Auto-convert tab to 4 spaces in TextWrangler?

Question

Is there a preference in Textwrangler to redefine a tab as 4 spaces? In Vim this is set expandtab in the vimrc, but I don't know how to set it in TW besides clicking "Detab" when I'm done editing the document.

Thanks, Kevin

Answer 1

in version 4.5.5, there is 'Text -> Detab...', which pops up a requester for how many space per tab, preset for 4.

Answer 2

For docs that already exist you have to hit the "Text options" button in the top of the editor window of the open document. It's the button that looks like a "T" with a light switch next to it. In that drop down there is the "auto-expand tabs" there as well.

Answer 3

For Mac, another easy way to check and enable "Auto-expand tabs" is to hit the gear button on top left.

Answer 4

Go to "Preferences" -> "Editor Defaults" -> "Auto-expand tabs," and then set tabs to 4 spaces. Then restart TextWrangler for changes to take place.

Answer 5

You can also use "Normalize Options..." to set the text options of an already-open document to whatever you have set in your Preferences. This is useful for dealing with pre-existing code.

Answer 6

Go to Edit -> Text Options and tick Auto-expand tabs. This will make all the new tabs to change to spaces.

To change all current tabs to spaces as well, go to Text -> Detab and hit Detab.

Hope that helps!