If you want to align text into neat columns, it is simplest to use tabs. Just one touch of the tab key will align your text precisely every time, and both column width and tab type can easily be changed afterward by selecting the relevant paragraphs and changing their tab stops.
In a non-proportional font, you can align text vertically using the space bar, but this will be difficult or impossible with a proportional font, and in either case you'll have to make many insertions or deletions of spaces if you need to change the width or alignment of columns later on.
You can, of course, use the space bar to insert space characters wherever you like, but usually you'll use the space bar only to place single spaces between words as you type.
Copyright 1996 by the Curators of the University of Missouri