Guide to LaTeX (4th Edition) (Tools and Techniques

82 Chapter 4. Displayed Text
Example:
Type Quality Color Price
Paper med. white low
Leather good brown high
Card bad gray med.
4.6.2 Sample line
\begin{tabbing}
Type\qquad\= Quality\quad\=
Color\quad\= Price\\[0.8ex]
Paper \> med. \> white \> low\\
Leather \> good \> brown \> high\\
Card \> bad \> gray \> med.
\end{tabbing}
It is often advantageous or even necessary to set the tab stops in a sample
line that is not actually printed. It could contain, for example, the widest
entries in the various columns that appear later, or the smallest intercolumn
spacing between stops. The sample line may also contain \hspace
commands to force the distance between stops to be a predetermined
amount.
To suppress the printing of the sample line, it is ended with the
command \kill instead of the \\ terminator.
\hspace*{3cm}\=sample column \=\hspace{4cm}\= \kill
In addition to the left border, the above statement sets three tab stops:
Left border
3cm
1st tab stop
❄
✲sample
column
2nd tab stop
❄
3rd tab stop
❄
4cm ✲
An \hspace command at the beginning of a sample line must be of the
*-form, otherwise the inserted spacing will be deleted at the line margin.
4.6.3 Tab stops and the left margin
The left border of each line of the tabbing environment is at first identical
with the left margin of the enclosing environment, and is designated the
zeroth stop. By activating the ‘tab key’ \> at the start of a line, one sets
the following text beginning at the first tab stop. However, the command
\+ has the same effect, putting the left border permanently at the first
stop, for all subsequent lines. With \+\+ at the beginning or end of a line,
all the next lines will start two stops further along. There can be as many
\+ commands in all as there are tab stops set on the line.
The command \- has the opposite effect: it shifts the left border for
the following lines one stop to the left. It is not possible to set this border
to be to the left of the zeroth stop.
The effect of the \+ commands may be overridden for a single line by
putting \< at the start for each tab to be removed. This line then starts so
many tabs to the left of the present border. With the next \\ command,
the new line begins at the current left border determined by the total
number of \+ and \- commands.