If you use vi (vim, I hope), then place something like this in your .vimrc set ts=4 set sw=4 set expandtab set ai There are a lot more tricks for python in vim (and plugins, and helpers, and so on), but this is the starting point: tabstops of 4 places, autoconverted in spaces. Also, when shifting text with < or > it moves 4 spaces. -- bye, Renato