Using Pages 4.3
How do I set the paragraph indent to be controlled by the tab key?
This is extremely annoying, since it is the most basic way to use any word processing / page layout app, yet Pages is not be preset from day one to have paragraph indents applied by the tab key! Grrrrr!!!!
Just tell me how to set the tab key to be used for paragraph indent.
Pages '09-OTHER
Hi there, please don't use tabs or spaces to indent. If a graphic designer (like me;-) ever has to import your document, he has to remove all these false used characters. Use indent for indents, tabs for tabs and spaces for spaces. Sound logical to me, but since most wordprocessesors offer a very steep learning curve according to these, people ignore the official way to do things, and start using multiple spaces and multi hard returns to layout their texts.
As said - designers do not like these.
There is a difference between Paragraph indents and Tab settings. They are not the same.
Read page 94 -98 in the Pages User Guide.
I have never heard that indents could be set by number of characters. If the font size is changed you change the indent if needed
Ok. Image upload is acting up again. Grrrr.
Here is the way to have a manual paragraph indent. The first line Paragraph indent from the above image is set back to 0. The Default Tabs window gets the amount you want for your manual tab. Then, you click the ‘+’ button to add this new tab.
Now, you can start your paragraph with a tab.
Pages's Blank word processing template has default tab stops set all across the page at half inch intervals.
You can add a tab stop at any marked increment on the Ruler simply by clicking at the point you want the stop to be placed. If you change your mind, you can drag the stop to a new position.
Double clicking on a tab stop you have set cycles the tab through the four available types:
Left: Tab key moves the insertion point to the tab stop. Text starts at the tab stop, and proceeds toward the right.
Right: Tab key moves the insertion point to the tab stop. Text ends at the tab stop, and added characters push the beginning to theleft.
Center: Tab key moves the insertion point to the tab stop. Text is centered at the tab stop, and added characters push the beginning to the left and end to the right to keep the text centered.
Decimal: Tab key moves the insertion point to the tab stop. Text ends at the tab stop, and proceeds toward the left. When a decimal point is placed in the text, it remains at the stop position, and text following the decimal extends to the riight.
Adding a tab stop to the ruler removes (or deactivates) all default tabs to the left of the newly set one. Tabs that have been set by the user remain. Any tab stop may be removed by dragging it off the ruler.
For First line indents, though, take advantage of the margin stop at the left end of the ruler. This margin stop has two parts:
The bottom part, a triangle, in the main part of the stop, It sets the position of the left margin for the whole paragraph,
The top part, a rctangle, is the First line indent. It sets the position of the beginning of the first line of every paragraph, as seen in the two paragraph sample (showing only the left three inches of a page) below:
With the first line indent set, there's no need to use the tab key at the beginning of a paragraph. Just press return to start a new paragraph; the first line will be automatically indented.
Regards,
Barry
As a matter of fact, I had already guessed that might be the logical setup, but I hadn't realized the + had anything to do with it. Now I have clicked the + to add a 1.27cm tab and... nothing changed for mine. It still indents only a tiny fraction of that setting.
Just for kicks, I did the - sign to remove that tab, and typed 3.0cm, but when I clicked the +, it added the old one of 1.27cm again! What the....?
Tried again, removing the ghostly 1.27cm tab, and now it finally adds the 3mm... but if I press the tab key, it still only indents the tiny original amount.
Does anyone else have a guess as to how to set the tab key to make tabs for manual paragraph indent?
Additional confusion: Why can't the indent be set for X number of characters instead of a measurement (fraction of the page width)? Who wants the indent to be a fixed horizontal measurement if the font size is changed? Surely we all want the indent to be X number of characters, so it still looks correct for any font size.
Why not use a mono-spaced font, hit the spacebar as frequently as you like and pretend that Pages is actually a Text Editor and not a Word Processor?
I suggest you use any of TextEdit, BBedit, TextWrangler, iText Express, iText Pro, MacVim, Tincta, Kod, Fraise, Mou, Eddie, Jedit, skEdit, Emacs, Smultron, Sublime Text, SubEthaEdit, TextMate, WriteRoom, OpenOffice, NeoOffice, LibreOffice, LightwayText, maybe even EverNote, StickiesPlus, iSticky, NoteList, Sticky Notes, Stick 'Em Up, PostPlus, SideNote or NoteTaker.
I suspect you don't understand formatting, think that the Inspector applies some universal setting, not just to the selected text, and are not using First Line Indent which would give you what you want.
Peter
That is like complain vociferously that the "A" key doesn't type "e" because "e" is your favorite letter.
Tabs and paragraph indents are two different things.
Also you didn't make it clear whether you just wanted a first line indent or a complete left hand indent.
Or is this all about List demotion/promotion? Because the keyboard commands for those are option tab/option shift tab in Pages 5.
Peter
Pages ’09 v4.3.
Take a look at the Text Inspector's Tab page as shown below. Once this is set, current and new paragraphs will automatically get .5 in indents for the first line.
Removed
Simple: How to set paragraph indent to be activated by the tab key
