Indent Tabs as Spaces - A Workaround

[Gregg Buntin webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

While evaluating Deamweaver MX to see if I want to swtich to it from HomeSite, I found that my beloved "Insert Tabs As Spaces" option was not to be found.

Needless to say that really is a major flaw in a program that costs so much, perhaps Macromedia should fix it. I know I am not the only one with this issue, as I saw numerous posts in the forum going back to last year (thats where I stopped because noone in that time had posted a workaround).

Personally I never use the tab key while coding web pages because it makes it harder to indent the code quickly and different systems use the tabs differently. I do, however, like to have my code indented consitently and the auto-indent when you hit return is very nice 99% of the time.

So what to do when DW inserts TABs for you when you hit return? Simple, In Edit, Preferences, Code Format set the Tab Size to 64 (the largest DW lets you set it to). That way, anytime you have less than 64 spaces from the left margin to where you are coding, DW inserts spaces. This does however, cause any existing TABs to show way over to the right and can make your code look goofy.

You can fix your code by opening the file up with Notepad, highlighting a TAB, doing a CTRL-C to copy it to the clip board, then do a Search And Replace (ctrl-H in XP) paste the TAB into the FInd What box by doing a ctrl-V and put a few spaces in the Replace With (I usually use 4). Then click REPLACE ALL.

I know this is a pain, but it solved my problem and I am mostly happy with it. I would prefer that Macromedia get a fix in place for this, come on guys, how hard can it be to fix that?

Thanks

[Unregistered]

- You can fix your code by opening the file up with Notepad, highlighting a TAB, doing a CTRL-C to
- copy it to the clip board, then do a Search And Replace (ctrl-H in XP) paste the TAB into the FInd
- What box by doing a ctrl-V and put a few spaces in the Replace With (I usually use 4). Then click
- REPLACE ALL.

I use dreamweaver to fix my code by using the find and replace (with 'use regular expressions' set) and simply put \t in the find box and the replace box with the two or four spaces that are needed.

[Crates]

FYI, I have Dreamweaver CS5.5 and when I create a new PHP file, with the Tab Size set to 64 and the settings to indent via 2 SPACES, and I type the following:

<?php
class className {

As soon as I hit enter I get a 64-width tab and not spaces.

No matter what I do, I have not been able to get Dreamweaver to insert spaces on any computer I have used since Dreamweaver CS2. This problem has been driving me insane ever since my employer made me migrate from HomeSite ten years ago.

(HomeSite never had this problem.)