By: David Blatner
November 22 2006 • 6:32 PM
Tab Stops in InDesign Tables
Mercier wrote:
is there a way without using indent to align table text in a column on “,” or “.”
Absolutely! InDesign’s tables are sneaky because they pay attention to tab stops even if you don’t have a tab character in there.
For example, you can just select a whole row in a table, open the Tabs palette (Command-shift-T/Ctrl-Shift-T), click the Decimal Align tab stop, and click in the palette’s ruler. This ensures that all the decimal points in that row will align — again, even if there are no tabs at all in the cells!
Before: No tabs in the cell
Table Tabs 1
After: Decimal tab stop aligns the numbers properly
Table Tabs 2
If you’re in Europe and want to use commas instead of points, select the tab stop in the Tabs palette and change the Align On field to a comma.
What happens very often is that ID users first align all the table’s content in CENTER and when they need to align on a . or on a , it does not work !
Why ?
The cells’ content must be aligned LEFT !
many thx Mr Blatner.
You’re a blessing
thanks! that was great!
extremely useful!!!!
thank you Dave very much!
What about negative numbers with parenthesis? How do you keep your zeros lined up regardless of the cells that contain the negative numbers?
Spot, remember that you can type any character you want in the “Align On” field of the Tabs palette. For example, here’s what you get if you type a right-paren instead of a decimal:
Excellent! Awesome guide - I was trying to find out how to align on figures when they have brackets and couldn’t find this in the ‘Indesign Help’. This was a super-quick and easy tutorial! MANY THANKS!!!
I’m using an older version if Indesign CS, PC [yeah yeah, I know]. My “tabs” palette has gone suddenly blank for any file I open. No ruler, no buttons, just blank. What did I do? Thank you.
Matt, you may need to rebuild your preferences.
now if i have it in a table aligned left, set the Align On field to commas, and it still doesn’t work, what do I do???
Why Hilight the cell when it reduce the cell width???
@Chantel: I’m not sure why it’s not working for you. Seems to work for others.
@ER: If the cell is highlighted, then perhaps there is more text than can fit inside the cell?
The tabs still do not work for me inside the table. I am CS3 and I not using numbers but text so there is no period.
How can I still get the tab function to work? I have tried everything I can think of.
I would appreciate any help you can give me.
Thanks!
Did you insert a tab character before the text you want to Align On?
In a table when you press TAB key it highlights the next cell. To insert a tab in text in a cell you need to go to the Type>Insert Special Character>Other and choose TAB, and it goes before the text.
We have numerous tables which we align on the decimal. In Quark this worked perfectly. However, the decimal align function in InDesign does not seem to work if some of the numbers do not have the decimal point in them. (e.g. 94.9, 240, 118.2, 190) Is there a way to align all such numbers in a column on the decimal? Also is it possible to set the style sheet to do this automatically?
thank you!
Eugene provides an awesome tip about using Type>Insert Special Character>Other, then Tab. Thanks. Btr