Concepts

What are the kinds of tabs?

There are four kinds of tab stops. The difference between them is which part of the text following the tab character is aligned with the tab stop.

1. Left-aligned – the most common type. Positions the left edge of the following text.
2. Right-aligned – positions the right edge of the following text (until the next tab or paragraph character).
3. Centered – positions the center of the following text.
4. Decimal – positions the decimal point (if any) in the following text. This is used to align columns of numbers. If there is no decimal point in the text, this behaves like a right-aligned tab.

The ruler will indicate which type of tab is set at each tab stop.

Copyright 1996 by the Curators of the University of Missouri