Áine ...

Thanks for yet another plug, a chara.

What I generally do is to write REST vertically.

See, for example, the trad tune The Spring Well (http://www.mandolincafe.com/tab/sw.txt)

Or my own jig, full of pregnant pauses, Boxing Day In Kane's (http://www.mandolincafe.com/tab/bdinkanes.txt)

Does this help?

The thing about writing out tab manually, as I do, is that I find myself having to improvise, hence my use of symbols such a ~ to indicate ornamented notes, / to indicate half-notes, S to indicate staccato notes, and for dotted rhythms /_|and |_/ (strathspey and hornpipe type rhythms respectively). I usually add notes at the bottom of the piece if there's an odd quirk or two.

Aidan Crossey