Tab help!

[M Altmann]

In 2000, the First line and ahnging indent icons were aded to the Tab toggle
between the toolbars. So was a "bar tab" icon. I am prett savvy, but no
where in Help or in the Knowledge base can I find a white paper on what this
type of tab is supposed to do for a user! I am trying to develop a training
class for Legal Secretaries and I need to be able to explainALL of those
toggle icons.
Please help!!
-Monica
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The bar tab is one of the least documented features of Word, though I
believe it's been around since very early versions. A search for "bar tab"
turns up exactly three KB articles, and two of them address the fact that in
Word 6.0 and above you can't insert a bar tab from the ruler (Was this
possible in Word 2.0? Who knows?); the third actually has text that includes
the words "Space Bar <lots of space> Tab" and has nothing to do with bar
tabs at all.

If you type "bar tab" into Word's Answer Wizard, you get a choice of several
totally irrelevant topics. Word's Help on tabs in general assumes you
already know what they are and why you want them (if not, see
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/SettingTabs.htm).

In short, you're on your own in figuring out why you might want a bar tab,
but if you have experimented with them, you'll have figured out that they
aren't tab stops in any real sense of the word. When you set a bar tab, a
vertical line appears at the position where you set the tab, whether or not
you have any text at that position. The line will extend to the height of
the line if you add Space Before/After and will continue throughout the
paragraph. You can't tab to it using the Tab key, and in fact you can type
(and tab) right across it. So it's just a convenient way of drawing a
vertical line in text.

Why would you want to do that? I can tell you how I use it, and you can
judge whether I'm crazy or not. Every month I create attendance sheets
(rolls) for my Rotary club. Each line of the roll has a member's name and
six or seven bar tabs (depending on whether it's a four-meeting or
five-meeting month). A bottom border is applied to the paragraph. This
creates a grid much like a table, with a box for each meeting date, plus a +
column for extra makeups. Since the roll is filled out by hand, it doesn't
need to behave like a table, and the formatting avoids some of the problems
of tables: (a) it's a little easier to add/remove members since they're just
paragraphs and not table rows, (b) no problems with column width or table
resizing (especially critical since the roll is in three columns), (c) no
table overhead in the document, (d) no need for an empty paragraph at the
end of the table (it's a tight enough squeeze just getting all the members
in), and (e) the whole setup is a paragraph style.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Telemanr]

Clever!

 

[Bob S]

Why would you want to do that? I can tell you how I use it, and you can
judge whether I'm crazy or not. Every month I create attendance sheets
(rolls) for my Rotary club. Each line of the roll has a member's name and
six or seven bar tabs (depending on whether it's a four-meeting or
five-meeting month). A bottom border is applied to the paragraph. This
creates a grid much like a table, with a box for each meeting date, plus a +
column for extra makeups. Since the roll is filled out by hand, it doesn't
need to behave like a table, and the formatting avoids some of the problems
of tables: (a) it's a little easier to add/remove members since they're just
paragraphs and not table rows, (b) no problems with column width or table
resizing (especially critical since the roll is in three columns), (c) no
table overhead in the document, (d) no need for an empty paragraph at the
end of the table (it's a tight enough squeeze just getting all the members
in), and (e) the whole setup is a paragraph style.

Another nice feature is that you can make your "table" 300 pages long
without Word slowing to a crawl...

Bob S

 

[Bob S]

Probably it isn't explained in the Help because it's so useless that the
writers are ashamed of it. It appears to be intended for constructing
"table borders" when you aren't using real tables.

Here is a potential job interview question for people who like to
torture job applicants.

Ahead of time prepare a document with a small table containing some
text in the cells. Select all the cell paragraphs and add a bar tab
down the middle. Make sure that the table borders are on and are the
same thickness and color as the bar tabs.

When the applicant arrives, hand them the document and see how long it
takes them to figure out how you got text flowing right across the
boundaries between table "cells".

I don't know of any "real" use for bar tabs in table cells. Does
anyone have one?

One interesting effect that you can get with bar tabs: Select a few
paragraphs, apply numbering, apply a hollow box border, and apply a
bar tab between the numbers and the text (about .45 inches works
here).

Bob S

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Good point!

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.