Article: Q50588
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 1.00 1.02 | 1.00 1.02
Operating System(s): MS-DOS | OS/2
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | | mspl13_basic
Last Modified: 30-NOV-1989
The Microsoft Editor (M) provides the following two ways of using tab
characters:
1. Treat tabs as real characters.
2. Convert each tab into a series of spaces. This is controlled
through the use of the "realtabs" switch. Other switches may also
effect the way tabs appear to be handled by the editor.
The following chart, taken from Section 7.2.6 of "Microsoft Editor for
MS OS/2 and MS-DOS User's Guide" describes the switches dealing with
tabs.
1. realtabs
On by default, controls whether or not tabs are treated as real tab
characters.
2. entab
Controls the extent to which the editor converts a series of tabs
and spaces to tabs when saving a file. The following are the valid
choices:
0 - The editor does not replace spaces by tabs. If realtabs is off,
tabs are converted to spaces.
1 - (default) The editor can replace a series of tabs and spaces by
tabs when the tabs fall outside of quoted strings.
2 - The editor will replace all series of tabs and spaces with
tabs.
Note: The entab switch only effects the lines you modify during the
current editing session.
3. filetab
Controls the meaning of tab characters on a disk file. If realtabs
is on, the filetab switch determines tab alignment. If realtabs is
off, the filetab switch determines how the editor translates tab
characters to spaces when a line of text is modified.
If entab, as described above, is set to 1 or 2, filetab also
determines how the editor translates spaces to tabs when you save
the file to disk.
Note: The filetab switch only effects the lines you modify during
the current editing session.
4. tabalign
When off (the default), the cursor may be placed anywhere inside a
column of a tab character. If turned on, along with realtabs, the
cursor is placed to the first column position of tab characters.
5. tabstops
Determines the size of columns associated with the TAB and BACKTAB
( SHIFT+TAB) keys. This only moves the cursor and has no effect on
the actual tab character. The default value is 4.
The following example sets up tabs so that they act the same way
they do in other editors, such as QuickC or Word:
realtabs:yes
tabalign:yes
graphic:tab
trailspace:yes
filetab:4
The trailspace switch is needed to use tabs on blank lines. The
tabdisp switch may also be used with realtabs to make the tab
characters visible on the screen.