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• • December 6, 2012 at 7:12 am #63687
    Simon Duckworth

    Participant

    I think I've come across an odd little bug in InDesign – when I'm working with columns of text and insert a column break at the end of a paragraph, the last line of the paragraph that precedes the column break has odd spacing applied. It only affects the last line. If I add a carriage return after the paragraph, the spacing corrects. Unfortunately it's not feasible to add in extra carriage returns before each column break – if the para is too close to the bottom of the text frame, it'll wrap into the next column and screw up the layout.

    Is there a way around this? I'm using ID CS5.5 Many thanks!

  • December 6, 2012 at 8:52 am #63689
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Maybe you have “Justify All Lines” selected for the horizontal alignment for the paragraph instead of left or just normal justified? Also, check settings in Text Frame Options, including vertical justification.

  • January 11, 2013 at 7:57 am #63921
    Jasper

    Member

    I've just run across this as well, and spent some time investigating.

    It is not a justification issue: it relates to the way paragraphs and characters work. Because a break is actually a character, InDesign requires is be located inside a paragraph. The actual break is created *after* the break character.

    These two facts create the problem: the break character will be placed at the end of a paragraph — the last in one frame — but that paragraph will span the break and flow into a new frame. After the paragraph concludes, an “end of paragraph” symbol is (automatically) placed, which renders as a line break — plus any after-paragraph spacing will take effect. That means there's going to be a gap at the beginning of the new frame.

    So basically, InDesign assumes you're using frame breaks inside of paragraphs, and want them that way. When in fact, we don't; we want them between paragraphs. I haven't come up with any good solution so far.

  • January 11, 2013 at 9:19 am #63922
    Jasper

    Member

    Oh, I fogot a key part of the issue!

    The problem I described — a gap at the beginnign of the new frame — can obviously be resolved by placing the break character at the beginning of the next paragraph (that you want to start the next frame) instead of at the end of the last one.

    But this creates the OP's original problem, because the paragraph still spans the frames. And that means some space is required in the first frame — if there isn't enough, it gets automatically pushed into the second frame, and THEN the break character is read, pushing us into a THIRD frame.

  • January 16, 2013 at 1:30 pm #63961
    Jasper

    Member

    I kept trying to get around this, and do have a solution. It is inelegant, but does work:

    – Insert breaks at the beginning of the paragraphs you want.

    – Place a small text box somewhere outside the page (maybe near the beginning of the next frame). Make them 1-2 em thin but longish.

    – Thread your text into the dummy box first, then into the next frame you really want it in.

    If there's plenty of space at the bottom of the first frame, you don't really need the box, and everything works normally.

    If you're right on the edge of using up the first frame, that break character will flow into the dummy box, but the next (real) paragraph won't fit, so will flow into your second proper frame.

    Kind of a pain since you have to do it for every frame, but I haven't found any other solution.

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