nisus.com

Obviously the ideal solution for what I'm about to ask is to define a new paragraph style with the desired tab stops, but sometimes I'm too lazy to do that. (I need to overcome that resistance: defining a style is pretty easy.)

My question is whether there is an easier way to enforce the same tab stops among a selection of paragraphs that currently have different tab stops. When I select multiple paragraphs, the ruler shows only those tab stops that are shared by all the paragraphs. Any differences can be viewed only be selecting individual paragraphs. Editing the shared tab stops does not affect the non-shared tab stops of the selected paragraphs.

Am I missing anything?

The user guide section on Tab Stops is mostly silent on the behavior of the ruler when multiple paragraphs are selected with different tab stops. It would be helpful to explain this.

I would simply put the cursor in a paragraph that has the tab stops the way you want them, then "Copy Ruler" from the edit menu, hilight all the paragraphs you want to change and "Paste Ruler" from the edit menu. Would that not do it for you?

Mark

Thanks, Mark! That's a simple, effective solution.

Mark's suggestion is a good one: copy-pasting the ruler will definitely make sure the tab stops are the same. The (possible) drawback is that other ruler attributes are also copied, eg: indents, spacing, alignment, etc.

If you just want to make sure a few paragraphs have the same tab stops, you could do this:
1. Select the paragraphs that should have equal tab stops.
2. Use the menu Format > Paragraph Indents > Remove Tab Stops.
3. Add and adjust tab stops using the ruler as normal.