How to set tab stops and columns in a vector program

Tab stops and columns are both built into the type tools of Vectornation by Zaweba. Open Window > Type > Tabs (Ctrl+Shift+T) to set left, centre, right and decimal stops with leaders, and use area type to split a text frame into columns or thread text from one frame to the next. You never need to line things up with spaces again.

Price lists, menus, timetables and spec sheets are the usual reasons people go looking for this. They are all text that needs to sit in neat vertical lines, and a drawing program that only knows about single lines of text makes that painful.

Start with a text frame

Start with area text rather than point text. Drag a box with the Text tool (T) and type into it, or convert existing text with Type > Convert to area type. Tabs and columns both work on paragraphs, so they belong in a text frame.

Plan the layout before you type: decide how many columns of figures you need and roughly where each should start. It is much quicker to set three stops once than to nudge them for every line.

Setting tab stops

Select the text and open the Tabs panel. There are four kinds of stop. A left stop starts text at that point, which suits item names. A centre stop centres text over the point. A right stop ends text there, good for the last column of a table. A decimal stop lines figures up on their decimal point, so 4.50 and 12.00 sit neatly one above the other.

Each stop can have a leader, the row of dots or other characters that fills the gap up to the tab. That is the classic restaurant menu look, with dots running from the dish to the price. Add the stop, choose the leader, then press Tab in the text wherever you want to jump to it.

A good habit is to put tabs only between columns and never use two in a row to make extra space. If a gap looks wrong, move the stop rather than adding another tab.

Making columns and threading text

Area type in Vectornation supports columns. Instead of drawing several boxes and cutting the text into pieces, you set one frame to hold two or three columns and the text flows down the first and on into the next. Edit a sentence near the top and everything reflows.

Threaded text does the same across separate frames. Link one frame to another, perhaps on a different part of the page, and overflow text carries on in the next. This is the way to lay out a leaflet where a story starts on the front panel and continues inside.

Text wrap around objects completes the picture. Place a photo or a shape in the middle of the columns and set the text to wrap round it, and the lines shorten to clear it.

Getting a tidy result

Justified columns can open up ugly gaps between words. Vectornation has hyphenation with UK English patterns, discretionary hyphens and Type > Justification, where you set the word and letter spacing it may use. There is also an every-line composer that looks at the whole paragraph when it breaks lines, hanging punctuation and optical margin alignment, which pulls quote marks and hyphens slightly into the margin so the edge looks straight.

For narrow columns, ranged-left text with hyphenation turned on usually reads better than full justification. Try both and look at the gaps.

Lining things up by hand

If you only have three or four short lines, you could build a table out of separate point text objects and align them with the Align panel. It works, but it falls apart as soon as a price changes length. For anything you will update, tabs and real columns are faster in the long run.

Vectornation by Zaweba is free software for Windows, works offline and needs no account, so you can set up a menu template once and reuse it every season.