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I am using the Sublime Text 3 beta on Mac OS X 10.8.4. I copied some text from somewhere and I want to paste it into Sublime exactly as it is but Sublime seems to be converting tab characters to spaces. What can I do to prevent it from doing this?

Yes, I am sure that the text I copied has actual tab characters. I can see them if I inspect the text in hexdump or TextEdit.

Elias Zamaria
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2 Answers2

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I did some experimenting and found out that I can paste the text verbatim by disabling the "Indent Using Spaces" command under View -> Indentation.

This solves my problem but I don't like to have that feature disabled all the time. What I am trying to do is somewhat unusual. Usually, I like to have it enabled to prevent me from accidentally inserting tab characters into what I am working on.

For that reason, I will see if anyone here comes up with a better solution, and only accept my answer if I don't find anything within a week or so. I am looking for a way to paste text verbatim just one time, without having to change a setting that affects how my tab key works.

Elias Zamaria
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If you go into Preferences -> Key Bindings -> User,

I believe that you have to switch the paste and paste_and_indent, like this:

    { "keys": ["command+v"], "command": "paste_and_indent" },
    { "keys": ["command+shift+v"], "command": "paste" }
sameetandpotatoes
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  • I tried that and it didn't help. Even with the key bindings all set to their defaults, the paste_and_indent command pastes the text, possibly indented, but still with tab characters replaced with spaces. – Elias Zamaria Aug 05 '13 at 18:13
  • Would the Convert Indentation to Tabs button, as seen in this answer solve your issue? – sameetandpotatoes Aug 05 '13 at 18:19
  • I tried that and it didn't do anything. AFAIK, that button just converts spaces at the beginning of a line to tabs. I am trying to paste some CSV-like data with some tabs in the middle of a line. – Elias Zamaria Aug 05 '13 at 18:25