Bug: Underlined tab at end of paragraph

Bob Stern · Post by **Bob Stern** » 2008-03-18 22:09:11

A useful way to create a horizontal line is to apply the underline attribute to a tab character.

Bug: The underlining is ignored if the tab character is not followed by a non-whitespace character in the same paragraph.

A workaround is to end the paragraph with a period and apply the color white to the period.

(I reported this bug via the built-in feedback, but I thought the workaround might be useful to this list.)

greenmorpher · Post by **greenmorpher** » 2008-03-19 11:58:35

I don't think this is a bug, Bob, it has been a common practice forever.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com

Bob Stern · Post by **Bob Stern** » 2008-03-19 12:08:39

WordPerfect Mac certainly does not behave this way.

Why would it be common and desirable practice to ignore the underlining attribute of a tab at the end of a paragraph?

Lawyers regularly use underlined tabs to create signature lines and blanks to be filled in.

Post by **martin** » 2008-03-19 13:21:32

Not underlining whitespace that has no adjacent printable character is the intended behavior. Most of the time it serves no purpose. If you want to have a line that extends across a tab character, I would suggest using a leader tab.

Bob Stern · Post by **Bob Stern** » 2008-03-19 13:55:05

Thanks, Martin! I had overlooked leader tabs. So much to learn!