Automatically convert tab to 4 spaces in TextWrangler?

Question

Is there a preference in Textwrangler to override a tab as 4 spaces? In Vim, this is set expandtab in vimrc, but I don’t know how to install it in TW other than clicking “Detab” when I finished editing the document.

Thanks Kevin

Answer 1

Go to "Settings" → "Editor Default Settings" → "Automatically Expand Tabs", and then set the tabs to 4 spaces. Then restart TextWrangler for the changes to occur.

Answer 2

For existing documents, you must click the "Text Options" button at the top of the open document editor window. This is a button that looks like a “T” with a light switch next to it. There are also “auto-extension tabs” in this drop-down list.

Answer 3

in version 4.5.5 there is "Text → Detab ...", in which the interrogator appears for the number of spaces per tab predefined for 4.

Answer 4

Go to Edit → Text Options and check the Auto-expand tabs checkbox. This will change all new tabs to spaces.

To change all current tabs to spaces, go to Text Detab and press Detab .

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

For Macs, another easy way to check and enable the Auto Expand tab is to click the gear shift button in the upper left corner.

Answer 6

You can also use "Normalize Options ..." to set the text options for an already open document according to what you set in your settings. This is useful for working with existing code.