Next: Requests and Macros, Previous: Adjustment, Up: Text [Contents][Index]
The formatter translates input horizontal tab characters (“tabs”) and Control+A characters (“leaders”) into movements to the next tab stop. Tabs simply move to the next tab stop; leaders place enough periods to fill the space. Tab stops are by default located every half inch measured from the drawing position corresponding to the beginning of the input line; see Page Geometry. Tabs and leaders do not cause breaks and therefore do not interrupt filling. Below, we use arrows → and bullets • to indicate input tabs and leaders, respectively.
A→B→C•D→•E .br 1 →2→3•4 →•5 ⇒ A B C.......D ........E ⇒ 1 2 3.......4 ........5
Tabs and leaders lend themselves to table construction.27 The tab and leader fill characters can be configured, and further facilities for sophisticated table composition are available; see Tabs and Fields. There are many details to track when using such low-level features, so most users turn to the tbl(1) preprocessor to lay out tables.