Tabs and Leaders don't seems to works expected

Start by clicking in the Ruler to set the tabs where you want them. Then In the Tabs window of the Text inspector there is a pane headed Tab Stops. Click on one (highlight it) and set the desired leader from the drop down Leader menu and also choose the Alignment. Do this for each tab stop listed and you should not have a problem.

Walt

You need to set up the leader tabs using:

+Inspector > Text (4th Tab) > Tabs > Tab Stops > select the particular tab > Leader > select the leader+

Make sure you have the cursor or selection in the lines you wish to edit.

I just did both versions you describe and it worked as it should.

Peter

Hi

I'm new to Discussions. Forgive me if I breach protocol.

We have the same problem as Davinian does with tabs and leaders.

When preparing contracts and annexures we often need to create a place for our clients to sign on the dotted line, eg:

Buyer .................... Witness .................... Date ...................

The tab set with a leader of dots doesn't function correctly. Sometimes tabbing from the "r" of "Buyer" to the first tab set fills with dots, then further fills to the 2nd tab set. Other times no fill occurs at all.

In frustration we slide the tab arrows back and forth along the ruler watching the dots appear, disappear, reappear but the layout of our contract is spoiled.

We use Pages '08. Trialled '09 to see if bug corrected - no such luck.

Any clues?

I'm not sure what you're describing, but I will make a wild guess that maybe you have too many default tabs in your ruler, If so, drag out all but one between each word and drag them to position each word where you want it.

Walt

Walt has it I think.

If you click in the line with the problem tabs, you probably will see a bunch of tabs up on the ruler.

Make sure you have just the right number of tabs and do not slide past other tabs which overrides the order in the +Inspector > Text > Tabs+.

In testing this I uncovered a silly bug/design flaw. The dashed leader is literally the dash glyph and sits at the level of the normal dash which is too high for a leader character. This means you have to manually baseline shift the tab to get it back down where it should be, below the baseline.

Peter

No, too many default tabs isn't the problem.

From Template Chooser we create a new blank doc, default margins 2cm, no tabs on the ruler, Text Inspector-Tabs shows no paragraph indents, default tab settings 1.25cm, no tab stops set.

We create a tab stop at 1.25cm, left aligned, no leader, create another tab at 2.5cm, left aligned with leader of periods.

Tabbing from the margin to the 1.25 leaves the line blank as it should but tabbing again to the 2.5 should fill with dots - it doesn't. We go to the ruler drag the 2.5 triangle way out to say 16 - no dots. We drag the 1.25 triangle out to 1.5 or 2 - no dots, drag to 2.5 - dots appear, drag to 3 - dots disappear.

Does your Pages app function like this?

Click on my name and email me the file and I will look at it.

Peter

I agree that there is a tab-related bug in Pages '09.

I wanted something like this:

<pre>
blahblah _____
blah _____
</pre>

where the right and left edges of the lines are vertically aligned. The obvious solution is a tab (no leader) to the beginning and a tab (with leader) to the end. However, in the document, both tabs are taking the leader of the first (which should have no leader). I copied the paragraph into a new document - same results. Then I fractionally slid the second tab's position in the ruler, and it *magically fixed itself* to behave correctly. (Sliding the positions in the original document does not fix the problem)

If that's not a bug, then I'm Ross Perot.

After having read your post i tried to create what you are after. The tabs DO behave weird. One gets the line after the tab that was specified to have the line. Depending on where the tab is you get the line or you don't. You have to have 2 tabs in some situations, esp. when having tabs around 4 cm from the margin.

Must be some bad programming.

I swear it seems as if Pages hates the metric system. I tried to reproduce your problem but since I'm in the States I used the default inches ruler. I couldn't make leaders not work - I couldn't reproduce your problem so I switched to the cm ruler. The first time I set tabs I got the leaders but that was the same document that I'd had open for my first test so I opened a new document and the leaders didn't work! So I reset the ruler to inches - still didn't work.

So maybe the workaround is to set the ruler to inches - set the tabs - then return to cm and adjust the tabs if need be. That worked the two times I tested it. Meanwhile we need to feedback this to Apple.

I find it doesn't behave consequently with the rulers set on inches either. Nor does it in Pages 08. Move the tab stops back and forth. The leader comes and goes depending on where on the ruler it is. This is really weird.

I saw that in the pages I created with metric rules but not inches. Weirder. For certain keep the document you have that is doing this and use Feedback. We'll hope that Apple gets back to you wanting an example doc...of course if you don't hear from them it probably means it was reproducible for them.