Physical Tabs

Physical Tabs is for manuals that get printed and bound. It lets you mark a topic as a section divider, like the thumb tabs in a binder. In the PDF, each divider starts on a new right-hand page, and its tab label prints sideways in the outer margin, so readers can flip straight to a section in the printed copy.

Category: Export · Plan: all plans · Requires: PDF Export, which is installed with it, and document export turned on in Organization Settings > Advanced

Mark a topic as a section divider

1. Open the topic and select Settings > Display & export.
2. Turn on Physical tab (section divider).
3. Enter the Tab text, the short label printed on the tab.
4. Choose a Tab color. The label's text color adjusts automatically so it stays readable.
5. Publish the document to regenerate its PDF.

Physical tabs are available for topics inside a document, not for standalone topics.

Show all tabs on every page

By default, each tab appears on its divider page. To print every tab down the page edge on every page, like a full set of binder tabs:

1. Open Document Settings > PDF Export.
2. Under Tab Index On Every Page, turn on Show all tabs on every page.

Each tab then links to its section, and the current section's tab is highlighted.

Printing

A document that has any physical tab is laid out for double-sided printing, with mirrored left and right margins. Tabs appear only in the PDF, not in the online viewer.

If you uninstall it

Your tab settings are kept and still used in PDFs. The tab switches are hidden until you install the addon again. Uninstalling PDF Export also uninstalls this addon.