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Answered

Inconsistent text formatting in indesign

Forum|Forum|17 days ago
February 2, 2026
5 replies
146 views

Leading between paragraph styles is not consistent. The larger (incorrect) space only happened around 5 times in 100+ page doc. No rogue formatting on styles. Seems to fix itself when i create a orphan.

Correct answer rob day

Hi @m e r x , You have Span Columns turned on, but all the text is single column—it looks like that is affecting the space above:

m e r xAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hello, I’ve attached a sample page from this document with the odd formatting.

SamplePage.indd

rob day

Correct answer

Community Expert

Hi @m e r x , You have Span Columns turned on, but all the text is single column—it looks like that is affecting the space above:

m e r xAuthor

Participating Frequently

Wow, that’s it—thank you!

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

Have you tried Turning on Style Override Highlighter?? That might point you in the direction as to what’s up.

Also, turn on Hidden Characters… there might be an errant space (?) at the end of the paragraph that is still wrapping to the next line.

m e r xAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hm, I have hidden character on and just tried the Style Override Highlighter (which I’ve never used before) but there doesn’t seems to be any issues with this tool.

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Hi @m e r x:

This is likely something very straightforward, but it's not obvious from looking at your video. Can you please share your file, either privately or publicly? You can put it on a cloud server and share the link here (public) or via DM (private).

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Hi MERX,

Just for good measure, patch up to 21.2. Maybe also...

Make sure a Character Style isn’t applied stuck on. Also wouldn’t hurt you to...

Preferences > Type, turn on Apply Leading to Entire Paragraphs

Mike Witherell

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Are you using a baseline grid?

Are you using paragraph space instead of leading? Paragraph space would be preferred but you mentioned leading.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

m e r xAuthor

Participating Frequently

No baseline grid, I am using paragraph spacing. I’ve tried spot removing the spacing but that doesn’t seem fix to be the problem (but it does make the space slightly smaller). I’ve also reformatting all the type serveral times. The issue seems to be with the paragraph with the “body” style not the sub heading style (7.1.1.3...).