Auctex align-current does not properly align table in Aquamacs - what's wrong?

Question

I'm working with very large tables (14 columns for example) and it's really difficult to find the right cell to edit.

I discovered the align-current command and tried to use it on my table, but the result is still not very helpful: In Aquamacs, it looks like that:

• the red signs are the "&" characters, which separate the table columns. Ideally they should be placed on straight vertical lines, but you can see that they don't in my case

However, if I copy the text into another text editor, it looks properly aligned:

I wonder if it is a problem with the font used in emacs, describe-font in my .tex buffer gives

name (opened by): -apple-Monaco-medium-normal-normal--12----m-0-iso10646-1 full name: Monaco size: 12 height: 17 baseline-offset: 0 relative-compose: 0

I thought that Monaco is a monospaced font, so that should not be the problem, or could it?

Answer 1

Thanks, @Dan and @Matthew Piziak for your help!

Indeed, Aquamacs seems to have its own font definitions:

Switching to a mono-spaced (fixed pitch) font throughout Aquamacs uses a mono-spaced font (Monaco) as a default, but uses the system’s variable-width font (Lucida Grande) for all text modes, including those derived from ‘text-mode’.

To use a monospaced font throughout (or the same font everywhere), just disable ‘aquamacs-autoface-mode’ by selecting Options → Appearance → Auto Faces → Auto Faces. Save your options. You may then choose another font via Options → Appearance → Font if you so desire.

Alternatively, if you would just like to customize specific fonts, see the next frequently asked question.

source: http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/AquamacsFAQ#toc10

I did as described and disabled the autoface-mode and after a restart of Aquamacs, the table looks really aligned: