I believe there is a method to write a comment in a file that vim will use to override default tabbing and indent values.
Can someone point me to information about this feature and how to use it?
Per-file settings can be done using "modeline magic".
The basic idea is that you can add a comment to an individual file like this:
/* vim: set tabstop=8:softtabstop=8:shiftwidth=8:noexpandtab */
Within vim, you should review: