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I would appreciate a [b]Tabs to Spaces[/b] function on the [b]Edit menu[/b] to be used for ad hoc conversions of tabs to space characters.
This will allow me to leave the Preferences [Convert new tabs to spaces] and [Convert existing tabs to spaces when saving files] unchecked.

View -> Document Properties (or ALT-Return), then Tabulation

Change to whatever you want and choose Apply or OK.

This will not change the settings for the document class.