Tab stops within a table cell

[David12846]

Is it possible to set a Tab Stop within a table? I probably can not because I've noticed when I use my <TAB> key within a table, the cursor moves to the next cell... but I still would like to "tab" within a cell.

I'm writing a large document of instructions. It will probably be at least 20 pages. Column 1 would have the "Step #" and column 2 would be the details. Most of my details have different components and I would like to indent some of the text as shown in the attachment.

In order to indent text on some of the lines, I've been pressing <Enter> at the end of the preceding line then manually adding spaces at the beginning of the next line. This is okay, until I have to edit the document.

Alternatively, I could add extra columns then merge the required cells on each row. Unfortunately when I insert a new row, the new row is based on the row above that has merged cells.

It would be easier if I could set a Tab Stop within a cell and make the <TAB> key move to the next Tab Stop (or move to the next cell if it is at the last Tab Stop in the cell).

Tabs needed.odt

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[John_Ha]

Ctrl+Tab adds a tab in the current cell. Tab jumps to the next cell..

Tabs added by Ctrl+Tab

Clipboard01.gif (3.22 KiB) Viewed 2534 times

That being said, Writer Guide says

Settings – Tab stops

The Tab stops setting specifies the distance the cursor travels for each press of the Tab key. This setting is also used for the indent distance applied by the Increase Indent and Decrease Indent buttons on the Formatting Bar, which affect the indentation of entire paragraphs.

Using the default tab stops to space out or indent material on a page is not recommended. If you use the default tab interval and then send the document to someone who uses a different default tab interval, then your tabbed material will be displayed using the other person’s default tab settings. In addition, any changes to the default tab stops will change the existing default tab stops in any document you open afterward, as well as tab stops you insert after making the change.

To avoid these unwanted changes, define your own tabs in paragraph styles or individual paragraphs (see “Defining your own tab stops and indents” in Chapter 3, Working with Text).

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[Lupp]

Create a paragraph style, best derived from the style 'Table Contents' and define any attributes - including the tabulator positions - for it as needed/wanted. Assign this style to the all the paragraphs inside the table cells where you want to use tab stops.

To use the next tab stop inside a table cell you need to additionally press the Ctrl key.

Example:

[Bill]

You could try the Tab key with different modifier keys (Shift, Ctrl, Alt, etc.), but using tabs and spaces to indent paragraphs is for typewriters. I'd set up paragraph styles with different indent settings and apply the appropriate style to each paragraph.