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(emacs-lisp-intro.info)Indent Tabs Mode

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Indent Tabs Mode
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   By default, Emacs inserts tabs in place of multiple spaces when it
formats a region.  (For example, you might indent many lines of text
all at once with the `indent-region' command.)  Tabs look fine on a
terminal or with ordinary printing, but they produce badly indented
output when you use TeX or Texinfo since TeX ignores tabs.

   The following turns off Indent Tabs mode:

     ;;; Prevent Extraneous Tabs
     (setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil)

   Note that this line uses `setq-default' rather than the `setq'
command that we have seen before.  The `setq-default' command sets
values only in buffers that do not have their own local values for the
variable.

   Note: Tabs vs. Spaces.

   Note: Local Variables in Files.