- Qt Creator Documentation
- Behavior
- Qt Creator 20.0.0

Beautifier ◦ C++ code style

# Behavior

To specify indentation preferences for text files that do not have C++ or QML code (such as Python code files), select Preferences > Text Editor > Behavior.

You can specify how to interpret the Tab and Backspace key presses and how to align continuation lines.

## Specifying tab preferences

You can specify tab preferences at the following levels:

- For all C++ files
- For all QML files
- For all other text files
- For C++ files in a project
- For QML files in a project
- For other text files in a project

### Specifying tabs and indentation

You can specify tab policy and tab size in the Tabs and Indentation group. In the Default Tab policy field, select whether to use only spaces or only tabs for indentation, or to use a mixture of them.

By default, the tab length in code editor is 8 spaces and the indent size is 4 spaces. You can specify the tab length and indent size separately for each project and for different types of files.

You can have continuation lines aligned with the previous line. In the Align continuation lines field, select Not at all to disable automatic alignment and indent continuation lines to the logical depth. To always use spaces for alignment, select With Spaces. To follow the Tab policy, select With Regular Indent.

## Setting typing preferences

When you type text or code, it is indented automatically according to the selected text editor or code style preferences. To set typing preferences, select Preferences > Text Editor > Behavior > Typing.

The following table describes the typing preferences you can set.

Preference | Description
--- | ---
Enable automatic indentation | Automatically indent new lines according to the text editor or code style preferences.

Backspace indentation

Specify how the indentation is decreased when you select Backspace:

- To go back one space at a time, select None.
- To decrease indentation in leading white space by one level, select Follows Previous Indents.
- To move back one tab length if the character to the left of the cursor is a space, select Unindents.

Tab key performs auto-indent

Specify when the Tab key automatically indents text:

- To always indent text, select Always.
- To only indent text when the cursor is located within leading white space, select In Leading White Space.
- To never indent text, select Never.

Prefer single line comments | When your highlight definition file has definitions for both multi and single line comments, select this option to apply the single line comment definition when commenting out a selection.

Preferred comment position

Specify the position of single line comments when you comment out a selection:

- To let the highlight definition for the file determine the position of single line comments, select Automatic. If no highlight definition is available, the comments are placed after leading whitespace.
- To always place single line comments after leading whitespace, select After Whitespace.
- To place single line comments at the end of the line, select At Line Start.

See also How to: Configure editors, Find preferences, Indent text or code, Specify Qt Quick code style, Configuring editors, C++ code style, and Nim.