# setting tabs by declaration rather than by example

Is it possible to set tab stops in some sort of initial formatting declaration, abstractly?

The code examples I see around town all show tabs being set by example, with \= in the first line of actual text within the tabbing environment. But I would like to avoid that; my first line will never have enough text in it to fill out up to the place where the tab is to be set.

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You can set the tabs using a line with, for example, \hspace{<length>} and ending the line with the \kill command:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}

\begin{tabbing}
\hspace*{2cm}\=\hspace*{3cm}\= \kill
column1a \> column2a \> column3a \\
column1b \> column2b \> column3b
\end{tabbing}

\end{document}

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You can also make a custom command if you are reusing the same tabstops

\newcommand\mytabs{\hspace*{2\parindent}\=\hspace{2cm}\=\hspace{2cm}}
\newenvironment{mytabbing}[1][\mytabs]
{\begin{tabbing}#1\kill}
{\end{tabbing}}


which you can use as

\begin{mytabbing}
\>aa \>bb\\
\end{mytabbing}


or

\begin{mytabbing}[\hspace*{2\parindent}\=aa~\=]
\>aa \>bb\\
\end{mytabbing}

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