Controlling Alignment and Indents

The seven alignment icons at the top of the Paragraph pane and the three fields and two icons just below are always displayed; the four additional fields and the Hyphenate check box are also displayed when you choose Show Options from the palette menu. InDesign refers to the top set of options as Basic Paragraph Formats; the additional five options are Advanced Paragraph Formats.

The top set lets you control a paragraph's alignment and indents (left, right, and first line) and lock text baselines to the document's baseline grid.

Alignment

The seven alignment icons at the top of the Paragraph pane control how line beginnings and endings in selected paragraphs are placed relative to the left and right margins. Here's a description of each alignment option (the icons do a pretty good job of showing what they do):

• Align Left (Shift+ z +L or Ctrl+Shift+L): Places the left edge of every line at the left margin (the margin can be the frame edge, frame inset, left indent, or column edge) and fits as many words (or syllables, if the hyphenation is turned on) on the line as possible. When a word (or syllable) won't fit at the end of a line, it's placed (flush left) on the next line. In left-aligned paragraphs, the right margin is said to be ragged because the leftover space at the right end of each line differs from line to line and produces a jagged edge.

  Note ‚  

  Some designers prefer to use this alignment for columns of text because they like the irregular, somewhat organic shapes that result; others prefer to align both left and right edges (justify), which produces a more rigid, vertical look. Similarly, left-aligned text is sometimes hyphenated, sometimes not. (You'll find more about hyphenation and justification later in this chapter.)

• Align Center (Shift+ z +C or Ctrl+Shift+C): To create centered text, the leftover space of each line is divided in half. One-half of the leftover space is placed on the left end of the line; the other half is placed on the right end. The result is that both the left and right edges of the paragraphs are ragged, and the text is balanced along a vertical axis.

• Align Right (Shift+ z +R or Ctrl+Shift+R): This is a mirror opposite of Align Left. The right edge is straight; the left edge is ragged. Columns of text are seldom set flush right, because it's not as easy to read as flush left text. Right-aligned text is sometimes used for such things as captions placed to the left of a picture, blurbs on magazine covers, and advertising copy.

• Left Justify (Shift+ z +J or Ctrl+Shift+J): In justified text, the left and right ends of each line are flush with the margins. The flush-left/flush-right results are produced by sprinkling the extra space of each line between characters and/or words or by reducing space between characters and/or words to accommodate additional characters (more about justification later in this chapter). Justified text is nearly always hyphenated (if you don't hyphenate justified text, spacing between letters and words is very inconsistent). Aligning the last line flush left is the traditional way of ending a paragraph.

• Center Justify: This is the same as Left Justify except that the last line is center-aligned.

• Right Justify: This is the same as Left Justify except that the last line is right-aligned.

• Full Justify (Shift+ z +F or Ctrl+Shift+F): This is the same as Left Justify except that the last line is also forcibly justified. This option can produce very widely spaced last lines. The fewer the characters on the last line, the greater the spacing.

  Note ‚  

  These last three options are rarely used, and for good reason. People expect justified text to have the last line aligned left, and the space at the end of the line is a marker that the paragraph has ended. By changing the position of that last line, you can confuse your reader. So use Center Justify, Right Justify, and Full Justify options sparingly, in special situations where the reader won't be confused ‚ typically in brief copy like ads and pull-quotes.

To apply a paragraph alignment to selected paragraphs, click on one of the icons. (The hand pointer is displayed when the pointer is over a pane button.) You can also use the keyboard shortcuts in the preceding list.

Note ‚  

Left-aligned paragraphs typically fit fewer characters per line than justified paragraphs. Most publications standardize on one of these two alignments for their body copy, and one factor in your decision may be how much copy you need to squeeze in.

Indents

You can move the edges of paragraphs away from the left and/or right margins and indent the first line using the indent controls in the Paragraph pane.

Left and right indents are often used for lengthy passages of quoted material within a column of text. Using indents is also a handy way of drawing attention to pull quotes and moving text away from a nearby picture.

The options are:

• Left Indent: Enter a value in this field to move the left edge of selected paragraphs away from the left margin. You can also use the up and down cursor keys. Each click increases the value by 1 point; holding down the Shift while clicking increases the increment to 1 pica.

• Right Indent: Enter a value in this field to move the right edge of selected paragraphs away from the right margin. You can also use the up and down cursor keys.

• First-Line Indent: Enter a value in this field to move the left edge of the first line of selected paragraphs away from the left margin. You can also click the up and down cursor keys. The value in the First-Line Indent field is added to any Left Indent value. For example, if you've specified a Left Indent value of 1 pica and you then specify a 1-pica First-Line Indent value, the first line of selected paragraphs will be indented 2 picas from the left margin. If you've specified a Left Indent value, you can specify a negative First-Line Indent value to create a hanging indent (also called an outdent ). But you cannot specify a First-Line Indent value that would cause the first line to extend past the left edge of the text frame (that is, the First-Line Indent value can't exceed that of the Left Indent value).

  Note ‚  

  Using a tab or spaces to indent the first line of a paragraph, which is what was done in the age of typewriters, is usually not a good idea. You're better off specifying a First-Line Indent. Similarly, you can indent an entire paragraph by inserting a tab or multiple word spaces at the beginning of every line, but both are typographic no-nos. Use the indent controls instead.

Lock to Baseline Grid

Every document includes a grid of horizontal lines, called the baseline grid, that can be displayed or hidden (View ‚ Show/Hide Baseline Grid, or z +Option+' or Ctrl+Alt+') and used to help position objects and text baselines. A document's baseline grid is established in the Grids pane of the Preferences dialog box (choose InDesign ‚ Preferences on the Mac or Edit ‚ Preferences in Windows, or press z +K or Ctrl+K, then go to the Grids pane). Generally, a document's baseline grid interval is equal to the leading value applied to the body text. You can ensure that lines of text align across columns and pages by locking their baselines to the baseline grid.

Although you can use InDesign's Lock to Baseline Grid feature to align text baselines across columns and pages, you can produce the same results by combining uniform body text leading with other paragraph formats (Space Before and Space After). Some designers like the certainty and simplicity of the Lock to Baseline Grid feature; others prefer to control text alignment across columns themselves . Whichever works best for you is fine.

Note ‚  

Keep in mind that when paragraphs are aligned to the baseline grid, the applied leading values are ignored.

To align the baselines of text in selected paragraphs with a document's baseline grid, click the Align to Baseline Grid button (it's the one on the right) in the Paragraph pane or Control palette. Click on the Do Not Align to Baseline Grid button if you don't want to align text baselines with baseline grid lines.

New Feature ‚  

InDesign CS adds two new options to the Paragraph pane's palette menu and the Control palette's palette menu. One is Only Align First Line to Grid. The other is Balance Ragged Lines.

The Only Align First Line to Grid option, which aligns the first line of a paragraph to the baseline grid, is a handy way to align multiline subheads so the first line stays on the grid, but the extra lines can fall naturally. You can use this for any paragraph that you want to be the rest point if your text gets off the baseline grid, without forcing every line to align to the grid.

The other new option, Balance Ragged Lines, ensures that the rag is "balanced," that is to say where the lines alternate short and long (when possible), rather than fall in a seemingly random pattern. This is designed to make headlines and other large copy (such as in ads) be more visually pleasing. You wouldn't use this for body text, where the small text size and need to have efficient spacing would make this feature irrelevant. Unfortunately, this setting also will force hyphenation to achieve the "balanced" rag, which may be contrary to your intent.