Put it another way: in vim (in insert mode), the tab key just inserts a tab (which it displays as the number of spaces needed to get to the next even value of whatever tabstop is set to). It has nothing to do with vim's idea of indentation, automatic or otherwise.
The control-D ("outdent" or "unindent") operation is the opposite not of tab, but of control-T ("indent"). Both use the setting of shiftwidth, not tabstop. -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/