I constantly have issues with setting and changing tabs. Can anyone help me please?
Edit your question to explain; don’t use an answer which is reserved for solutions.
Where do you change tabs? In the horizontal ruler? In a style definition?
Don’t forget your LO version.
Thank you Leroy … I have been through everything on that HELP topic and either I am totally misunderstanding what is written there, or it doesn’t work. I have to alter and set tabs paragraph by paragraph and I would like to be able to select several paragraphs and either change the tabs on the tab bar or in a dialogue window.
ajlittoz … I try to edit my tabs in the horizontal ruler, by setting them in the tab in paragraphs. And I am sorry I am not used to using “forums” like this and I don’t understand your first comment. Oh and my LO version is Version: 6.3.5.2
Creating tabs in the ruler affects only the paragraph where the cursor is. You can also select several paragraphs beforehand, in which case the tabs will be set for the selected paragraphs. Nevertheless, this is a manual tedious process called direct formatting which will complicate document maintenance.
To ensure tab (and other typographical attributes) consistency, you should format your text with styles. The most obvious category is paragraph style which controls the geometric characteristics of the paragraph area (indents, spacing, …) and general look (font face ans size) among others. Tabs are other attributes of paragraphs.
There is a sub-dialog in paragraph definition for them. You define them giving the distance from paragraph left indent, the behaviour (left, center, right or character align) and an optional associated character (to create a leader line).
All you need then is to “style” the paragraph with your custom definition. All so styled paragraphs will share the exact same appearance. When you change the style, all paragraphs (under the same style) are immediately updated without any need of further action.
This works only with named styles. If you Format>Paragraph, you create anonymous styles which are never shared.
Read the Writer Guide to discover the power of styles.
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