Incorrect Indentation when Pasting Text into Virtual Machine

• Microsoft Windows operating system versions 3.1, 3.11

SYMPTOMS

When you paste text into an MS-DOS text editor under Microsoft Windows, the text may be indented incorrectly.

For example, if you repeatedly paste " line 1" (without quotation marks) into a text editor running in an MS-DOS session under Windows, the text may appear as follows:

 line 1
  line 2
   line 3

CAUSE

This problem is caused by the editor.

This behavior is not an error with Windows, but a result of the editor's built-in feature that automatically indents when the ENTER key is pressed. If the text being pasted into the editor has a space or tab at the beginning of each line, this problem occurs.

When the carriage return from one line is pasted, the entry point is left directly under the first character from the previous line. Then the space or tab is pasted causing the incorrect results.

WORKAROUND

You can correct this problem by either modifying the text after it is pasted, cutting/copying the text in such a way so that the spaces or tabs are not present, or disabling the automatic-indent feature of the editor being run.