Adjusting Ragged Lines in InDesign

[d***@adobeforums.com]

I have created my paragraph of text with are set ragged to the right. I have set the column "gutter" width to a certain value. Although I have selected "Balance Ragged Lines" in the text drop down menu - the gutter spacing seems to appear way larger than what it is set to. Is there a way to adjust the sensitivity of the ragged right adjustment WITHOUT using hyphenation? I hope this makes sense and thanks for any help.

[M***@adobeforums.com]

Isn't the distance from the right edge of a particular line in your paragraph to the gutter without hyphenation dependent on the words (or more accurately, the length of the words) that are in the line? Maybe its just bad luck that the text doesn't fit well into the parameters you have chosen. You may need to be flexible about one or more of those parameters, or could you edit the text?

[d***@adobeforums.com]

YES! You would think the distance is dependent on the word. However there are so many (too many) instances where short words end up on the next line ALTHOUGH it appears it would totally fit into the previous line!!! This is what I am trying to avoid and wondering if you can adjust this in InDesign. Thanks Michael.

[unknown]

Why did you select balance ragged lines? I wouldn't use it for body
text, only for subheads where I don't want to have just one word on the
second line.

Bob

[d***@adobeforums.com]

Thanks Bob. Is there a way to balace the ragged lines on body text? Sometimes it looks odd with these huge breaks in the text.

[unknown]

Are you using soft returns anywhere? That will really mess the paragraph
composer up.

Bob

[d***@adobeforums.com]

I did before. And like you said - it really messed things up. I also tried to manually insert hyphens with troublesome breaks. That also messed things up. There must be an easier way to fill those huge breaks.

[P***@adobeforums.com]

Are you setting the 'justification' setting in para style palette? And you can set the hyphenation sensitivity there too...

[j***@adobeforums.com]

Switch from the incredibly smart & multiple line-aware Paragraph Composer back to the fast-but-stupid Single-Line Composer.

Your text will look worse from a mathematical point of view (because the ragged space at the right is not averaged over multiple lines anymore) but at least you will think it looks better (because now you have the total control you wanted).

[D***@adobeforums.com]

Have you switched off balance ragged lines? Do you still have the problem?

Dave

[d***@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for your replies. Helpful. We try to avoid using the hyphenation most of time in our body text. I guess that really is maybe what causes all this wierd and huge spacing that occurs at the end of a paragraph line. The balance ragged lines option is always turned off. IS there maybe a slim possibility that I can change anything in with the "justification" option in the paragraph dialogue box?

[d***@adobeforums.com]

Do people usually reserve "Balance Ragged Lines" for only headers and pull-qoutes? I guess what I am wondering is whether I HAVE to do this manually - and I can't avoid that? Meaning I do have to scan the body text and manually place hyphens and soft-returns where needed and just basically play with it. Thanks for any help or input.

[unknown]

Hyphenation was invented for a reason. Not using it usually creates the
types of problems you're having. Go ahead and enable it and take a look
at how much better your text will look.

Bob

[D***@adobeforums.com]

Do not insert manual hyphens or soft returns. They'll drive you nuts and you're bound to make a mistake.

Switch on hyphenation in your paragraph styles. Set the slider to fewer hyphens so you'll have as few as possible.

Now manage the result with a mix of:

(a) suppressing hyphenation in particular words by inserting a discretionary hyphen before the words (Command+Shift+Hyphen).

(b) apply No Break to spaces to keep words together

These two tricks are just as powerful as soft returns and an manual hyphens without the peril.

Dave

[d***@adobeforums.com]

Thanks Dave. Can you tell me tell me where I can find the "No Break" option. Also what does suppressing hyphenation mean?

[unknown]

No break is a character attribute. I suggest creating a character style
for it and applying it when needed.

Bob

[d***@adobeforums.com]

ALSO - I still don't know why it is taboo to use the "Balance Ragged Lines" option for body text?

[unknown]

You can do whatever you want. But if you want body text to look you
won't use it.

Bob

[D***@adobeforums.com]

Balance Ragged Lines makes all the lines in each paragraph approximately the same length. Including the last line. If that's what you want for your body text, have at it.

Dave

[d***@adobeforums.com]

What is the best way to fix stray characters at the end of a line of a body of text. For example:

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. I
enim fermentum pharetra. Praesent tincidunt metus eu nulla. A
sem. Praesent aliquam, libero dapibus feugiat suscipit, justo tortor porttitor ipsum, id tincidunt orci arcu non nisi. In lectus augue, mollis ac, convallis vitae, adipiscing at, augue. Nam aliquet leo nec elit.

The first two lines end with a single character preceded by a punctuation mark. Is it best to insert a soft return before the "I" or the "A"? Just wondering thanks.

[j***@adobeforums.com]

Is it best to insert a soft return before the "I" or the "A"?




Eeek!! It is the very worst of all possible solutions. Go and type "I will never use the soft return again" one thousand times.

Better use either a fixed space (ID has a handy shortcut for that), or select the text-not-to-be-broken and apply a No Break attribute (that doesn't have a shortcut by default, but since it is a very handy function, why not add one yourself and use it).

The difference is that using a fixed space, the words before and after the space might be hyphenated. With No Break, nothing inside the No Break range will hyphenate.

[d***@adobeforums.com]

Thank you for your help.

[d***@adobeforums.com]

YIKESS! Can anyone point me to a good website for reference about body type designing? I am constantly running into problems where the body type with ragged right in InDesign leaves stray words (one word at end of paragraph on a line by itself) etc.!!! OR am I going to have to live with body type haveing weird breaks and rivers and stray words???!??!? HELLLP!

[j***@adobeforums.com]

..ALTHOUGH it appears it would totally fit into the previous line..




That's due to the Ragged Lines balancing, i.e., ID will avoid longer and shorter lines but choose to set two more-or-less equally long ones.

The single-word-on-a-last-line is a peculiarity of ID CS3's paragraph composer, and (supposedly) fixed in CS4.

If you need ABSOLUTE control over the line breaks, you will have to disable Balanced Ragged Lines and choose the Single Line composer instead of the smart Paragraph Composer. That way you can use No Break and/or non-breaking spaces at will, and ID will not try to adjust the paragraphs any further.

As typesetting references go, nothing beats Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style <http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Robert-Bringhurst/dp/0881791326>, an investment well worth the money for everyone vaguely interested in typography.

[D***@adobeforums.com]

The differences between CS3 and CS4 as far as short last lines is concerned relate to justified text. Ragged text falls the way it falls.

Dave