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Joe Seven
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Fun with tabs & numbers

Oct 17, 2011 4:35 PM

Tags: #numbers #align #lists #tabs

Hello,

 

I am having a really difficult time with tabs today.

 

I'm  creating a simple table of contents for a brochure, and want to have a list with page numbers, followed by page discription. (see attached image).

 

Screen shot 2011-10-17 at 7.29.13 PM.png

 

I want to have the numbers right-aligning, and the page descriptions left-aligning. I know how to do this with numbered lists, but that won't allow me to enter in my own numbers. I'd just like to do this manually with tabs. I'd also like to avoid using a table (that will be my last resort).

 

Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

Thanks!

504 Views   5 Replies   Latest reply: Joe Seven, Oct 18, 2011 2:55 PM
 
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  • M Blackburn
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    1. M Blackburn,
    Oct 17, 2011 5:30 PM   in reply to Joe Seven
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    Set a right tab for the numbers, set a left tab for the description. This looks so straight forward that I can't help but feel I'm missing something. You actually have to enter a tabs before the number and before the description.

     
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  • MT.Freelance
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    2. MT.Freelance,
    Oct 18, 2011 6:21 AM   in reply to Joe Seven
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    Without getting into Tables of Contets features, Paragraph Styles and Character Styles... all of which could help with this, here is how to do it simply and manually.

     

    Set your type with a Tab before and after the page numbers (see screenshot below)

    Select all your text

    Open the Tab panel

    Click on the Tab panel ruler where you want the page number and chater text to align to. This will set tab stops for each position.

    Select the tab stop for the page numbers, then click the right aligned tab icon in the tab panel (see screenshot)

     

    Things should now be aligned.

     

    Screen shot 2011-10-18 at 8.14.45 AM.png

     

    You can also set the tabs within a Paragraph style. You can use a nested charater style to get the bold text on the numbers. You can use the Table of Contents features to automatically look for certain tagged styles within your document and create a ToC for you.

     

    -mt

     
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  • Joe Seven
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    3. Joe Seven,
    Oct 18, 2011 8:38 AM   in reply to MT.Freelance
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    Thanks for the detailed explaination. Very helpful.

     

    You mentioned using nested styles to bold the number, I guess that would link the numbers to a character style that had the bold weight? Would this be a GREP style?

     
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  • MT.Freelance
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    4. MT.Freelance,
    Oct 18, 2011 10:14 AM   in reply to Joe Seven
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    I believe you could use a GREP style for this, but I've personally never worked with them. So, no, what I mentioned was not a GREP style.

     

    Set up a character style for Bold (no other attributes, unless you want them, in the Character Style).

    Then, set up a Paragraph Style (I called it TOC Entry, but whatever makes sense to you)

    Edit the Tabs (first screen shot) to match how you want the text and numbers to align

    Edit the Drop Caps and Nested Styles section (second screen shot)

    • Set Character Style to your new 'Bold' style
    • Set the other uptions to Up To, 2, Tab Characters

     

    You can get some really interesting effects using nested styles.

     

    SS_Tabs.pngSS_Nested.png

     
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  • Joe Seven
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    5. Joe Seven,
    Oct 18, 2011 2:55 PM   in reply to MT.Freelance
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    Wowzers, I like that. Thanks!

     
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