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Options (Text Editor/All Languages/Tabs Page)

Use the Options dialog box to change the default behavior of the Code Editor. These settings also apply to other editors that are based upon the Code Editor. To display these options, on the Tools menu, click Options, expand the Text Editor folder, expand All Languages, and then click Tabs.

Note

To change Text Editor options for just one language, expand the Text Editor subfolder for that language and select its Options pages.

The message "The indentation (or tab) settings for individual text formats conflict with each other" is displayed next to the Indenting or Tabs option when different settings have been selected for particular programming languages on the Tabs pages of All Languages, Plain Text, and XML in the Text Editor folder. For example, this reminder is displayed if the Block indenting option is selected for Plain Text, but None is selected for XML.

Warning

This page sets default options for all development languages. Remember that resetting an option in this dialog box will reset the Tabs options in all languages to the items that are selected here.

In some languages, the Code Editor does not support all of the options.

Indenting

  • None
    When this option is selected, the new line created when you press ENTER is not indented. The cursor is placed at the first column of the new line.

  • Block
    When this option is selected, the new line created when you press ENTER is automatically indented the same distance as the previous line was indented.

  • Smart
    When this option is selected, the new line created when you press ENTER is positioned according to the context.

Tabs

  • Tab size
    Sets the distance in spaces between tab stops. The default is four spaces.

  • Indent size
    Sets the size in spaces of an automatic indentation. The default is four spaces. Tab characters, space characters, or both will be inserted to fill the specified size.

  • Insert spaces
    When this option is selected, indent operations insert only space characters, not tab characters. If Indent size is set to 5, for example, then five space characters are inserted whenever you press the TAB key or click the Increase Indent button on the toolbar of the SQL Server Management Studio main window.

  • Keep tabs
    When this option is selected, indent operations insert as many tab characters as possible. Each tab character fills the number of spaces specified in Tab size. If Indent size is not an even multiple of Tab size, space characters are added to fill in the difference.