How to Convert Tab Characters to White Spaces in Word?

In Word documents, tab characters are often used for formatting and aligning text. However, there may be situations where you need to convert these tab characters to white spaces for consistency, compatibility, or formatting purposes. Manually replacing tabs with spaces can be tedious, especially in large documents.

In this tutorial, we will explore three efficient methods to convert tab characters to white spaces in Word:

Convert tabs to spaces with Find and Replace

Instead of changing tabs to spaces one by one, Word’s Find and Replace function can quickly convert tabs to spaces. Follow these steps:

1. Click Home > Replace to open the Find and Replace window, or press Ctrl + H as a shortcut.
2. Click the More button to bring up additional Search Options.

   

3. Place the cursor in the Find what field and select Tab Character from the Special drop-down menu (or type “^t” in the field).

   

4. In the Replace with field, enter a space character by pressing the spacebar on your keyboard.

   

5. Click Replace All to replace all tabs with spaces.

Office Tab: Brings tabbed interfaces to Word, Excel, PowerPoint...

Enhance your workflow now.      Learn More about Office Tab       Free Download

Convert tabs to spaces with Kutools for Word

The easiest way to convert tabs to spaces is by using Kutools for Word. After selecting the entire document or a specific portion, a single click will instantly replace all tab characters with white spaces.

1. Click Kutools > Convert > Tab to Space.

   

For more detailed information about the Convert Tabs to Spaces feature in Kutools for Word, please visit: Tab to Space feature description.

Convert tabs to spaces with VBA code

If you are comfortable with VBA coding, you can use a macro to convert all tab characters in your Word document into spaces. Follow these steps:

1. Press Alt + F11 to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.
2. Click Module on the Insert tab, and then copy and paste the following VBA code into the Module window.

   Sub Replacetabswithspaces()
   Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
   Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
   With Selection.Find
   .Text = "^t"
   .Replacement.Text = " "
   .Forward = True
   .Wrap = wdFindContinue
   .Format = False
   .MatchCase = False
   .MatchWholeWord = False
   .MatchByte = False
   .MatchAllWordForms = False
   .MatchSoundsLike = False
   .MatchWildcards = False
   .MatchFuzzy = False
   End With
   Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
   End Sub

3. Click the Run button or press F5 to execute the VBA code.

Best Office Productivity Tools

Kutools for Word - Elevate Your Word Experience with Over 100 Remarkable Features!

🤖 Kutools AI Features: AI Assistant / Real-Time Assistant / Super Polish (Preserve Format) / Super Translate (Preserve Format) / AI Redaction / AI Proofread...

📘 Document Mastery: Split Pages / Merge Documents / Export Selection in Various Formats (PDF/TXT/DOC/HTML...) / Batch Convert to PDF...

✏ Contents Editing: Batch Find and Replace across Multiple Files / Resize All Pictures / Transpose Table Rows and Columns / Convert Table to Text...

🧹 Effortless Clean: Sweap away Extra Spaces / Section Breaks / Text Boxes / Hyperlinks / For more removing tools, head to the Remove group...

➕ Creative Inserts: Insert Thousand Separators / Check Boxes / Radio Buttons / QR Code / Barcode / Multiple Pictures / Discover more in the Insert group...

🔍 Precision Selections: Pinpoint Specific Pages / Tables / Shapes / Heading Paragraphs / Enhance navigation with more Select features...

⭐ Star Enhancements: Navigate to Any Location / Auto-Insert Repetitive Text / Toggle Between Document Windows / 11 Conversion Tools...

🌍 Supports 40+ Languages: Use Kutools in your preferred language – supports English, Spanish, German, French, Chinese, and 40+ others!

👉 Want to try these features? Download Kutools for Word now! 🚀

Free Download     Buy Now     Learn More about Kutools for Word

 

Best Office Productivity Tools

Kutools for Word - 100+ Tools for Word

• 🤖 Kutools AI Features: AI Assistant / Real-Time Assistant / Super Polish / Super Translate / AI Redaction / AI Proofread
• 📘 Document Mastery: Split Pages / Merge Documents / Batch Convert to PDF
• ✏ Contents Editing: Batch Find and Replace / Resize All Pictures
• 🧹 Effortless Clean: Remove Extra Spaces / Remove Section Breaks
• ➕ Creative Inserts: Insert Thousand Separators / Insert Check Boxes / Create QR Codes
• 🌍 Supports 40+ Languages: Kutools speaks your language – 40+ languages supported!

Free Download Buy Now Learn More about Kutools