Convert tabs to spaces in Notepad++

notepad++ whitespace indentation
Helephant picture Helephant · Jan 18, 2009 · Viewed 782.7k times · Source

How do I convert tabs to spaces in Notepad++?

I found a webpage that suggests it's possible, but I couldn't find any information about how to do it.

I would like to be able to do that, because some web forms don't respect code with tabs in them.

Answer

mrzli picture mrzli · Sep 19, 2011

To convert existing tabs to spaces, press Edit->Blank Operations->TAB to Space.

If in the future you want to enter spaces instead of tab when you press tab key:

  1. Go to Settings->Preferences...->Language (since version 7.1) or Settings->Preferences...->Tab Settings (previous versions)
  2. Check Replace by space
  3. (Optional) You can set the number of spaces to use in place of a Tab by changing the Tab size field.

Screenshot of Replace by space

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