Participant

Question

Adobe Indesign tab problems

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
February 26, 2020
4 replies
2763 views

Hi! Has anyone had any success in using tabs in Indesign recently? The tab function stopped working for me about a year ago and I cannot tab anything. I've been looking everywhere for a solution, can anyone help? Thanks!

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Feature request

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B

BGCC-Comm

Participating Frequently

I have tab problems too. I have one column separated into two only by using tabs. If I select all text, I can see the tab mark set at 4". I can delete increments backward towards the 0 point, however, I cannot "tab" forward back toward the 4" mark. Instead, each click of the tab key sends the ibeam to the next line (and highlights the entire line) rather than tabbing within the original line as a tab key should do.

B

BGCC-Comm

Participating Frequently

I found the answer from one of Steve's 2018 posts (Thank you Steve!):

You circumvent the Windows ALT-TAB by creating a custom CTRL-TAB keyboard shortcut within InDesign....

"Here's the answer for Windows users:

Tips & Techniques: How to type a tab character in an InDesign table"

K

Katie Houghton

Inspiring

Reset your preferences:

1. Exit the application

2. Press and hold Shift+Ctrl+Alt (Windows) or Shift+Option+Command+Control (macOS)

as you start InDesign. You are prompted to delete the current settings. The new

preferences files are created when you start the application.

T

TraceyTKAuthor

Participant

Hi Katie,

I tried this but it didn’t work...

Tracey

Sent from my iPad

Bill Silbert

Community Expert

If Steve's suggestions don't work then I would suggest going the opposite way. Try using another keyboard and see if the problem persists. I've actually had this happen with a Mac keyboard that certain keys suddenly stopped working. Discovering this came after hours of troubleshooting.

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TraceyTKAuthor

Participant

Yes, it appears to be my keyboard unfortunately- I can tab by inserting special character but the key itself doesn't work. My mac is old however - 2009 - so it's lasted pretty well. Thanks for your help as I could have spent many more hours searching for an answer!

Steve Werner

Community Expert

I use the tabs function all the time. Please tell us (exactly) what InDesign version you're using. Please tell us what operating system (exactly) you're running.

Show us an example of what you're trying to do by creating a screen capture, and attaching it to your reply in the forum editor.

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TraceyTKAuthor

Participant

Hi Steve,

I’m using InDesign CC 2019 and operating system high Sierra 10.13.6. I know how to use the tabs as I’ve done it for years, but the tab key no longer seems to work. Even documents I set up previously, you can’t tab in anymore. It just all suddenly stopped working. I read somewhere other people were having the same issue but no one seems to have an answer.

Tracey

Sent from my iPad

Steve Werner

Community Expert

Do me a favor: Reboot your computer, and launch InDesign first, before any other application. If possible, turn off automatically loaded applications by holding down the Shift key when restarting.

I'd bet the Tab key works fine. There are third-party apps and browser extensions which capture keyboard strokes and modifiers (including Shift, Space Bar, etc.

If it works OK, watch carefully as you launch other applications, includiing web browser extensions which cause the problem to occur.

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