Tab leaders

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ed Mullikin
  • Start date Start date
E

Ed Mullikin

I had about eight names and eight committee positions to list on successive
lines in a Word document. I used the manual line break after each one so
that I would have only one paragraph format, if that makes any sense. I
selected the leader with the lower row of dots. Half of the names tabbed to
the committee position with the midlevel dots and half with the lower level
dots. If I went back to the tab set function and used no leader all the
dots disappeared so I know it was one paragraph. What gives? I put in a
footnote saying that I didn't know the cause or they would have thought me
careless.
 
Each line needs to be ended in Paragraph mark and not a line break. So enter
a committee position, TAB and committee name (or vice versa), Enter, each on
a separate line. You should now have 8 paragraph all on separate lines. Then
select all the lines and use Format, Tabs to set the Tab Leader left aligned
to the point where you want the alignment.
 
Each line needs to be ended in Paragraph mark and not a line break.

I don't see what that would have to do with it; there's no reason you can't
create this format in a single paragraph (in fact, I have just done so in a
document I'm working on, and it worked fine), and if it's a single
paragraph, then the tab leader should be consistent for every line (not
periods on some lines and hyphens on others).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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I agree with Suzanne. I have done this MANY times using a manual line break
and it worked flawlessly. This is a 32 page newsletter and I've used this
method several times in this same issue, once for five pages. But, it
certainly did not work this one instance. On the printed page three of the
lines have normal leader dots at the bottom of the line. On five of the
lines, the leader dots are much lighter and appear about 3/4 the way up on
the capital letters that I am using.
 
You learn something new everyday! I've tried this and it does work as
described. I always thought that the tab settings wouldn't repeat for
successive lines, so I have always used paragraph breaks on these occasions.

Terry
 
Um, Terry, the whole idea of paragraph formatting is that it applies to the
whole paragraph. So if you set a tab in a paragraph, it's good for the whole
thing.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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all may benefit.
 
I know this sounds stupid, but I thought that setting the tab, say for 6"
would only work on the first line, because on the following line it is miles
past that point and won't work again until the paragraph is reset. But
thinking about this logically, it was a stupid thought! And I don't know why
I thought that in the first place.

Terry
 
Your logic is impeccable if the text were wrapping naturally, but once you
insert a line break, then you're starting from scratch, as it were. To
complicate matters, in Word you can set a tab stop outside the right margin;
in WordPerfect, IIRC, if you insert a tab character at the end of a line, it
wraps to the next line instead.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
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