tab—she only counts two more beyond Rosalind, the two she can find.
This is probably the most crazy-making thing about tabs, so spend a couple of minutes to understand it and control it.
Task 3 Experiment with accumulating tabs
- Create a text frame four to six inches wide.
Follow these directions precisely (that is, do not type more than one tab between words).
Hit the Tab key once.
Type Cat, then hit the Tab key once.
Type Dog, then hit the Tab key once.
Type Rhinoceros, then hit the Tab key once.
Type Ape, then hit the Tab key once.
Hit the Enter key to create a new paragraph.
Hit the Tab key once.
Type Rat, then hit the Tab key once.
Type Bird, then hit the Tab key once.
Type Shrew, then hit the Tab key once.
Type Monkey (even if it doesn’t line up!), then hit the Tab key once.
3 To see the tab markers, go to the Type menu and choose “Show Hidden Characters.” You will see one tab marker before each word.
Here’s the critical thing to notice in the example:
Cat went to the first tab it could find, at ½ inch.
Dog went to the second tab it could find, at 1 inch.
Rhinoceros went to the third tab it could find, at 1.5 inches.
Ape went to the fourth tab it could find. Now, the fourth (default and invisible) tab in the Tabs panel ruler is at 2 inches, but Ape couldn’t get to that one because Rhinoceros is in the way. Thus it had to go to the next one it could find.
In the second paragraph, all four words are able to line up at the half-inch default tab markers.
To make all four columns align so you can carry on with your lists, all you need to do is create new tab markers that replace the defaults, giving the words room enough. Follow the steps below.
- Select both paragraphs: With the Text tool, press-and-drag to select the text in both lines, or press Command A (PC: Control A). You don’t have to select every word in both lines, just a few letters in each.
Make sure the left-aligned tab marker is selected, as circled below.
Single-click in t