Alignment and positioning of tabs in text-based applications is provided by dynamically positioning the tabs based on content, margins, page size, and indents. Tab positions are aligned relative to a size, at least one margin, or content of a document or text-containing object such as a text box. Tab positions may also be aligned relative to an indent of a paragraph or of multiple columns on the same page. Alignment properties of tab positions are carried over when text is moved to table columns or other text-containing objects. Column-like grouping of text of varying size and alignments is enabled by using multiple tabs in a single line.