Disable the ability to type out tab white space in no-desktop mode 2025a

In 2024b I was able to use my terminal emulator's tab-autocomplete feature while running matlab in the terminal, however once I upgraded to 2025a it now types out the whitespace chatacter instead. I've tried disabling any tab-autocomplete features Matlab has for the desktop version but the issue still persists.

Answer 1

[Harsh]

Hi @Gabriel,

I understand that you are unable to disable the insertion of tab whitespace while using MATLAB R2025a in no-desktop mode.

It seems like auto-completion might not be correctly disabled here, to disable auto-completion on tab, follow these steps:

• In MATLAB home page, go to "Preferences". This will open the Preferences window.
• In Preferences window, click on the “Command Window” and “Automatic Completions” option on the left-hand navigation pane. This will open the "MATLAB Command Window Automatic Completions Preferences" view on the right-hand side.
• Enable the “Enable tab completion” sub-option.
• In Preferences window, navigate to the “Editor/Debugger” and its “Automatic Completions” option. This will open the "MATLAB Editor/Debugger Automatic Completions Preferences" view on the right-hand side.
• Disable the “Use tab to show suggestions” sub-option.
• Click on “Apply" button.

For a more detailed explaination, please refer to the following documentation:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/2176282-how-to-disable-tab-completion-in-matlab-editor-and-command-window

If this does not resolve the issue, here are a couple of workarounds you can try:

• Insert a space after the word, then press "Tab". This does not trigger the automatic completions.
• Close the automatic completions on a case-by-case basis using the "Esc" key. After typing a word, pause momentarily to allow the automatic completions to appear, then press "Esc", then "Tab" in succession.

I hope this helps, thanks!