In programs such as Microsoft Word, pressing the tab key will move the cursor a fixed distance to the right – to what’s known as a “tab stop”. This is the same as the key’s original function on typewriters. If the cursor is before a word, you’ll also push the word one tab distance to the right. This function is useful to get even distances with one push of a button, as well as to increase the margin on the left side of the page, to organize the text into columns, or to use gaps to divide up blocks of text or lists.
Some programs fill the area with spaces, others add a tab sign or their own character to make the text formatting visible. In each case, the tab is a precisely defined but blank space. Although it is made of several different characters, word processors group the space together and treat it as a single element. This means that you can skip over the space from left to right with just one click or one push of an arrow key.
Some programs, including Word, give you the possibility to change the size of the space yourself. Go to the “View” tab and turn on the “Ruler” feature, and then use a left mouse click to set where you want the tab key to move the cursor to. The standard tab distance in Microsoft Word is 1.25 cm, or half an inch. This means that pressing the tab key will move the cursor 1.25 cm or half an inch to the right.
Programmers use the tab key to indent their lines of code and therefore clearly show hierarchies. This makes the source text much more legible and therefore easier to work with.