File: groff.info,  Node: Tabs and Leaders,  Next: Input Conventions,  Prev: Adjustment,  Up: Text

5.1.6 Tabs and Leaders
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GNU 'troff' translates input horizontal tab characters ("tabs") and
 characters ("leaders") into movements to the next tab stop.
Tabs simply move to the next tab stop; leaders place enough periods to
fill the space.  Tab stops are by default located every half inch
measured from the drawing position corresponding to the beginning of the
input line; see *note Page Geometry::.  Tabs and leaders do not cause
breaks and therefore do not interrupt filling.  Below, we use arrows ->
and bullets * to indicate input tabs and leaders, respectively.

     1
     -> 2 -> 3 * 4
     -> * 5
     => 1         2       3.......4         ........5

   Tabs and leaders lend themselves to table construction.(1)  (*note
Tabs and Leaders-Footnote-1::) The tab and leader glyphs can be
configured, and further facilities for sophisticated table composition
are available; see *note Tabs and Fields::.  There are many details to
track when using such low-level features, so most users turn to the
'tbl(1)' preprocessor to lay out tables.