Tab won't work

[Canna W]

I have an ongoing document which requires me to use the tab facility. Every now and again the tab stops working, and from then on I have to manually click to the point I want to get to on to the other side of the page.

I'd be grateful if someone could tell me how can I reset the tab so it works properly again...

[RoryOF]

Check the Paragraph Styles in use and set the tabs in those as you require. It is possible that when the "tab stops working" the Paragraph Style in use has had tabs removed.

[Bill]

...I have to manually click to the point I want to get to on to the other side of the page.

What do you mean by "manually click to the point"? I would take this to mean that you move the mouse pointer to a point and click, but that would only work if there were already tabs in the line. If there were no tabs then the insertion point would remain at the start of the line, not move to the right side of the page.

[Canna W]

With your help I found Format>Tabs. I then entered the distance at which I wanted the tab. At first it didn't work, then I tried again, and suddenly all the tabs came back (the automatic system, whereby the tab stops every half inch or so along the line.) This will suit me fine. I think it's the default tab setting. Is there any way when the tab function goes wrong in future, that I can just set it back to this default setting? Sorry to be so ignorant about all of this

[Hagar Delest]

Can you upload a sample file showing the problem (see: How to attach a document here)?
It may be a problem with the paragraph settings, either a wrong style or a direct formatting.
Try to merely hit Ctrl+M in the paragraph and see if the tabs come back (you can see them in the ruler if you display it).

Please add [Solved] at the beginning of the title in your first post (top of the topic) with the *EDIT button if your issue has been fixed.

[playinmyblues]

Strangely, and it has never happened before, my document stopped making tabs.

I tried going into the Format > Paragraph > Tabs tab and started to set the tabs. I went back to the document partway doing this and it would still not make tabs. This was confusing. I went into another blank document and it made tabs when I tabbed. I went into a part of the document I was working on and it made tabs.

What I observed was that I had copied something from a filename which had underscores in the name. When I tried to tab that over, it simply went to the next line. All of the lines after that line would not tab either. I had to go before the line with the underscores and typed out the information again, but without underscores. Then I erased the line with the underscores. The rest of the document worked well after that.

But, I typed out a line in a blank document and used underscores in it. I entered a line after that and it tabbed fine.

[Bill]

What I observed was that I had copied something from a filename which had underscores in the name. When I tried to tab that over, it simply went to the next line.

That's normal. Words separated by spaces are seen as separate words. If you remove the spaces or replace the spaces with underscores, Writer sees one "long word" rather than separate words. If you there's not enough space to fit the "long word" between the tab and the right margin, the "long word" will be moved to the next line.

[floris v]

But, I typed out a line in a blank document and used underscores in it. I entered a line after that and it tabbed fine.

There is a big difference between the effects of pressing Enter and Shift+Enter. The first starts a new paragraph, with its own formatting, the second continues the same paragraph on a new line. However, entering a word with underscores in it shouldn't give problems - unless, as Bill points out, you make it so long that it barely fits on a line.