<ptab> (Absolute Position Tab Character)

This element specifies that an absolute position tab character shall be placed at the current location in the run content. An absolute position tab is a character which is used to advance the position on the current line of text when displaying this WordprocessingML content, using the following logic:

Regardless of any number of custom tab stops defined using the <tabs> element (§2.3.1.38) , the absolute position tab character shall advance to the position specified by its @alignment and @relativeTo attributes. The resulting end position of the tab character shall not be affected by the addition of any custom tab stops or changes to the value of the <defaultTabStop> element (§2.15.1.24).

If the alignment location specified by the positional tab cannot be found on the current line, because the starting location is past that point, then the tab character shall advance to that location on the next available line in the document.

example: 
<w:pPr>
  <w:tabs>
    <w:tab w:val="left" w:pos="2160" /> 
    <w:tab w:val="left" w:pos="5040" /> 
  </w:tabs>
</w:pPr>

If a positional tab character was added to a run in this paragraph starting at 1” inside the margin and was defined as follows:

<w:ptab w:alignment="center" w:relativeTo="margin" />

This positional tab would then ignore the next custom tab stop and the indents on the current paragraph defined using the <ind> element (§2.3.1.12) and would advance to the center of the line with respect to the text margins, moving to a new line if needed. ]

Parent Elements

<r> (§7.1.2.87); <r> (§2.3.2.23)

Attributes

Description

<alignment> (Positional Tab Stop Alignment)

Specifies the location of the positional tab stop on the line, as well as the alignment which shall be applied to text subsequent to the current positional tab stop.

<w:ptab w:alignment="left" w:relativeTo=”margin” … />

The <alignment> attribute specifies that this absolute position tab stop shall align on the left edge of the line relative to the margin. ]

The possible values for this attribute are defined by the ST_PTabAlignment simple type (§2.18.78).

<leader> (Tab Leader Character)

Specifies the character which shall be used to fill in the space created by a positional tab. This character shall be repeated as required to completely fill the tab spacing generated by the positional tab character.

______________Text at the positional tab stop

This tab stop would have a @leader attribute value of underscore, indicating that the tab stop shall be preceded by underscore characters as needed to fill the tab spacing. ]

The possible values for this attribute are defined by the ST_PTabLeader simple type (§2.18.79).

<relativeTo> (Positional Tab Base)

Specifies the extents which shall be used to calculate the absolute positioning of this positional tab character.

<w:ptab w:relativeTo="margin" … />

The @relativeTo attribute specifies that this absolute position tab stop shall be relative to the margin. ]

The possible values for this attribute are defined by the ST_PTabRelativeTo simple type (§2.18.80).

The following XML Schema fragment defines the contents of this element:

<complexType name="CT_PTab">
	<attribute name="alignment" type="ST_PTabAlignment" use="required"/>
	<attribute name="relativeTo" type="ST_PTabRelativeTo" use="required"/>
	<attribute name="leader" type="ST_PTabLeader" use="required"/>
</complexType>