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• • January 4, 2021 at 1:58 pm #14334117
    Alicia

    Participant

    Hello,

    We’re trying to match line breaks in a second printing of a book to the first printing, so we don’t have to proof the pages again. There are paragraphs where everything seems to be the same, but the line breaks are different. Clearing the tracking makes the paragraphs match, as does clearing all local formatting, so the problem is not in the paragraph style settings. Here’s what we have tried without success:

    Copying the original paragraph into the new file
    Clearing the kerning
    Making sure the margins, justification, and hyphenation settings are the same
    Making sure the text frames are the same size

    Are there secret settings for tracking, so that the same value could give a different result? Or any other settings we could look at?

    Thanks!

  • January 4, 2021 at 4:24 pm #14334151
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Unfortunately, there is often no way to make line breaks the same from one version of InDesign to the next (if the text reflows).

    It’s usually not a big change, but there are often tiny changes from one version to the next that cause reflow. InDesign has a clever feature that freezes the text reflow as long as you do not edit the story. But as soon as you make an edit, or you press the secret shortcut to reflow all the text (command-option-slash, if I recall), the text reflows with the newest “rules.”

    If you use the Single Line Composer instead of the Paragraph Composer, it can sometimes help, but if the original document used the Paragraph Composer (which it probably did), then that doesn’t necessarily help. More info here:

    Five Typesetting Mysteries Solved

  • January 5, 2021 at 6:08 am #14334185
    Alicia

    Participant

    Thank you for the quick response, David! The information for both files lists the application as InDesign 15.1 (Macintosh). The original file was last modified 12/12/20, and the new file was created at the end of December. Would the kind of update that would cause reflow involve a change to the version number?

    I forgot to say that the composer in each case is Single Line Composer.

    Thanks!

  • January 5, 2021 at 12:21 pm #14334206
    KATHERINE LLOYD

    Participant

    Typesetter here. Just a thought.
    Is it possible that the original file had overrides that aren’t being “done” in the new file. If you stripped out all my overrides, my files would all flow differently. In other words, part of typesetting a book is using the kerning feature to make paragraphs fit.
    Good luck!
    Katherine

  • January 5, 2021 at 1:18 pm #14334211
    Alicia

    Participant

    Hi, Katherine,

    There’s a particular paragraph I’m looking at, which has different line breaks in the new file than in the original. Everything seems to be the same about them except the kerning, but when I clear the kerning the line breaks still don’t match.

    They both use Single Line Composer, and the tracking, margins, justification, and hyphenation settings are the same.

    I am baffled!

    Alicia

  • January 5, 2021 at 3:54 pm #14334212
    KATHERINE LLOYD

    Participant

    Darn. Only other thought is font metrics (exact, exact same fonts)?

  • January 7, 2021 at 6:17 am #14334236
    Alicia

    Participant

    Yep, exact exact same font. Super confusing!

  • January 8, 2021 at 2:08 am #14334267
    Chris Thompson

    Member

    Wild stabs in the dark/scraping the bottom of the barrel/[insert cliché here]:
    1. Possibly different text frame insets under Text Frame Options (Ctrl/Cmd-B)?
    2. Different language assigned to the text? (even if the words themselves are the same language as before, maybe it reflows differently if the language assigned in the Character panel is different)
    3. Horizontal scaling applied to the text?

  • January 9, 2021 at 5:44 am #14334285
    Alicia

    Participant

    Chris, wow, those are things I would not have thought to check, and I’ll make note of them. In this case the settings are the same in both files, but I sure appreciate the suggestions. Thank you!

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