Keep words and number with columns

Ferenc Nagy

I have some programs whose input data are organized into columns.The columns are usually 12 characters wide.
As you can see on the linked file, I put rulers among the commands.
<PREDICATE ><OBJECT ><EVA_TITLE ><EVA_SOLUTI><DEVICE ><SPLIT >
I make errors often: data spill over column boundaries. Which features of Notepad do you recommend this avoid this mistake?

guy038

Hello, Ferenc Nagy,

Looking at your file, I noticed that the length of your <....> zones, included the brackets, are mostly 12 and sometimes 24, 36 or 48 characters long !

So, assuming that you simply use the Normal text language for your data files, I would do this way :

Open the Settings - Preferences… Tab Settings dialog
Select the normal language
UNCHECK the Use Default value option
Type 12 in the Tab size option
Leave the Replace by space option UNCHECKED
Close the Preferences dialog

Now, let’s suppose that you write the line, below ( it’s just an example, not related to yourexact file contents ! )

<PREDICATE ><OBJECT    ><EVA_TITLE             ><DEVICE    ><COMPLEMENT                        >

and that you have to write, for each of these five columns, three letters, taken in the alphabetical list.

To correctly write these data, according to the previous header line :

Type the string abc and hit the TAB key, ONCE
Type the string def and hit the TAB key, ONCE
Type the string ghi and hit the TAB key TWICE
Type the string jkl and hit the TAB key, ONCE
Type the string mno and hit the TAB key, THREE times

To better visualize the TAB characters, use the View - Show Symbol - Show All Characters option !

IMPORTANT :

When ALL your datas will be typed, in your file, according to the above scheme, use the Edit - Blank Operations - TAB to Space option to replace all the TAB characters by the suitable number of SPACE characters ( Thanks to Loreia2 ! )

Et voilà ! From now on, your datas should be aligned, on column 1 , 13, 25, 37, … ( 12*n + 1 )

Best Regards,

guy038