Skip to absolute position on line

Question

Is there a way to skip to a fixed position on a line? (a specific tab position)

Example:

The quick \skiptoposition{1.5cm} brown \skiptoposition{2.5cm}fox

which would put "brown" 1.5cm and "fox" 2.5cm from left margin?

Answer 1

The already mentioned tabbing package has the disadvantage that it cannot be used across paragraphs, for instance, in itemize environments, as asked in this related question.

However, the tabto package provides exactly what you are looking for via the command \tabto*:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabto}

\begin{document}
  The quick \tabto{3.5cm}brown \tabto{5.5cm}fox
  \par
  \tabto{3.5cm}jumps too\tabto{5.5cm}far 
  \par\medskip 
  The quick \tabto*{1.5cm}brown \tabto*{3.5cm}fox
  \par
  \tabto{1.5cm}jumps too\tabto{3.5cm}far 
\end{document}

Answer 2

This is what tabbing is for:

\documentclass{article}
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabbing}
  \hspace*{2cm}\=\hspace*{2cm}\=\kill
  The quick \> brown \>fox\\
\end{tabbing}
\end{document}

Answer 3

Less complicated than Werner's, but using more or less the same idea:

\noindent\makebox[2.5cm][l]{\makebox[1.5cm][l]{The quick}brown}fox

Just as an exercise, here is a different version implementing the idea of backspacing of Dan's comment:

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{environ}

\newcommand{\startatpos}[2]{\hspace{#1}#2\hfill\cr\ignorespaces}
\NewEnviron{fixedpos}
   {\par\noindent\ooalign{\BODY\crcr}\ignorespacesafterend}

\pagestyle{empty}

\begin{document}
\noindent\rule{1.5cm}{1pt}\par
\noindent\rule{2.5cm}{1pt}\par
\noindent\rule{3.5cm}{1pt}\par

\begin{fixedpos}
\startatpos{0cm}{The}
\startatpos{1.5cm}{quick}
\startatpos{2.5cm}{brown}
\startatpos{3.5cm}{fox}
\end{fixedpos}

\end{document}

Answer 4

One way would be to use \hspace{} to control the skip. The one complication is that you need to figure out how far you are to determine the second skip amount and that is where the calc package comes in. Here is a macro version where you specify the positioning along with the text:

\AbsolutePosition[leading text]{position 1}{text 2}{position 2}{text 3}

For example:

\AbsolutePosition{1.5cm}{brown}{2.5cm}{fox}

\AbsolutePosition[The quick]{1.5cm}{brown}{2.5cm}{fox}

yields the first two lines between the guide rules. The last two are to show that it works with font size changes as well (since you mentioned this in the comments):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{calc}

\newlength{\skipamount}
\newcommand*{\AbsolutePosition}[5][]{%
\noindent#1%                                 typeset first text
\setlength{\skipamount}{#2-\widthof{#1}}%    determine position of second text
\hspace{\skipamount}#3%                      skip to position of second text
\setlength{\skipamount}{#4-#2-\widthof{#3}}% determine position of third text
\hspace{\skipamount}#5%                      skip to position of third text
}%

\begin{document}
\noindent\rule{1.5cm}{1pt} 1.5cm\par
\AbsolutePosition{1.5cm}{brown}{2.5cm}{fox}\par
\AbsolutePosition[The quick]{1.5cm}{brown}{2.5cm}{fox}\par

\tiny
\AbsolutePosition{1.5cm}{brown}{2.5cm}{fox}\par
\AbsolutePosition[The quick]{1.5cm}{brown}{2.5cm}{fox}\par

\noindent\rule{2.5cm}{1pt} 2.5cm\par
\end{document}

---

Another method is to use a tabular environment. One complication in this case is the inter column spacing. To make this example easier to read I used newcolumntype from the array package. First column is left empty to produce the spacing, and the second column is set to a width to get the next column in the correct spot. The width of the last column is not that important (needs to be wide enough to accommodate the text):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array}

\newcolumntype{P}[1]{@{}p{#1}@{}}

\begin{document}
\noindent
\begin{tabular}{P{1.5cm}P{1.0cm}P{2.0cm}}
 &brown&fox
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

One advantage of this method is that position is absolute, so if the first word does not fit, the second word is still in the correct spot. Replace brown with brownbrown in the above example to see this effect.

Answer 5

Short TeX solution (you need to pdfTeX rather than pdfLaTeX).

\newdimen\unit
\def\point(#1,#2)#3;{\rlap{\kern#1\unit
      \raise#2\unit\hbox{$
         \scriptstyle\bullet\;(#1,#2)$ #3 }}}


\hbox{\unit=10pt 
   \point(0,0) first;
   \point(8,0) second;
   \point(20,0) third test;
}
\bye

Don't know why Knuth calls such routines dirty though, in Appendix D, of the TeX Book! You can add a fourth point \point(20,2) fourth test; and see it can also tab vertically!

Answer 6

Not sure about the elegance of this solution, but you could use an overlap via \rlap{<stuff>}, which sets its contents <stuff> in a zero-width box that is left-aligned - similar to \makebox[0pt][l]{<stuff>}, hence overlapping on the right. Horizontal alignment/spacing is provided by \hspace:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\noindent\rule{1.5cm}{1pt}\hspace*{2cm}\verb!1.5cm! from left margin \par% Just for reference
\noindent\rule{2.5cm}{1pt}\hspace*{1cm}\verb!2.5cm! from left margin \par% Just for reference
\noindent\rlap{The quick}\rlap{\hspace*{1.5cm}brown}\hspace*{2.5cm}fox
\end{document}​

The horizontal rules above is just for reference to show the distance from the left margin as 1.5cm and 2.5cm respectively.

---

Edit: Here is an updated version that provides \skiplmargin[<len>]{<stuff>} which places <stuff> exactly <len> from the left margin. <len> is optional with a default of 0pt which is flush with the left margin.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[savepos]{zref}% http://ctan.org/pkg/zref
\newcounter{posmarker}% Position marker counter
\newcommand{\skiplmargin}[2][0pt]{%
  \stepcounter{posmarker}% To avoid multiple references
  \zsavepos{currentloc\theposmarker}% Save current location
  \hskip\dimexpr-\zposx{currentloc\theposmarker}sp+\zposx{leftmargin}sp+#1\relax% Move left
  #2% Print argument
  \hskip\dimexpr\zposx{currentloc\theposmarker}sp-\zposx{leftmargin}sp-#1\relax% Move right
}
\AtBeginDocument{\zsavepos{leftmargin}}
\begin{document}
\noindent\rule{1.5cm}{1pt} \hspace*{2.5cm}\verb!1.5cm! from left margin \par
\noindent\rule{2.5cm}{1pt} \hspace*{1.5cm}\verb!2.5cm! from left margin \par
\noindent The quick~\skiplmargin[1.5cm]{brown}~\skiplmargin[2.5cm]{fox}. \par
\noindent The quick brown fox.

\bigskip
\noindent\rule{3cm}{1pt} \hspace*{5cm}\verb!3cm! from left margin \par
\noindent\rule{7cm}{1pt} \hspace*{1cm}\verb!7cm! from left margin \par
\noindent The quick~\skiplmargin[3cm]{brown fox}~jumps~\skiplmargin[7cm]{over the lazy dog}. \par
\noindent The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
\end{document}

The main driver is zref's savepos module. A PDF position marker is placed at the start of \skiplmargin to memorize the location in the current line. Subsequently, a skip relative to the left margin is performed, <stuff> is typeset, and the skip is reversed. Space utilized by typesetting <stuff> is preserved, making it seem like the <stuff> was shifted out-of-place.

Caveat: You need to use ties ~ around \skiplmargin in order to preserve the spacing, which is otherwise lost due to the movement. Also, in twoside document mode with possibly different left and right margins, this approach may require some adjustment. This is due to the execution of \zsavepos{leftmargin} at the beginning of the document (\AtBeginDocument) in order to identify the left margin.