Options (Text Editor/XML/Tabs Page)

  • Article

This dialog box lets you change the tabbing behavior of the XML Editor, which is used to edit XML documents. To display these settings, click Options on the Tools menu, expand the Text Editor folder, expand the XML subfolder and then click Tabs.

Setting Options in Multiple Locations

Options for the XML Editor can also be set in the All Languages General dialog. If you use the All Languages dialogs to set different options for the other SQL Server Management Studio editors, such as the DMX or MDX editors, you must reset the XML Editor options using this dialog.

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.

  • Smart
    When this option is selected, the new line created when you press ENTER is positioned according to the context. For example, after an opening brace ({), the included lines are automatically indented an extra tab stop. The matching closing brace (}) is realigned with its opening brace.

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 are 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 in the main SQL Server Management Studio 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.