Dear Esther,
How do I move the left tabs to the edge of the page as you helpfully
suggest? Do I do that by interacting with each and setting their value
to the one coresponding to the position of the right margin? Or is
there a way of dragging them? It would be best for me just to use one
left tab press to avoid any confusion. I guess once I've set up the
template, I can save it, and I also surmise that when I open a new
untitled document, the ruler is going to appear in its original
default seting.
Forgive my ignorance in the above matters. I have read through the
help files a few times to make sure that there are indeed no shortcut
keys for fiddling with the tabs. But maybe I've missed something.
Again, many thanks for the explanations. I'm excited to think that
once I've set up my template, I will be able to write my letters in
Textedit rather than booting into Windows and using Microsoft Word.
With best wishes
Simon
On 1 Dec 2008, at 22:10, Esther wrote:
Dear Simon,
I think there's only one left margin (head indent), and another
setting to set paragraph indentation (first line indent) plus the
right margin (tail indent). Apart from these ruler markers, there
are just the left tab markers. You can interact and move them. If
you don't want to use additional tab markers before the tab for your
return address, just move the additional tab markers to the end of
the page area (right margin). What happens when you turn formatting
on to "Wrap to Page" is that the head indent and tail indent move to
give you 1 inch margins. (This is for U.S. letter paper that is 8.5
x 11 inches.) If you want to move the margins further away from the
right and left edges, you can. You may need to do this if the
margins are not well matched for A4 paper.
If you want to keep the left tab markers in place, you'll need to
count the number of left tabs you place before your return address
and press the correct number of tabs. The key settings are for left
and right margin if you want to change these, and to move the tab
you want to set for the return address to the correct location.
Cheers,
Esther
On Dec 1, 2008, at 11:48 AM, Simon Cavendish wrote:
Dear Esther,
Thank you for these detailed and helpful instructions. I shall
follow them and report the outcome. I did think of using a left tab
and maybe right justifying the return address. My concern was with
the number of left margins in the ruler. I guess I just change the
value of the left margin and ignore the rest?
With many thanks again,
Simon
On 1 Dec 2008, at 17:14, Esther wrote:
Hi Simon,
There may be better ways to do this, but I took a letter in Word
and saved this as a Rich Text Format file. Then I opened this
with TextEdit and saved this as a style file that I called
"letter". In fact, examining this turns out to be pretty basic.
In minimal format, you use the page boundaries and a single left
tab that is placed to put your address on the right hand side.
The page boundaries here are the defaults you set "Wrap to
page" (Command-Shift-W) -- 1 inch in from the boundaries of the
window. Since I am using U.S. letter paper, this means that the
head indent and tail indent markers for the ruler are set to 1.0
inch and 7.5, and these form the left and right margins of my page
(which is 8.5 inches wide). My single left tab stop, which is
used for my address or the closing, is set for 5.9 inches.
By comparison, in the default setup for Rich Text Format, the mode
is "Wrap to window" (typing goes to the edge of the window instead
of starting or stopping at the "margins" of the page -- here, 1
inch to the left or right from the left and right limits of the
window). There are also
12 left tab stops (set every half inch from the left edge of the
window).
I don't think you need to use the right tab stop unless you are
typing in a language that flows from right to left, such as Hebrew.
For the letter template I describe, I simply tab to start typing
the return address (5.9 inches from the left edge of the window,
or 4.9 inches from the left margin of the letter). The
recipient's address is set at the left margin, where typing
automatically starts, since I use "align left".
Hope this makes sense. To find out the margin and tab settings,
interact with the ruler. The head indent ruler marker will be 0
if you are in the default setting of "Wrap to Window". Use the
Command-Shift-W shortcut to toggle this setting or else go to the
Format menu and choose the option "Wrap to Page". Now when you
read the position of the head indent ruler marker it should be 1
inch. Your right margin (tail indent) may be set up for A4 paper
and have a different value from mine (7.5 inches). Similarly, you
will want to set the left tab stop for your return address to a
different value than 5.9 inches since A4 paper is narrower. You
can interact and move one of the existing left tab stops instead
of setting a new one.
Maybe Anne has recommendations.
Cheers,
Esther
On Dec 1, 2008, at 4:56 AM, Simon Cavendish wrote:
Dear Listers,
I am trying to work with tabs in Textedit. I have read as much as
I was able to in the Voiceover help file on tabs and in Textedit
help files. I can set the value of the right tab without a
problem but I am not sure how to activate that tab. When I press
the tab button, how do I know whether I activate the left tab or
right tab? Has anyone got any more experience on that? I'm trying
to create letter template so that my address is always on the
right handside and so that I may input the address of the
recipient on the left.
Your experience and help would be welcome.
With best wishes
Simon
