<p>I've been unsuccessful in getting Emacs to switch from 8 space tabs to 4 space tabs when pressing the <kbd>TAB</kbd> in buffers with the major mode <code>text-mode</code>. I've added the following to my <code>.emacs</code>:</p>

<pre><code>(setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil)
(setq-default tab-width 4)

;;; And I have tried
(setq indent-tabs-mode nil)
(setq tab-width 4)
</code></pre>

<p>No matter how I change my <code>.emacs</code> file (or my buffer's local variables) the <kbd>TAB</kbd> button always does the same thing.</p>

<ol>
<li>If there is no text above, indent <strong>8</strong> spaces</li>
<li>If there is text on the previous line, indent to the beginning of the second word</li>
</ol>

<p>As much as I love Emacs this is getting annoying. Is there a way to make Emacs to at least indent 4 space when there's not text in the previous line?</p>

Have you tried
```
```
(setq  tab-width  4)
```
```