CreativePro Forum

Return to Member Forum

• Author
  Posts
• • June 14, 2017 at 9:18 am #95389
    Yoni Strats

    Member

    I’ve been having an odd issue with these two features. Styles that are meant to be ‘Keep Together’ work perfectly fine when there’s no column balancing. But as soon as I turn on “Balance Columns” for a given set of text boxes, it’s hit and miss. Usually it works, but sometimes it splits text that was meant to be kept together (even if there’s plenty of room for it to populate).

    Anyone run into this issue before?

  • June 14, 2017 at 10:29 am #95391
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Are you using split columns? (In the Span Columns dialog box.) Or are you using a multi-column text frame?

  • June 14, 2017 at 10:53 am #95395
    Yoni Strats

    Member

    Hey David!

    I’m using a Multi-column text frame — that is, Text Frame Style -> Text Frame General Options -> Columns (Fixed Number, 2).

    I figured an actual sample might be easier to deal with, so here’s one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9whg6uazvl1jvzc/Balance%20Column%20Keep%20Issue.indd?dl=0

    Everything up to question 3 is set to Keep together (Answer choices are all set to “Keep with Previous”, as are all of the “Dual” components). Turn off the Balance Columns option and it keeps properly. Turn it back on, it arbitrarily moves cuts off mid answer-choice. =/

  • June 14, 2017 at 11:17 am #95396
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    The problem, I believe, is that everything is set to “keep with previous.” After all, if everything had to keep with previous, then it would all have to stay in a single column… so InDesign gives up and says, “well, I have to break it somewhere!”

    If you open Preferences, click the Composition pane, and turn on Keep Violations (then click OK), you’ll see that InDesign is telling you that it had to break the line.

    The solution is to let InDesign break the column somewhere. In this case, you probably want to edit the “Question Stem” paragraph style to not keep with previous.

  • June 14, 2017 at 11:32 am #95397
    Yoni Strats

    Member

    Not quite everything! =)

    The “LR Stimulus” style isn’t set to keep with previous (and that’s where the break should occur). If you turn off the Balance Columns it does exactly that.

  • June 14, 2017 at 11:38 am #95398
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Oh my gosh, you are right. Drat!
    OK, so the answer is: Balance Columns disables Keep Options. (That’s sad, though it is a little bit understandable. There would be no way to truly balance the columns and maintain the keep options.)

  • June 14, 2017 at 12:14 pm #95399
    Yoni Strats

    Member

    Well, from what I understood it does its best to keep the relatively balanced (not to keep them exactly balanced).

    And it actually does seem to do this in many (most?) cases; take a look at this file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nzx63400krjc4b7/Balance%20Column%20Keep%20Issue%202.indd?dl=0

    Column balancing is turned on, but here it properly keeps the texts together. This happens whether the “less loaded” column is on the left or right, for example see this file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hv78kva6bk8e17f/Balance%20Column%20Keep%20Issue%203.indd?dl=0

    It’s… rather odd to say the least… =/

• Author
  Posts