Spacing and Tabs and Automatic Ellipsis (Dots?) Creation Problems

I am using PageMaker 7.0 for Windows. I am not terribly technologically savvy so I don't know any of the other details, so if you do respond to this, please use simple terms! Many thanks in advance. I am a graduate student doing research. My job is to prepare the third round of a survey that was administered last 10 years ago. The old survey was in PageMaker, so I used PageMaker to create my new survey. It is a long survey (80+ questions, many options on most questions). I copied and pasted a lot of the old survey questions into the new, and created some new questions. It is nearly finished and looks beautiful except for one little problem:

I have many questions with a Likert scale, which look something like this:

How much do you agree with this: Completely Sort of Not at all
question a...........................1................2.... ............3
question b...........................1................2.... ............3
question c...........................1................2.... ............3

Some of the old questions have copied and pasted perfectly, with even spaces in between the numbers, automatic tabbing, and the same number of dots (I call them ellipsis, but I know that's just ..., so I'm not sure what to call the dots between the numbering) between each tab. Others do not do this automatically. Sometimes I have been able to copy and paste the ones that do function automatically and work from there. But sometimes it just won't work. In fact, some of the time, when I begin on the left side of the page and hit tab, it goes 3/4 of the way across the screen on the first tab! Other tabs do not seem evenly spaced out, such as the 1 and 2 have a large space between them and the 6 and the 7 have a much smaller space between them.

I do not know how to make it automatically create those dots or fix the tab issues. I have used the period key instead of the automatic dots, but then I have to space it out myself, and it never EVER seems to come out straight (also there's too many dots and it looks 'busy'). Even when I think it's straight up close, I zoom out or print it and it turns out I was very, very wrong, and the numbers are all over the place. Sometimes I have the same number of dots or spaces inbetween and it still doesn't come out straight! I don't know how to line these things up properly.

Does anyone know how to put in the automatic spacing? Some of my question have up to 7 options to choose from and 27 item questions, so this is a big and frustrating task for me to try to fix with my little amount of knowledge. The help desk at the University where I work provided no support and recommended I check online for help. So please, you are my last resort! I need someone to help me make this look professional, since I will be sending this survey out nationally and don't want to be embarassed by my screwy lines that look like a kindergardener lined them up! Please help! Thank you!

By the bye, they're called "dot leaders". Ellipses are the three dots that indicate elisions or pauses.

Ah! You learn something everyday… <g>

Iechyd da! John
23:34 16/07/2008 BST

Rather to my surprise, ellipses (which I though were oval shapes) turn
out also to be the plural of ellipsis (which I understood to always
mean three dots, but turns out to actually be a typographical usage
rather than a specific mark).

At least if we believe Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis

Aandi Inston

Thank you so much! I am going to attempt to fix the problem with your directions this morning! I really appreciate your help, especially the speed of it. Thank you!

Thanks, everyone! It worked out well! The survey looks much better, thanks to you!

ellipses ... turn out ... to actually be a typographical usage rather
than a specific mark.





I've always understood the situation as the OED has it, which is that in English "ellipsis" has two basic meanings, one being the omission of words or sentences and the other being the three-dot symbol (used to indicate the former). So, while a dash or a number of asterisks may be used to indicate an ellipsis, I wouldn't call them an ellipsis (if you see what I mean). I'd still call them dashes and asterisks and leave the term ellipsis for the three-dot mark.