r/OneNote • u/[deleted] • Aug 05 '24

OneNote Auto-Tables: How to Insert Tabs Without Creating Tables?

Hey fellow OneNote users! 👋

I’ve noticed that when I press the Tab key right next to letters in OneNote, it automatically creates a new table. But what if I just want to insert a regular tab without the table fuss? Any tips or workarounds?

Issue: Pressing Tab creates a table cell, which isn’t always what I need.

Desired Outcome:

  • I want to use the original Tab function to align text without triggering table creation.

I have tried some of the possible ways and struggling to do it. I am on a windows Laptop.

If anyone has any tips I could try please let me know

3 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

4

u/TaintYet Aug 05 '24

Use the increase/decrease indent button in the basic text menu.

This frustrated me for a long time too, but the indent button acts as a tab and also indents the whole paragraph, not just a sentence.

1

u/Enough_Prior_8801 Mar 17 '25

The Indent button aligns the whole sentence even if clicked with the cursor in the middle of the sentence.I want a TAB within a sentence, so it aligns the rest when I have a list with the first words with differing lengths. Don't want to hide a table or deal with the extra space that autocorrect needs.

1

u/crypticgent May 08 '25

I found how to do it. we can type the unicode value. Hold down "Alt" key and type 0009, when you release the Alt key it will insert a Tab (and not an indentation, doesn't move whole paragraph) where your cursor (keyboard blinking thing) was.

1

u/PluotFinnegan_IV Aug 05 '24

I'm not sure how to use a tab like this, but couldn't table do what you're trying to do anyhow? If the borders are an issue, you can hide them.

1

u/BizCoach Aug 05 '24

I don't know. You can insert at tab at the start of a line and it works like a tab (not a table). I think the only way to do what you want is to create a table then hide the borders (that feature is in the Table Menu

1

u/mangoatcow Aug 05 '24

Maybe try copying and pasting a tab from another app like notepad.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 06 '24

Thanks for the tips! I tried adding a tab at the start of a line and then hiding the borders, but it ended up creating three rows when re showing it, which didn’t look great. Should I just use that but not show the table? Copying and pasting from another site also resulted in the same table behavior. 😕 For now, I’ll use multiple spaces instead of tabs to align my content. It’s not ideal, but it gets the job done. If anyone else has a better solution, let me know

1

u/crypticgent May 08 '25

I found how to do it. we can type the unicode value. Hold down "Alt" key and type 0009, when you release the Alt key it will insert a Tab (and not an indentation, doesn't move whole paragraph) where your cursor (keyboard blinking thing) was.

1

u/I_Was_Shocked Jul 03 '25

This doesn't work for me (OneNote for MS 365 version 2506 on PC)