diff --git a/dlangide.visualdproj b/dlangide.visualdproj
index c466b60..883e4fd 100644
--- a/dlangide.visualdproj
+++ b/dlangide.visualdproj
@@ -224,6 +224,7 @@
     <File path="src\dlangide\ui\frame.d" />
     <File path="src\dlangide\ui\homescreen.d" />
     <File path="src\dlangide\ui\outputpanel.d" />
+    <File path="src\dlangide\ui\settings.d" />
     <File path="src\dlangide\ui\wspanel.d" />
    </Folder>
    <Folder name="workspace">
diff --git a/src/dlangide/ui/dsourceedit.d b/src/dlangide/ui/dsourceedit.d
index 11de49a..074bad9 100644
--- a/src/dlangide/ui/dsourceedit.d
+++ b/src/dlangide/ui/dsourceedit.d
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import ddc.lexer.tokenizer;
 import dlangide.workspace.workspace;
 import dlangide.workspace.project;
 import dlangide.ui.commands;
+import dlangide.ui.settings;
 import dlangide.tools.d.dsyntaxhighlighter;
 
 import std.algorithm;
@@ -41,6 +42,20 @@ class DSourceEdit : SourceEdit {
 	this() {
 		this("SRCEDIT");
 	}
+    protected IDESettings _settings;
+    @property DSourceEdit settings(IDESettings s) {
+        _settings = s;
+        return this;
+    }
+    @property IDESettings settings() {
+        return _settings;
+    }
+    void applySettings() {
+        if (!_settings)
+            return;
+        tabSize = _settings.tabSize;
+        useSpacesForTabs = _settings.useSpacesForTabs;
+    }
     protected ProjectSourceFile _projectSourceFile;
     @property ProjectSourceFile projectSourceFile() { return _projectSourceFile; }
     /// load by filename
diff --git a/src/dlangide/ui/frame.d b/src/dlangide/ui/frame.d
index e4a0f19..67ea836 100644
--- a/src/dlangide/ui/frame.d
+++ b/src/dlangide/ui/frame.d
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ import dlangide.ui.wspanel;
 import dlangide.ui.outputpanel;
 import dlangide.ui.dsourceedit;
 import dlangide.ui.homescreen;
+import dlangide.ui.settings;
 import dlangide.tools.d.dcdserver;
 import dlangide.workspace.workspace;
 import dlangide.workspace.project;
@@ -66,6 +67,7 @@ class IDEFrame : AppFrame {
     TabWidget _tabs;
     EditorTool _editorTool;
     DCDServer _dcdServer;
+    IDESettings _settings;
 
     dstring frameWindowCaptionSuffix = "DLangIDE"d;
 
@@ -81,7 +83,10 @@ class IDEFrame : AppFrame {
         _appName = "dlangide";
         _editorTool = new DEditorTool(this);
         _dcdServer = new DCDServer();
-
+        _settings = new IDESettings(buildNormalizedPath(settingsDir, "settings.json"));
+        _settings.load();
+        _settings.updateDefaults();
+        _settings.save();
         super.init();
     }
 
@@ -100,6 +105,9 @@ class IDEFrame : AppFrame {
         return openSourceFile(file.filename, file, activate);
     }
 
+    /// returns global IDE settings
+    @property IDESettings settings() { return _settings; }
+
 	///
 	bool onCompilerLogIssueClick(dstring filename, int line, int column)
 	{
@@ -149,6 +157,7 @@ class IDEFrame : AppFrame {
                 TabItem tab = _tabs.tab(filename);
                 tab.objectParam = file;
                 editor.onModifiedStateChangeListener = &onModifiedStateChange;
+                editor.settings(settings).applySettings();
                 _tabs.selectTab(index, true);
             } else {
                 destroy(editor);
diff --git a/src/dlangide/ui/settings.d b/src/dlangide/ui/settings.d
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d554473
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/dlangide/ui/settings.d
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+module dlangide.ui.settings;
+
+import dlangui.core.settings;
+
+class IDESettings : SettingsFile {
+
+    this(string filename) {
+        super(filename);
+    }
+
+    override void updateDefaults() {
+        Setting ed = editorSettings();
+        ed.setBooleanDef("useSpacesForTabs", true);
+        ed.setIntegerDef("tabSize", 4);
+    }
+
+    /// override to do something after loading - e.g. set defaults
+    override void afterLoad() {
+    }
+
+    @property Setting editorSettings() {
+        Setting res = _setting.objectByPath("editors/textEditor", true);
+        return res;
+    }
+
+    static int limitInt(long value, int minvalue, int maxvalue) {
+        if (value < minvalue)
+            return minvalue;
+        else if (value > maxvalue)
+            return maxvalue;
+        return cast(int)value;
+    }
+
+    /// text editor setting, true if need to insert spaces instead of tabs
+    @property bool useSpacesForTabs() {
+        return editorSettings.getBoolean("useSpacesForTabs", true);
+    }
+    /// text editor setting, true if need to insert spaces instead of tabs
+    @property IDESettings useSpacesForTabs(bool v) {
+        editorSettings.setBoolean("useSpacesForTabs", v);
+        return this;
+    }
+
+    /// text editor setting, true if need to insert spaces instead of tabs
+    @property int tabSize() {
+        return limitInt(editorSettings.getInteger("tabSize", 4), 1, 16);
+    }
+    /// text editor setting, true if need to insert spaces instead of tabs
+    @property IDESettings tabSize(int v) {
+        editorSettings.setInteger("tabSize", limitInt(v, 1, 16));
+        return this;
+    }
+}