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How to Convert Tab Characters to White Space in Word?

If you need to reformat a document, changing tabs to white spaces may be required. Is there any quicker way to convert tabs to spaces in Word? This tutorial will show you some methods for converting tabs to spaces in word as follows:

Convert tabs to spaces with the Find and Replace

Convert tabs to spaces with VBA code

Convert tabs to spaces with Kutools for Word


arrow blue right bubbleConvert tabs to spaces with the Find and Replace

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Instead of changing tabs to spaces one by one, the Word’s Find and Replace function is commonly used to convert tabs to spaces.

Step 1: Click Home > Replace to open the Find and Replace window;

Step 2: Click More button to bring up more Search Options;

doc-tab-space-1

Step 2: Place the cursor in the Find What field, and select Tab Character from the Special pull-down menu (or enter “^t” in the Find What field);

doc-tab-space-2

Step 3: Enter a space character (press space button on your keyboard) in the Replace With field;

Step 4: Click Replace All.


arrow blue right bubble Convert tabs to spaces with VBA code

You may run macro to convert all tab characters to spaces if you are good at VBA code.

Step 1: Press “Alt-F11” to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Application window;

Step 2: Click Module on the Insert tab, copy and paste the following VBA code into the Module window;

Step 3: Then click Rundoc-remove-numeric-characters-1 button to apply the VBA.

VBA: Convert tabs to spaces in Word:

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

arrow blue right bubbleConvert tabs to spaces with Kutools for Word

The simplest way to convert tabs to spaces may be the way with Kutools for Word. After you select the whole document or a part of the document, only one click will convert all tab characters to white space immediately.

Kutools for Word, a handy add-in, includes groups of tools to ease your work and enhance your ability of processing word document. Free Trial for 45 days! Get It Now!

Click Kutools > Tab to Space on the Paragraph group. See screenshot:

doc-tab-space-3

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



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Comments (4)
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This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
thank u...it worked out in well manner
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
you saved my life
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Thanks for this. A great help.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
This doesn't work if I use a tab to indent a paragraph. There is no visible ^t character at the beginning of the paragraph so no spaces are put in place of the non-existant tab character. What to do?
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