Insert special character: 'Right Indent Tab'

[icreate]

In Indesign we have the ability to use a 'Right Indent Tab' but there doesn't appear to be the ability to do this in Publisher.

This is where you find it in the Indesign 'Type' menu:

Some people may not know what use this is so I'll briefly explain…

Let's say you need to do a table of contents, where you have the title on the left and the page number on the right.

First you type your page title and then you use the right indent tab to force the cursor to the far right of the text box and your page number will be aligned on the right.

Now, if you change the width of the text box the page number will stay on the right - there's no tabs to adjust etc. You don't need to use the menu all the time, you can use alt-tab to push it over which makes it really quick and easy.

Here's a little screencast I recorded to show you what I mean:

If this feature is already in Publisher please let me know, I can't find it - this is what Publisher has:

[Dave Harris]

Publisher currently has a different approach. Instead of a special magic character that has no Unicode value, we use a normal tab and make the tabstop special. The trick is to position the tabstop relative to the right column edge instead of the left column edge as normal. You can do this from the text ruler by creating the tabstop at the top of ruler instead of the bottom, or by right-clicking and ticking the From right checkbox. You can then change its alignment, leader etc as normal - you probably want it right-aligned. This is a bit more flexible than InDesign.

[icreate]

I think I see what you mean, although my only issue with this is that before you enter any text you have to set some tab stops up which is adding a couple more steps than currently required with Indesign.

Obviously for people who don't currently use Indesign this may not bother them but its such a useful shortcut (just enter your text and alt-tab to push text to the right) that for those who have been using Indesign since god was a lad its really, really frustrating!

Sometimes when I'm adding content to a table which follows this style:

Product code | Item name | Price

I only need to set a tab for 'Item name', and then I just alt-tab to put the value in (which would be ranged right) - nothing else to do.

Maybe some sort of explanatory video on tabs would be handy as its the only area which I'm finding more complicated than it needs to be to me (but that could be my age - I started with Quark 2.12 and Ventura Publisher after all!).

Anyone else remember 'Ready,Set,Go!', 'Digital Darkroom', 'Typestry' and 'Aldus Freehand'?!

[fde101]

Maybe a menu command (allowing a shortcut to be assigned) that creates such a tab stop if it does not exist then tabs forward to it?

[rjvela82]

3 hours ago, icreate said:

I think I see what you mean, although my only issue with this is that before you enter any text you have to set some tab stops up which is adding a couple more steps than currently required with Indesign.

You can think of it as a more systematic approach. I'm not trying to be sarcastic. Also there's a whole branch of philosophy which shows that thinking systemically is very beneficial to human consciousness. Software and design in general embody alot of the principles that define the systemic approach.

[icreate]

I understand what you're saying, however from my own (maybe flawed) point of view, taking something which required a simple keypress in your competitors software and then requiring you to go find a palette, set the tabs etc in the 'young upstart' before you even do anything, is to me is a backward step. Especially when the upstart is wanting to win over their competitors long established user base.

Reduce steps, don't introduce them.

Just my 2p.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, icreate said:

go find a palette

You don't need to find a palette, you can just display the text ruler for that text frame, and set a tab stop in it. If you keep the text ruler displayed all the time it's just a mouse click. If you don't have it displayed it's just one additional keypress, or menu selection, then the mouse click.

[Joachim_L]

I am with icreate. This indent shortcut is faster than anything else and I use it quite often in tables. No extra click needed.