Tabulator Key
The tab key (abbreviation of tabulator key or tabular key) on a alphanumeric keyboard, keyboard is used to advance the cursor to the next tab stop. History The word ''tab'' derives from the word ''tabulate'', which means "to arrange data in a tabular, or table, form." When a person wanted to type a table (of numbers or text) on a typewriter, there was a lot of time-consuming and repetitive use of the space bar and backspace key. To simplify this, a horizontal bar was placed in the mechanism called the tabulator rack. Pressing the tab key would advance the carriage to the next tab stop, tabulator stop. The original tabulator stops were adjustable clips that could be arranged by the user on the tabulator rack. Fredric Hillard filed a patent application for such a mechanism in 1900. The tab mechanism came into its own as a rapid and consistent way of uniformly Indentation (typesetting), indenting the first line of each paragraph. Often a first tab stop at 5 or 6 characters was u ...
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