The Tab Fixed Width property does the job well if the words on the tabs are all about the same length. But it requires a fixed width large enough to accommodate the longest word. If the words vary a lot in length, Fixed Width is not very useful.
- You can put leading spaces before a word on a tab.
- Trailing spaces after a word are discarded, so I sometimes put a few trailing spaces followed by something inconspicuous, such as a full stop.