Tab Stop Specification

WordprocessingML allows for custom specification of tab stops at the paragraph

level. Tab stop spacing is a subset of paragraph formatting in this system,

so will be implemented within the docx.text.parfmt.ParagraphFormatting object.

Tab stops will be handled as a List-like TabStops object made up of TabStop

objects.

A TabStop object has three properties, alignment, leader, and position.

Alignment is a WD_TAB_ALIGNMENT member and position is a Length() object.

TabStops must be in position order within the XML. If they are not, the out-

of-order tab stop will appear in the ruler and in the properties dialog, but

will not actually be used by Word.

Tab character insertion is already properly handled as part of Runs. This

feature deals with the horizontal spacing of tabs within the document only.

Protocol

.. highlight:: python

Getting and setting tab stops::

XML Semantics

* Tab stops have a type (w:val), which allows the specification of left,

center, right, decimal, bar, and list alignment.

* The details of the list alignment are elusive. (I have not been able to

create this type of tab stops in Word, even within lists. Perhaps a later

version of Word than I use is required.)

* Tab stop positions (w:pos) are stored in XML in twips.

* Tab stops can have a "leader" (w:leader) character. I do not intent to

implement support for leader characters at this time.

Specimen XML

.. highlight:: xml

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Enumerations

* `WdTabAlignment Enumeration on MSDN`_

.. _WdTabAlignment Enumeration on MSDN:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/EN-US/library/office/ff195609.aspx

* `WdTabLeader Enumeration on MSDN`_

.. _WdTabLeader Enumeration on MSDN:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff845050.aspx

MS API Protocol

The MS API defines a `TabStops object`_ which is made up of `TabStop objects`_.

.. _TabStops object:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/EN-US/library/office/ff192806.aspx

.. _TabStop objects:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/EN-US/library/office/ff195736.aspx

Schema excerpt

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