Inserting leaders and specifying leader characters
You can set a tab stop with a leader character. A leader is a string of characters that appears between items separated by tab stops. In the following example, the leader characters are the periods between “Item 1,” “Item 2,” and “Item 3.”
Item 1 ……. Item 2 ……. Item 3
A leader helps draw the eye from one tab stop to the next, usually illustrating a relationship between information at the tab stops. For example, you can use leaders in a table of contents to show the page number that corresponds to a title.
The default leader character is a period; however, you can specify other leader characters.
To set a tab stop with a leader character |  |
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1.
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Click a paragraph.
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2.
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Click Format
 Line Tab set. |
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3.
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From the Tab type list box, choose one of the following:
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Dot left — inserts periods in the empty space to the left of the tab stop
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Dot center — inserts periods in the empty space surrounding the centered text
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Dot right — inserts periods in the empty space to the right of the tab stop
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Dot decimal — inserts periods in the empty space surrounding the decimal-aligned text
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4.
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Click Set.
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To specify a leader character | |
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1.
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Click a paragraph.
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2.
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Click Format
Line Tab set. |
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3.
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Type a new keyboard character in the Dot leader character box.
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4.
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Type a number in the Spaces between characters box.
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5.
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Click Set.
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You can change a leader character to a non-keyboard character or symbol by pressing Ctrl + W, choosing a character or symbol from the Symbol list, and clicking Insert.
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