Tabs don't align

Question

What I SEE on the page is not what I GET when it prints. This happens
frequently. I play with it, randomly, until it prints correctly, but that
takes time until I stumble upon a solution. I would like to know the rule or the trick or what I am doing wrong. Here is the situation: I type, say, 4 words, and then hit 3
tabs and type a number on the right that applies to the words. Then,
on the next line, I might type, say, 6 words. Since the length of words
is longer, I only need 2 tabs to get to the spot directly below the number on
the first line. I type the number that is my line 2 number. The line one number
and the line 2 number line up on the monitor. When I print, they are not
in line. I suppose I could make a table, but it would be easier if I could
simply use tabs, spaces, and invisibles. Please help. - Robert

Answer 1

Robert Arnold5 wrote:
What I SEE on the page is not what I GET when it prints. This happens
frequently. I play with it, randomly, until it prints correctly, but that
takes time until I stumble upon a solution. I would like to know the rule or the trick or what I am doing wrong.
What you're doing wrong is treating your Mac as a typewriter.
That would work fine IF you restricted yourself to using ONLY monospaced fonts such as Andale Mono, Courier, Monaco or VT100 where every character, including i, W, all the numbers, and all the punctuation characters takes the same amount of space in the line. But it would restrict you to some pretty ugly fonts.
Instead follow these guidelines in your typing:
Never type two or more space characters or tab characters in a row. Set a tab stops only where you need them, and use a single tab character to get to that stop.
The two links offered by Fruhulda are written for Word, but the ideas in them apply equally to AppleWorks documents. You might also want to check your local library for a copy of Robin Williams's "The Mac is not a Typewriter."
Michael suggests using a Right Tab (or Trailing Tab) for the column of numbers. I'd go one further and suggest using a Decimal Tab (the rightmost tab button, in which there's a black triangle in the 'attic' of the little house). It works the same for whole numbers, but lines up columns of whole numbers and numbers with decimal parts on the decimal separator.
Regards,
Barry