Notepad++ v6.7.8.2 unwanted tabs after pressing enter

Question

I mainly use NPP for writing PLSQL code. The standard I follow is 3 line spacing. I have observed that when I press enter after a line, the cursor goes correctly at the point exactly below where the previous line started. This is really good. But what it does is instead of putting spaces, it puts tabs for the empty spaces which has to be accommodated.

Example is below. Look at line 3, its has 2 tabs before the start of code, I expect 6 spaces instead of 2 tabs.

update cai_vsc_ordhead cvo
  set vsc_po_process_ind = 'Y',
      vsc_partial_recvd_ind = 'N'
where cvo.status   = 'C'
  and cvo.close_date >= L_start_date
  and cvo.close_date <= L_end_date
  and cvo.vsc_shipment_count = 1;

Can anybody suggest a solution to avoid tabs when we press enter?

Pic

Regards and Thanks.

Answer 1

Go to Settings->Preferences

Select Tab Settings from the left hand list (ensuring that [default] is selected on the right hand list, unless you want your changes to be language specific), and tick on the little tick box that says "Replace by space".

You can also set the number of spaces to insert by clicking on the blue number next to "Tab Size:" and updating it, for larger/smaller default tab indenting.