Every press of the Tab key in a document indents text to the next tab stop. You can use the ruler to adjust tab settings by choosing Format ‣ Ruler ‣ Show Ruler ⌘R.

Ruler

The ruler has controls for adjusting paragraph alignment, text spacing, and tab stops. You can drag and drop tab positions to change them, drag and drop tabs out of the ruler to remove them, or add tab stops. Ruler changes only apply to the paragraphs of the current selection, so to change ruler settings for an entire document you need to select all text (⌘A) and then make ruler adjustments.

Using line spacing

To quickly set line spacing to single or double you can select text you want to affect and choose “Single” or “Double” from the Spacing pull-down. More specific line spacing options can be adjusted in the line spacing dialog.

Line spacing options in the ruler

Copy and paste rulers

You can copy ruler settings from one paragraph and paste them elsewhere. Select text with a ruler you wish to copy and choose Format ‣ Ruler ‣ Copy Ruler ⌃⌘C. You can then choose Format ‣ Ruler ‣ Paste Ruler ⌃⌘V to paste the copied ruler into another selection. When you copy a ruler you are copying paragraph alignment, line spacing and indenting, and tab settings of the existing text selection.

Reset rulers

You can reset the ruler and tab settings for the current selection by choosing Format ‣ Ruler ‣ Reset Ruler. Resetting the ruler is a quick way to cleanup some imported documents with abnormal tab settings or to quickly undo ruler changes you experimented with. Remember to select all text (⌘A) if you want to reset the ruler for the entire document.