Vim varying indentations

Question

I have recently started using vim. I added :set tabstop=4 in my .vimrc to comply with the indentation scheme, but when I opened the file in another editor (gedit) it still uses 8 tab spaces. The formatting looks right inside vim. Any help how I can fix this?

You intend to use literal spaces instead of literal tabs? You are probably inserting tabs, which look correct in Vim, but will use whatever tab width is specified in the other editor. Use `set expandtab` to force the use of spaces instead of tab literals. — Michael Berkowski, Oct 30 '13 at 19:43
thanks, how can force vim to make this change in current file? i.e. expand already present tabs — VJune, Oct 30 '13 at 20:13

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 01 '13 at 06:58

When setting tabstop it is also worth setting softtabstop and shiftwidth to the same value.
I set all the following at the same time (from my .vimrc file)

" tabstop:          Width of tab character
" expandtab:        When on uses space instead of tabs
" softtabstop:      Fine tunes the amount of white space to be added
" shiftwidth        Determines the amount of whitespace to add in normal mode
set tabstop     =4
set softtabstop =4
set shiftwidth  =4
set expandtab

Here is a great tutorial on how and why.
http://vimcasts.org/episodes/tabs-and-spaces/

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 30 '13 at 19:43

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Make a similar change to the other editor. The width of the tab a property of the editor, not a property of the file.

answered Oct 30 '13 at 19:43

pamphlet

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Michael's comment about using spaces is a good one. This answer assumes OP wants to use tabs. – pamphlet Oct 30 '13 at 19:45

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 30 '13 at 19:46

0

You need to "convert" tabs to blanks, the following code solves your problem.

:set expandtab

answered Oct 30 '13 at 19:46

Acácio Veit Schneider

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Thanks for answering. How can force vim to make this change in current file? i.e. expand already present tabs. – VJune Oct 30 '13 at 20:12
Michael already said, the command is `:retab` – Acácio Veit Schneider Oct 31 '13 at 12:40

Vim varying indentations

3 Answers3