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• • November 3, 2014 at 1:46 pm #71404
    Carole Caruso

    Member

    I have done my homework on using InDesign CS6, but am having a problem about aligning text in columns.

    I will have two columns. I want to cross align the first line of text in each column, but I do not want all the text lines in the columns to cross align. However, if the last line of text in each column is almost on the same grid line, I would like them to cross align. Is this possible to do? I thought I read about this in one of the online lessons, but cannot again find it.

    Thanks.

    Carole

  • November 3, 2014 at 5:09 pm #71410
    Dwayne Harris

    Member

    The only thing I can think of off-hand is to select the text box, go to text frame options, and choose vertical justification?

  • November 4, 2014 at 9:30 am #71425
    Tom Venetia

    Member

    Vertical justification is tricky and most of the time a nuisance.
    Depending of your text and how many different paragraph styles it contains I would rather use top-aligned text boxes and then play with paragraph spacings and leading. Also the keep options should be set to all lines in paragraph. This will not produce a beautiful vertical alignment but will be much better the struggling with ID’s vertical justification blues.

    • November 4, 2014 at 10:38 am #71426
      Dwayne Harris

      Member

      You’re right, Tom. Vertical justification is a big nuisance. In fact, I never use it.

      But sometimes it may be easier than adjusting everything by hand, depending upon how much time you have to spend on it.

  • November 4, 2014 at 2:51 pm #71432
    Carole Caruso

    Member

    Thanks to you both for your comments. I was sure I had read that the text could be manipulated so the last lines were aligned. Guess it was just wishful thinking.

    Thanks again.

    Carole

  • November 5, 2014 at 4:02 am #71438
    Tom Venetia

    Member

    Hello folks,
    I don’t know if Adobe’s people read this forum. They certainly should because ID presents serious flaws or lacking of features that the company has not addressed yet. Surely, vertical justification and the behavior of keep options is one of them. As I wrote before, (technological) eon years ago Xerox’s Ventura Publisher has already satisfactorily solved this very important feature for books outlaying.
    My 5 cents and rant for today :-)
    Be well
    Tom

  • November 5, 2014 at 6:39 am #71441
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Carole, the vertical justification feature is in the Object > Text Frame Options dialog box. I’m not sure why people say it is a hassle, as it is easy to turn on/off there. You can increase the Paragraph Spacing Limit in that same section so that it adds space between the paragraphs instead of changing your leading.

    There are also other tools out there that help with this in sometimes better ways, such as: https://in-tools.com/products/plugins/proper-vj/

    • November 5, 2014 at 10:11 am #71448
      Dwayne Harris

      Member

      David–I did recommend using it for what Carole needed it for.

      But, I, personally, don’t like it because I’m in book publishing and using it is basically “feathering,” which is very rarely done nowadays (at least in book publishing).

      The nuisance I find with it is when we get a job in and vertical justification was used and we don’t find out until half-way through. Maybe if the original person who paged it had set up an object style it might have been easier to just turn it off from there.

  • November 5, 2014 at 7:49 am #71445
    Carole Caruso

    Member

    Thank you, David. I was sure I had seen this option somewhere in all the courses I had taken, and even perhaps in one of yours.

    I have tried what you said, works like a charm, and will play with it until I have it mastered.

    Now maybe, just maybe, I am ready to start to put together my 1000+ page book.

    Thanks a bunch.

    Carole

  • November 5, 2014 at 12:58 pm #71451
    Tom Venetia

    Member

    David, I finished a 900+ pages book and fixing vertical justification was a nightmare and _very_ time consuming.
    Surely you can use the Object > Text Frame Options dialog box (although Ctrl B does the same). And sometimes paragraph spacing may help.
    But “keep options” interfere (messing up vertical alignments and column breaks), sometimes in a very strange manner. If you check the forum’s threads we had this conversation before and I could not clarify why such a weird behavior happens.
    As far as I can say the vertical justification feature in ID (CS6) does a poor job. Otherwise, why would In-Tools bother to offer their product to do the same thing (probably improved)?
    In your opinion, what am I missing?
    If you prefer, we can continue this discussion with a new thread in which I would explain the problems I faced.

  • November 5, 2014 at 1:06 pm #71452
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Dwane and Tom: I didn’t say I use vertical justification (especially for things like books)! I don’t. I was just answering Carole’s question about what is possible.

    And, actually, as I read this again, I see that she’s really just talking about two columns. If it’s a multi-column text frame, you may be able to use Balance Columns in the Text Frame Options dialog box to get what you want.

    (And yes, in-tools’ proper VJ is better than the built-in tool in some good ways.)

    • November 5, 2014 at 4:20 pm #71454
      Dwayne Harris

      Member

      David–I didn’t mean to insinuate that you used it all the time. I was just answering why I disliked it. And I only recommended it to Carole’s original post because it was the easiest thing I could think of.

      As an aside–I’m not sure that the balance column thing would work. I get the idea things are on different leading. She wants the first line to align, and nothing else until the last line (which has to align). So definitely vertical justification I think.

  • November 5, 2014 at 4:50 pm #71457
    Carole Caruso

    Member

    If you are going to continue this discussion, I have some thoughts about this Justify command.

    Remember, I am using only two columns. I want the first and the last lines to align across the columns.
    I only need to Justify when the last line of the one column is just a tad off. So using the Justify command is perfect for this task.

    After playing with this a bit, it is obvious that the Justify command cannot be the default unless limitations can be set.

    So now I have a question. And I am sorry if it sounds stupid to you pros, but I am struggling to learn InDesign well enough to put one book together. Just this one book.

    So my question is can the Test Frame Option to Justify be set – I don’t even know how to say this – so there is a limitation to how far off the alignment is? Beyond that limit, no justification would take place.

    If not, I will justify page by page if need be.

    Carole

    • November 5, 2014 at 5:28 pm #71458
      Dwayne Harris

      Member

      Carole, you can set limitations in the paragraph space limit. To be honest–you would have to play with the settings (it’s under “object” > “text frame options).

      I’m taking it you want this to work throughout your book automatically. If so, you will need to change your object syle of the default text box to allow vertical justification. But–that will make it in effect for all text frames. You could make a separate text frame without that justification and apply it when necessary.

      I would definitely set up text frame object styles.

      EDIT: I use picas and points, so I’d only set it to a point or two and see how that works. If you alignment is only off a little bit, that might work.

  • November 6, 2014 at 10:22 am #71482
    Carole Caruso

    Member

    Thank you, Dwayne, for your help. I will play with the settings to see if it will be worth the bother. Otherwise, I will just tweak as needed even if it time consuming.

    Right now, I am going to take a deep, deep breath and set up what I hope will be my final shot at setting up the Masters for my book. So look for me as I am sure I will be back with more questions that I cannot resolve by watching the online videos.

    Thanks to all of you for helping me understand about how to balance columns. I appreciate your taking the time to do so.

    Carole

    • November 6, 2014 at 1:03 pm #71485
      Dwayne Harris

      Member

      Good luck, Carole, and ask questions anytime! :)

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