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Wordprocessing Paragraphs

Tabs

A single custom tab is defined with the <w:tab> element, and the <w:tab> element is contained within a parent <w:tabs> element. The tab stop location is measured relative to the left edge for a left-to-right paragraph. Compare tab to a hanging indent (as specified by the ind element), which implicitly creates a tab stop.

<w:pPr>
<w:tabs>
<w:tab w:val="start" pos="2160"/>
</w:tabs>
</w:pPr>

A sequence of custom tabs may be specified inside of the <w:tabs> element:

<w:pPr>
<w:tabs>
<w:tab w:val="start" pos="2160"/>
<w:tab w:val="start" pos="5040"/>
</w:tabs>
</w:pPr>
Reference: ECMA-376, 3rd Edition (June, 2011), Fundamentals and Markup Language Reference § 17.3.1.37 and § 17.3.1.38.
Word 2007 Example:
</w:pPr>
<w:tab w:val="left" w:leader="dot" w:pos="1440"/>
. . .<w:r><w:tab/></w:r>...
</w:pPr>
. . .
<w:pPr>
<w:tabs>
<w:tab w:val="left" w:pos="2160"/>
<w:tab w:val="left" w:leader="dot" w:pos="5040"/>
. . .<w:r><w:tab/></w:r><w:r><w:tab/></w:r>...
</w:tabs>
</w:pPr>

Sample tabs

Attributes:

tab has the following attributes.

Attribute Description
leader Specifies the character used to fill in the space created by a tab. The character is repeated as required to fill the tab space. Possible values are:
  • dot - a dot
  • heavy - a heavy solid line or underscore
  • hyphen - a hyphen or dash
  • middleDot - a centered dot
  • none - no leader character
  • underscore - an underscore
pos Specifies the position of the tab stop. Values are in twips (1440 twips = one inch). Negative values are permitted and move the page margin the specified amount.
val Specifies the style of the tab. Possible values are:
  • bar - a bar tab does not result in a tab stop in the parent paragraph but instead a vertical bar is drawn at the location.
  • center - all text folowing and preceding the next tab shall be centered around the tab.
  • clear - the current tab stop is cleared and shall be removed.
  • decimal - all following text is aligned around the first decimal character in the following text.
  • end - all following and preceding text is aligned against the trailing edge.
  • num - a list tab or the tab between the numbering and the contents. This is for backward compatibility and should be avoided in favor of paragraph indentation.
  • start - all following and preceding text is aligned against the leading edge.

Related CSS property:

No directly corresponding CSS element, but see Paragraph Indentation for use of CSS's text-indent.