Tabs in one line changing layout of line above. Undo this 'feature'?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike Barnard
  • Start date Start date
M

Mike Barnard

Hi. Newbie here. (Waves).

I'm using Word 2000 at home. This document (a service 'log' for my
motorbike) is a new document created straight from 'normal.dot' with
no changes. I am writing just three columns. Date, mileage and
details.

I'm no word Guru so all I'm doing is pressing tab when I want to go to
the next coulmn. Tabs are at default values. The date column starts
on the left margin, the mileage columb on tab 2 and details on the
fourth tab. The problem is that when the amount of info in 'details'
is too big to fit on the line it naturally scrolls. So to line it up
all I want to do is hit tab a few times to do so.

Now, whan I do this the line *above* starts moving it's content along
to the right on the third tab press! Huh? How do I stop this? I've
unchecked all the obvious settings in tools - auto correct.

Thanks for any hints folks.
 
You've probably got tabs set to create an indent (Tools | Options | Edit:
Tabs and backspace set left indent), but what you really need here is a
table. See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/TableBasics.htm

--
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.
 
You can prevent this from happening using one of two methods:

- Use manual tabs rather than the default tab stops. Each time you
press Tab and use the defaults you reserve 0.5" of space for typing.
So if you press Tab six times to move to the 3" mark on the ruler bar
you've reserved 0.5" of space for each tab stop. Once you exceed the
allocated space then Word will 'push' your information to the next tab
stop.

Instead of pressing Tab multiple times set a manual tab on the ruler.
For example if you have a manual tab stop at the 3" mark and are using
a single tab you have about 3 inches of typing area before exceeding
the allocated space.

- Use a Word table instead of multiple tabbed columns. This would be
my preferred choice for the document you describe. You can easily
convert your data to a Word table by using the following steps:

- Press F5 to open Find
- Select the Replace tab
- In Find What type: ^t^t
- In Replace With type: ^t
- Click Replace All.
This will find a occurrences of two tabs in sequence and replace
them with a single tab
- Continue using the Replace All command until all data is separated
by a single tab (do worry if it doesn't line up correctly)
- Select the data
- Go to Table/Convert/Text to Table
- Make sure Tab is selected under "Separate text at"
- Click OK

Now you can easily adjust the column widths and note text will wrap
inside the table cell instead of attempting to move to the next tab
stop.
--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/


Mike Barnard said:
Hi. Newbie here. (Waves).

I'm using Word 2000 at home. This document (a service 'log' for my
motorbike) is a new document created straight from 'normal.dot' with
no changes. I am writing just three columns. Date, mileage and
details.

I'm no word Guru so all I'm doing is pressing tab when I want to go
to
the next coulmn. Tabs are at default values. The date column
starts
on the left margin, the mileage columb on tab 2 and details on the
fourth tab. The problem is that when the amount of info in
'details'
is too big to fit on the line it naturally scrolls. So to line it
up
all I want to do is hit tab a few times to do so.

Now, whan I do this the line *above* starts moving it's content
along
to the right on the third tab press! Huh? How do I stop this?
I've
unchecked all the obvious settings in tools - auto correct.

Thanks for any hints folks.

--
Regards from Mike Barnard
South Coast, UK.

[To reply by email remove ".trousers" spamtrap from email address]
Click to expand...
 
- Press F5 to open Find
- Select the Replace tab
- In Find What type: ^t^t
- In Replace With type: ^t
- Click Replace All.
This will find a occurrences of two tabs in sequence and replace
them with a single tab
- Continue using the Replace All command until all data is separated
by a single tab (do worry if it doesn't line up correctly)
- Select the data
- Go to Table/Convert/Text to Table
- Make sure Tab is selected under "Separate text at"
- Click OK

Now you can easily adjust the column widths and note text will wrap
inside the table cell instead of attempting to move to the next tab
stop.
Click to expand...

Thanks, this does what you say. BUT, there is no quick and easy way
to enter new data without "table - insert - rows below" for each new
line. Still, it's a tradeoff I suppose. Whan I've read the article
in the message from Suzzanne maybe I'll know more.
 
When you press Tab at the end of the last row, you get a new row.

--
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.

Mike Barnard said:
- Press F5 to open Find
- Select the Replace tab
- In Find What type: ^t^t
- In Replace With type: ^t
- Click Replace All.
This will find a occurrences of two tabs in sequence and replace
them with a single tab
- Continue using the Replace All command until all data is separated
by a single tab (do worry if it doesn't line up correctly)
- Select the data
- Go to Table/Convert/Text to Table
- Make sure Tab is selected under "Separate text at"
- Click OK

Now you can easily adjust the column widths and note text will wrap
inside the table cell instead of attempting to move to the next tab
stop.
Click to expand...

Thanks, this does what you say. BUT, there is no quick and easy way
to enter new data without "table - insert - rows below" for each new
line. Still, it's a tradeoff I suppose. Whan I've read the article
in the message from Suzzanne maybe I'll know more.

--
Regards from Mike Barnard
South Coast, UK.

[To reply by email remove ".trousers" spamtrap from email address]
Click to expand...
 
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