Underline not showing for leading tab

[lyndondrake]

I want to have a paragraph where the first character in the line is a tab, with the whole line of text underlined. At the moment, Nisus Writer only underlines the tab character if there is something else preceding it, such as a . or a number at the start of the line. E.g. if I have this:

1. Text

The the whole line, beginning with '1.' and ending with 'Text', including the tab between the two, is underlined. But if I have this:

Text

Then the start of the line, the tab leading up to 'Text' is not underlined. Any way I can change this behaviour?

[adryan]

G'day, lyndondrake et al

One way to do this is to use an Underline Leader Tab: double-click on the Tab icon in the Ruler to reveal the Edit Tab dialog box.

The result is not ideal, though. You may need to lower the baseline of the leading underline a bit: Format > Baseline > Lower Baseline. Also, you might find the space (which is not a Space character) between the leading underline and your text somewhat disconcerting; I don't know how to remedy this.

Unfortunately, special Space characters such as Zero Width Space cannot be underlined.

You can put an invisible character before the Tab (by coloring it the same as the background) and then underline the entire line, but the underline will appear as a (slight) indent. In fact, though, this may be the basis of the best solution overall. Begin the line with a “.” (period), make it invisible, then make it as small as possible (smallest font size). Your Tab comes next, followed by your text. There will be minimal indentation. The leading character is probably best inserted and manipulated after you’ve written some of the actual text; otherwise, the latter will appear invisible also.

Cheers,
Adrian

[lyndondrake]

You can put an invisible character before the Tab (by coloring it the same as the background) and then underline the entire line, but the underline will appear as a (slight) indent.

Yes, I'd come to this conclusion myself. You are right though that visually it isn't ideal. Most other word processors seem to underline these kinds of tabs, so if possible I might suggest that this is either a problem to consider correcting, or an option that would be great to add.

[phspaelti]

Unfortunately, special Space characters such as Zero Width Space cannot be underlined.

Coming a bit late to this discussion, but the fixed-width space ("option space") underlines just fine. In general for the discussed purpose I would have recommended using a (string of) option-spaces instead of a tab. But the combination of option-space + tab also works.

[lyndondrake]

Coming a bit late to this discussion, but the fixed-width space ("option space") underlines just fine. In general for the discussed purpose I would have recommended using a (string of) option-spaces instead of a tab. But the combination of option-space + tab also works.

Opt+Space does cause the leading space and tab to be underlined. But it seems to also cause the entire width of the page to be underlined, which is a bit surprising to me.

[adryan]

G'day, lyndondrake, Philip et al

Yes, you can underline your option-space plus tab plus text string, and it all looks good — until you hit the return, at which point the entire line becomes underlined.

This behavior appears to be font-dependent, though. For example, that's what happens in Palatino, but Arial, Helvetica, Baskerville and others give the desired result.

However, the order in which you underline and add a paragraph return is still important. If you underline before you add the paragraph return, subsequent text will also appear underlined (but the rest of the original line won't). You need to append your paragraph return before underlining the preceding text in order to achieve the desired result.

Cheers,
Adrian

[phspaelti]

… and it all looks good — until you hit the return, at which point the entire line becomes underlined.

That is apparently how carriage returns are treated when they have the underline attribute. Just select the return and turn the underline off.
I must say that I hadn't known any of this before this discussion. That shows you how often I use Underline
Typographically speaking underline is to be avoided.

[lyndondrake]

However, the order in which you underline and add a paragraph return is still important. If you underline before you add the paragraph return, subsequent text will also appear underlined (but the rest of the original line won't). You need to append your paragraph return before underlining the preceding text in order to achieve the desired result.

That is what makes it difficult to apply this as a style.

[adryan]

G'day, lyndondrake et al

If you want to underline a line which already has the paragraph return in place, you could use a Macro to select everything in the line excluding the return and then underline it, either directly or via a Character Style. Assigning a keyboard shortcut to the Macro would expedite the process.

Cheers,
Adrian