What is a vertical tab?

Question

What was the original historical use of the vertical tab character (\\v in the C language, ASCII 11)?

Did it ever have a key on a keyboard? How did some

Answer 1

I just found the VT char in a .pptx document at several places within a table element. But no clue about how it was inserted.

Answer 2

It was used during the typewriter era to move down a page to the next vertical stop, typically spaced 6 lines apart (much the same way horizontal tabs move along a line by 8 characters).

In modern day settings, the vt is of very little, if any, significance.

Answer 3

The ASCII vertical tab (\x0B)is still used in some databases and file formats as a new line WITHIN a field. For example:

• In the .mer file format to allow new lines within a data field,
• FileMaker databases can use vertical tabs as a linefeed (see https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/59096).

Answer 4

I have found that the VT char is used in pptx text boxes at the end of each line shown in the box in oder to adjust the text to the size of the box. It seems to be automatically generated by powerpoint (not introduced by the user) in order to move the text to the next line and fix the complete text block to the text box. In the example below, in the position of §:

"This is a text §
inside a text box"