Set 4 Space Indent in Emacs in Text Mode

Question

I've been unsuccessful in getting Emacs to switch from 8 space tabs to 4 space tabs when I'm using Text mode. I've tried to edit my .emacs file to:

(setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil)
(setq-default tab-width 4)

;;; And I have tried
(setq indent-tabs-mode nil)
(setq tab-width 4)

No matter how I change my .emacs file (or my buffer's local variables) the tab button always does the same thing.

1. If there is no text above, indent 8 spaces
2. If there is text on the previous line, indent to the beginning of the second word

As much as I love Emacs this is getting annoying. Is there a way to make Emacs to at least indent 4 space when there's not text in the previous line?

Answer 1

Have you tried

(setq  tab-width  4)

Answer 2

(customize-variable (quote tab-stop-list))

or add tab-stop-list entry to custom-set-variables in .emacs file:

(custom-set-variables
  ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom.
  ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
  ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
  ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 '(tab-stop-list (quote (4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68 72 76 80 84 88 92 96 100 104 108 112 116 120))))

Answer 3

Try this:

(add-hook 'text-mode-hook
  (function
   (lambda ()
     (setq tab-width 4)
     (define-key text-mode-map "\C-i" 'self-insert-command)
     )))

That will make TAB always insert a literal TAB character with tab stops every 4 characters (but only in Text mode). If that's not what you're asking for, please describe the behavior you'd like to see.

Answer 4

You may find it easier to set up your tabs as follows:

M-x customize-group

At the Customize group: prompt enter indent.

You'll see a screen where you can set all you indenting options and set them for the current session or save them for all future sessions.

If you do it this way you'll want to set up a customisations file.

Answer 5

(setq tab-width 4)
(setq tab-stop-list '(4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68 72 76 80))
(setq indent-tabs-mode nil)

Answer 6

This problem isn't caused by missing tab stops; it's that emacs has a (new?) tab method called indent-relative that seems designed to line up tabular data. The TAB key is mapped to the method indent-for-tab-command, which calls whatever method the variable indent-line-function is set to, which is indent-relative method for text mode. I havn't figured out a good way to override the indent-line-function variable (text mode hook isn't working, so maybe it is getting reset after the mode-hooks run?) but one simple way to get rid of this behavior is to just chuck the intent-for-tab-command method by setting TAB to the simpler tab-to-tab-stop method:

(define-key text-mode-map (kbd "TAB") 'tab-to-tab-stop)

Answer 7

(setq-default tab-width 4) (setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil)

Answer 8

Just changing the style with c-set-style was enough for me.

Answer 9

Short answer:

The key point is to tell emacs to insert whatever you want when indenting, this is done by changing the indent-line-function. It is easier to change it to insert a tab and then change tabs into 4 spaces than change it to insert 4 spaces. The following configuration will solve your problem:

(setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil)
(setq-default tab-width 4)
(setq indent-line-function 'insert-tab)

Explanation:

From Indentation Controlled by Major Mode @ emacs manual:

An important function of each major mode is to customize the key to indent properly for the language being edited.

[...]

The indent-line-function variable is the function to be used by (and various commands, like when calling indent-region) to indent the current line. The command indent-according-to-mode does no more than call this function.

[...]

The default value is indent-relative for many modes.

From indent-relative @ emacs manual:

Indent-relative Space out to under next indent point in previous nonblank line.

[...]

If the previous nonblank line has no indent points beyond the column point starts at, `tab-to-tab-stop' is done instead.

Just change the value of indent-line-function to the insert-tab function and configure tab insertion as 4 spaces.