Set 4 Space Indent in Emacs in Text Mode

Cristian_680 0
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I've been unsuccessful in getting Emacs to switch from 8 space tabs to 4 space tabs when pressing the TAB in buffers with the major mode text-mode. I've added the following to my .emacs:

(setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil)
(setq-default tab-width 4)

;;; And I have tried
(setq indent-tabs-mode nil)
(setq tab-width 4)

No matter how I change my .emacs file (or my buffer's local variables) the TAB button always does the same thing.

  1. If there is no text above, indent 8 spaces
  2. If there is text on the previous line, indent to the beginning of the second word

As much as I love Emacs this is getting annoying. Is there a way to make Emacs to at least indent 4 space when there's not text in the previous line?

indentation emacs
21 Answers

Do not confuse variable tab-width with variable tab-stop-list. The former is used for the display of literal TAB characters. The latter controls what characters are inserted when you press the TAB character in certain modes.

-- GNU Emacs Manual

(customize-variable (quote tab-stop-list))

or add tab-stop-list entry to custom-set-variables in .emacs file:

(custom-set-variables
  ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom.
  ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
  ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
  ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 '(tab-stop-list (quote (4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68 72 76 80 84 88 92 96 100 104 108 112 116 120))))

Another way to edit the tab behavior is with with M-x edit-tab-stops.

See the GNU Emacs Manual on Tab Stops for more information on edit-tab-stops.

user_112960

You may find it easier to set up your tabs as follows:

M-x customize-group

At the Customize group: prompt enter indent.

You'll see a screen where you can set all you indenting options and set them for the current session or save them for all future sessions.

If you do it this way you'll want to set up a customisations file.

Dave_Webb_31710 
(setq tab-width 4)
(setq tab-stop-list '(4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68 72 76 80))
(setq indent-tabs-mode nil)
Admin1

This problem isn't caused by missing tab stops; it's that emacs has a (new?) tab method called indent-relative that seems designed to line up tabular data. The TAB key is mapped to the method indent-for-tab-command, which calls whatever method the variable indent-line-function is set to, which is indent-relative method for text mode. I havn't figured out a good way to override the indent-line-function variable (text mode hook isn't working, so maybe it is getting reset after the mode-hooks run?) but one simple way to get rid of this behavior is to just chuck the intent-for-tab-command method by setting TAB to the simpler tab-to-tab-stop method:

(define-key text-mode-map (kbd "TAB") 'tab-to-tab-stop)

Admin1

Try this:

(add-hook 'text-mode-hook
  (function
   (lambda ()
     (setq tab-width 4)
     (define-key text-mode-map "\C-i" 'self-insert-command)
     )))

That will make TAB always insert a literal TAB character with tab stops every 4 characters (but only in Text mode). If that's not what you're asking for, please describe the behavior you'd like to see.

cjm_83550

Have you tried

(setq  tab-width  4)
Admin1

Modified this answer without any hook:

(setq-default
  indent-tabs-mode t
  tab-stop-list (number-sequence 4 200 4)
  tab-width 4
  indent-line-function 'insert-tab)
user_130550970

To make in text-mode pressing Tab does indent then tabbing/spacing by fixed values (NOT by previous line words)

see also: indent-relative-first-indent-point, tab-width indent-tabs-mode

(add-hook 'text-mode-hook
 (lambda()
   (progn
     (setq tab-always-indent nil) 
     ;(setq electric-indent-mode nil)
     (setq indent-line-function 
           (lambda()
             (indent-relative 't)   
             )
           ) 
     (setq tab-always-indent nil)
     )))
user_19485110
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