Multiple tabs in table cell (FM 7)

[STL Orca]

Hey gang,

I've got a table that requires multiple tab stops in one table cell.  They're easy enough to place--I use the Tab Stops segment in Paragraph Designer--but I cannot move back and forth between the tabs. Each tab stop must be numbered.  For example, I inserted seven tab stops in the cell.  Is there a way to step through the tab stops without leaving the cell? 

Thanks in advance!

-terry-

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Anything like Shift-Tab or Ctrl-Tab or various combos like that work?

[STL Orca]

Shift+Tab moves to the previous cell; Ctrl+Tab opens the Book pane; Alt+Tab switches between programs.

[Bob_Niland · Accepted solution]

And Esc_Tab just inserts a new tab.

Until something more elegant is posted ...

1. Open the Find/Change dialog.
2. Use Esc_Tab to put a \t (tab) in the Find: Text: field.
3. Use [ Find ] to skip from tab to tab in tables.

[Bob_Niland]

I need to add that the above may not work, depending on your platform and FM release.

On FM7.1/Unix, Find randomly fails to find things in tables, and tabs are no exception. The hack above did not work.

On FM9/Win7, Find of \t did navigate between tabs in a table.

The real parent problem here may be: who gets to see the keycode from the [Tab] key? It appears that the OS GUI gets first crack at it, and what's passed to the app may not be an 09h character but some window nav event (that has to be converted back to an \x09 when the intent is to type a tab into the text, but when the focus is in an FM table, FM thinks you want nav).

An FM-specific sub-problem is that FM doesn't support tables within tables (actually, it does, but you have to create a new text frame inside an anchored frame inside the table cell). Tables within tables would eliminate the temptation to tab.

Tabs, of course, have been a CS problem forever, as there was never an agreed industry standard for what they meant (move 8 spaces, or move to next multiple of 8 space from left, or move to next tab stop, and what if none are defined, etc.). In FM, users who use tabs are generally doing so from habit from other word processors, and are grabbing the margin tab tool, rather than defining stops in Paragraph Designer. A later author updates the para format, resetting all overrides, and bye bye tabs.

I usually use borderless tables these days for body text layouts that might historically have been done as tabs.

If I need column-control inside table cells, I'll often use as many columns as needed, and straddle them in the cells that don't use the extra columns).

[STL Orca]

Thanks for the explanation.  Actually, Esc+Tab does exactly what I need!  After several failed attempts to find the tabs using Ctrl + F, I put the cursor in the cell and hit Esc+Tab.  Stepped right through every tab in the cell as if it had been designed that way.  (Go figure.)  I think from here on out, I'll just use your multiple-column solution, though.  As my grandpa used to say, "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."