Tab Stops

WordprocessingML allows for custom specification of tab stops at the

paragraph level. Tab stop spacing is a subset of paragraph formatting in

this system, so will be implemented within the

docx.text.parfmt.ParagraphFormatting object. Tab stops will be handled as

a List-like TabStops object made up of TabStop objects.

A TabStop object has three properties, alignment, leader, and position.

Alignment is a WD_TAB_ALIGNMENT member and position is a Length() object.

Tab stops are always sorted in position order. Alignment defaults to

WD_TAB_ALIGNMENT.LEFT, and leader defaults to WD_TAB_LEADER.SPACES.

Tab stops specify how tab characters in a paragraph are rendered. Insertion

of tab characters is accomplished using the Run object.

Protocol

.. highlight:: python

Getting and setting tab stops::

Word Behavior

When the w:tabs element is empty or not present, Word uses default tab stops

(typically every half inch).

Word resumes using default tab stops following the last specified tab stop.

TabStops must be in position order within the XML. If they are not, the out-

of-order tab stop will appear in the ruler and in the properties dialog, but

will not actually be used by Word.

XML Semantics

* Both "num" and "list" alignment are a legacy from early versions of Word

before hanging indents were available. Both are deprecated.

* "start" alignment is equivalent to "left", and "end" alignment are equivalent

to "right". (Confirmed with manually edited XML.)

* A "clear" tab stop is not shown in Word's tab bar and default tab behavior

is followed in the document. That is, Word ignores that tab stop

specification completely, acting as if it were not there at all. This

allows a tab stop inherited from a style, for example, to be ignored.

* The w:pos attribute uses twips rather than EMU.

* The w:tabs element must be removed when empty. If present, it must contain

at least one w:tab element.

Specimen XML

.. highlight:: xml

::

Enumerations

* `WdTabAlignment Enumeration on MSDN`_

.. _WdTabAlignment Enumeration on MSDN:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/EN-US/library/office/ff195609.aspx

Name XML Value

wdAlignTabBar bar 4

wdAlignTabCenter center 1

wdAlignTabDecimal decimal 3

wdAlignTabLeft left 0

wdAlignTabList list 6

wdAlignTabRight right 2

Additional Enumeration values not appearing in WdTabAlignment

Name XML Value

wdAlignTabClear clear 101

wdAlignTabEnd end 102

wdAlignTabNum num 103

wdAlignTabStart start 104

* `WdTabLeader Enumeration on MSDN`_

.. _WdTabLeader Enumeration on MSDN:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff845050.aspx

Name XML Value

wdTabLeaderDashes hyphen 2

wdTabLeaderDots dot 1

wdTabLeaderHeavy heavy 4

wdTabLeaderLines underscore 3

wdTabLeaderMiddleDot middleDot 5

wdTabLeaderSpaces none 0

MS API Protocol

The MS API defines a `TabStops object`_ which is a collection of

`TabStop objects`_.

.. _TabStops object:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/EN-US/library/office/ff192806.aspx

.. _TabStop objects:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/EN-US/library/office/ff195736.aspx

Schema excerpt

::