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Inspiring
September 17, 2020
Question

In-line anchored object (equation) management.

  • September 17, 2020
  • 17 replies
  • 5781 views

Dear all,

I have managed to write equations in MS Word, export to PDF, edit the PDF in Illustrator, exported it as SVG, placed it as an anchored object inline in the InDesign document and then activated the Text Wrap for the object.

As you can see from the video the text that is colliding is brought to the next line but the space (leading?) between the two lines is not increased (as it would in Apple Pages or MS Word). 

 

How can I achieve that? What do I have to change? Paragraph Style? Something in the Text Wrap?

Also, second question, is there an easier way to insert equations in InDesign that doesn't involve scripting or expensive plugins? I'm still a beginner in InDesign so I do not feel comfortable with scripting.

Thanks 

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17 replies

Community Expert
September 21, 2020

Look into the edited document you downloaded from my Dropbox.

The used paragraph style is using auto leading. From my German InDesign:

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Community Expert
September 21, 2020

Hi Inélsòre,

downloaded your sample document and played with it a bit.

[1] To switch from fixed leading to auto leading I had to increase the value for auto leading from 120% to 150%.

And then used the Auto value for leading in your paragraph style ( initially you used 12 Pt with fixed leading of 18 Pt ).

[2] From that point on, now with auto leading, text wrap is working as expected. With fixed leading the gap below was too large and would not change.

[3] Set a new negative value for the bottom text wrap to the anchored object.

 

FWIW:

Also changed the color of the text from [Registration] to [Black].

I strongly advice you to do this. Also in all your defined character styles!

 

And I had to use a different font: Source Sans, because the one you used was not available.

 

You can download the edited document from:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dxp9ar53hzljtbg/Leading%20help-EDITED-15.1.2.226.indd?dl=1

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

 

Inspiring
September 21, 2020

Thanks Uwe but ... somehow this is not working as in your document.

I assume I had to go to the Paragraph Style menu, then double click on the paragraph style used and, in the Indentation section, change the Auto Leading to 150%, is that correct? 

Once done that I fiddled again with the images, with exactly the same result as before... why so? 

As soon as I change the bottom text wrap to -0.125 the line gets up to where it was before. Any greater value (towards the positive) will just push the line down too much, and exactly as before.

   

EDIT: sorry ... I re-read your post ... you suggested to change to Black, not from Black. Sorry ... Why so? In the coursebooks I have been following until now they suggested Registration for printing. What is the reason for this? Thanks

----

Also, to clarify: the Auto Leading was not working because it was set to 120% and my fixed leading was 18pt for a 12pt style, i.e. already 150%? Should I change something here again? 

Thanks

 

PS: another issue is: why the text wrap is influencing only the leading below and not above? I mean ... MS Word and Apple Pages do what I need automatically. InDesign should be superior in this to both programs ... at least in theory.

PPS: you said that you used the auto value for leading of the paragraph style, but I do not find any of that. Where is it? I'm still very confused about this. If I set a paragraph to have 18pt of leading is that fixed or auto? Then how to make it behave as if there was auto? 

Inspiring
September 21, 2020

I think I made some small progress. 

I discovered the dropdown in leading where there is also (Auto) and now, as you said in your first post, the value is in parentheses. 

Now many elements look better if not good but this one doesnt. 

 

This is before modifying the bottom wrap: 

 

This is after (no value in between 1/16 of inch bears any result).

Community Expert
September 21, 2020

Hi Inélsòre,

auto leading is a feature of the paragraph. The default is 120%. That comes with a fresh installed InDesign and the Basic Paragraph Style. As you can see from the Control panel the value 12 Pt is written as (12Pt). The point size of the text dictates this. 10 Pt text size in my example below yields a leading of 12 Pt:

 

 

If you could move a small sample InDesign document to Dropbox or a similar service and post the download link I could give you better advice.

 

Thanks,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Inspiring
September 21, 2020

This is the file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7mpf7h9ctd3e52i/Leading%20help.indd?dl=0 , I have extracted the problematic  page.

I don't know if this is macOS but the leading is not in brackets here. Never mind, it's still there.

Thanks.

Community Expert
September 21, 2020

Hi,

to answer your questions:

 

Auto leading is the leading you see in brackets. Usually it's 120% of the point size; so if you are using 10 pt text size the automatic leading value is (12 pt). Opposed to a fixed leading. The default for text with InDesign is auto leading. And the amount of auto leading can be defined in InDesign's preferences.

Auto leading has nothing to do if the actual text is forced to a baseline grid, either the grid that is defined document wide or the grid that is defined with an individual text frame through the text frame options.

 

Skip by leading: What is meant by that?

If enabled, and this is the default, it will force the next line of text to the next leading value after the text wrapping zone.

You can see that happen in my second screenshot of my post before.

 

Note: Because you do not force the text to the baseline grid it is advicable to also use auto leading so that the inline anchored object will move the line of text where it is anchored a bit down. You can see that behavior in my second and also in my third screenshot above.

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Inspiring
September 21, 2020

Thanks Uwe.

I have now been able to try your suggestions. 

Using the Jump Object without any edit produces your same result (too much leading for the following line), but reducing the lower padding by anything less than 1/8 of inch produces nothing, while 1/8 of inch brings the line back to its normal leading (I have 12pt text with 18pt leading), which is not enough in this context. 

I wonder if anchoring the object may be the wrong thing to do and if another option may be available. 

 

I have checked the Preferences and auto-leading is on. Just I found no reference to leading being "the number in brackets". Where do you see that?

I saw that I can manually increase the leading of a single line of text, which may just be the cheapest solution right now. 

 

Also, I didnt find any reference to "auto leading amount" being editable in Preferences on my Mac. 

You also speak of document specific preferences. Are they in a different place compared to the InDesign > Preferences menu?

 

Thank you so much for your help (and patience!)

Inspiring
September 21, 2020

I have just inserted a new image in the same paragrah, which I'm attaching below alongside my interface with the second object selected. 

To show you that I am not kidding, I have exaggerated the text wrap of this object, but the dext is not moving at all around it. 

All this looks unnecessarily complicated which, in my experience with softwares, may mean that I am missing something. 

 

Thanks for your help.

Community Expert
September 18, 2020

Hi Inélsòre,

if I see this right your situation is like the one with my screenshot below. Done from my German InDesign.

The inline anchored object has a text wrap that follows the bounding box of the anchored object.

You could change that to jump the object and force the whole next line down:

The problem with that: The amount of leading to the next line is perhaps too big.

Are you working with paragraphs that are aligned to the baseline grid?

Is your paragraph set to auto leading?

 

Note: My examples do not use Align To Baseline Grid, but they use Auto Leading.

 

What you want to achieve is perhaps this where I used a negative amount of text wrap at the bottom of the object and the jump object feature to fine-tune the result:

 

It also requires to change the default of a document specific preference.

I have no idea if it does change other things in other places of your text composition with other objects that use text wrap. If this is no problem for you simply turn off Skip by Leading:

 

Preferences > Composition > Text Wrap

[  ] Skip by Leading

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Inspiring
September 19, 2020

Thank you very much Uwe and sorry for the late answer. 

I will test your suggestions on Monday. From what I see it seems they could solve the issue. 

 

In the meantime I have a few questions for my understanding:

  1. What does it mean "Skip by Leading" conceptually? What is skipping what?
  2. By now I am not using aligning to a baseline grid because it is a document which heavily alternates text and images and in not predictable sizes. So, auto Leading is what one gets when not using the grid, right?
  3. Can I change the usage of Auto Leading vs Baseline Grid on a paragraph style basis? 

 

Thank you so much for your most detailed answer. I will get back to this when I can test it.

Scott Falkner
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 17, 2020

Unfortunately I can’t view your video, but I can gues what it shows. Also unfortunately InDesign doesn’t handle text wrap for anchored objects well. Text wrap can only apply to lines of text after the anchored object. This prevents the text wrap from moving the object which would affect the text wrap and potentially create an endless feedback. 

 

So so you can place the anchored object earlier in your story and have the text after it flow around it. 

 

https://indesignsecrets.com/wrapping-text-around-an-anchored-object.php

Document Geek
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 17, 2020

What are you trying to accomplish? Do you want extra space in between the two lines of text? That is accomplish by leading and has nothing to do with anchored objects. Just increase the leading.

 

As far as inserting equations into InDesign, I don't have to do it often, but when I do,  just make them in Illustrator and save it as a PDF or AI file. Many people like MathML. While it seems that SVG is the output format that the Math ML plugin uses, if you're creating the graphics right in Illustrator, you can use other file formats if you like.

 

To be truthful, InDesign doesn't handle equations as elegantly as users would hope for.

Inspiring
September 17, 2020

Indeed, I want to avoid the end of the second line to go to the third one for effect of the anchored object and just move all the line down. Can I change the leading of just one line of a paragraph?

 

I agree with you, most of those plugins are either just for Windows or not updated and/or way too expensive to make any sense.