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A
Anonymous
June 9, 2008
Answered

Last line of paragraph always lower (line spacing is higher)

  • June 9, 2008
  • 14 replies
  • 61735 views
I often had this problem with InDesign CS3 (and I think CS2 also).
When composing a paragraph in InDesign, the last line will often be further away,
is that a known issue about InDesign. I checked the paragraph option (space afters, space befores, etc) and there is nothing: All line in the paragraph have the same characteristics.
There are no characters in subscript or superscript mode.

What could cause that?

Thank you

Louis

G5, Leopard, Suitcase X1, Creative Suite CS3.
Correct answer BobLevine
You've got a paragraph return at the end of the last sentence that has
different attributes than the rest of the paragraph.

Bob

14 replies

J
janetgg
Participating Frequently
July 21, 2022

This does not work. I have no extra large returns. Leading is even across. This is happening all the time.

 

James Gifford—NitroPress
James Gifford—NitroPress
Legend
July 21, 2022

In my experience (based mostly on importing Word files), most of what's presented here is the cause of nearly all of the instances of this problem. If you get this weird "dropped last line" fault:

 

  1. Make absolutely certain the faulty paragraph ends with a hard return.
  2. Make sure there are no extraneous characters or returns (hard, soft or automatic) between this paragraph and the next one (which will often be on the next page).
  3. Select the whole faulty paragraph and re/apply the style, clearing all overrides. (Reapply things like italics or other character formats; it's better to completely clear the settings and start over rather than to try and be too selective.)
  4. Do the same for the following paragraph.

 

This fixes the problem nearly every time, with the exception being some that have the "Apply Leading to Entire Paragraph" setting unchecked.

 

—

Dave Creamer of IDEAS
Community Expert
Dave Creamer of IDEASCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 21, 2022

I agree with @James Gifford—NitroPress --especially with point #3. 

A click-and-drag selection often does not select the paragraph return; even harder if they are not visible. I like to click 4 times to select the entire paragraph--also, make not to use auto leading. Using paragraph styles avoids many issues.

 

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
    splambo
    splambo
    Participating Frequently
    January 14, 2020

    BobLevine's suggestion was right for me.

     

    Just select the entire line that's giving you trouble by double clicking on it. That will include the faulty return. Once selected, change your Leading in the Character Window.

    macpawel
    macpawel
    Participating Frequently
    August 6, 2015

    The last character is Enter (or spaca and Enter)

    If you select only text, you omit space (ond or/Enter)

    Then if you aply leading for selected text - last character remeins his attributes (also leading).

    Just select entire Paragraph as they said above

    macpawel

    rob day
    Community Expert
    rob dayCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 6, 2015

    Just select entire Paragraph as they said above

    If the Apply Leading to Entire Paragraph preference is checked all you need is to have the cursor somewhere in the paragraph and you'll get uniform leading (assuming there's not a character style with different leading somewhere in the paragraph).

    A
    Anonymous
    August 6, 2015

    A couple of years late but here is another solution. If the text has come from another app like Word, Framemaker, Quark, Pagemaker, etc. then there could be formatting hidden in the paragaph. So, select the text in the other app and Copy. Then open a text box in InDesign and select Paste without Formatting. This may be greyed out. No problem. Open another temporary text box and select Paste. Then select the text in the temp text box, and Copy. Then you should be able to Paste without Formatting into the text box you wanted to paste the text to. Then delete the temp text box. The text should be stripped of any previous formatting and will only contain formatting inherited from the InDesign Paragtaph Style.

    Willi Adelberger
    Community Expert
    Willi AdelbergerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 6, 2015

    Complicated.

    Select the whole paragraph or text and apply remove overrides from the Paragraph Style Panel menu.

    Or reapply the style with holding the ALT key.

    Or apply the styles with right mouse click by selecting the correct context menu,

    A
    Anonymous
    August 6, 2015

    Thanks Willi. I struggled recently with this problem and some stubborn text from and old FrameMaker 7 document. Remove Overrides didn't work so I tried my complicated route and it did the trick. I still have no idea what was hidden in the original FrameMaker text. Thanks for these solutions though. Frankly, any solution that does the trick is good!

    A
    Anonymous
    June 26, 2013

    I was having this issue for a while too.

    I was copying in text from Word docs and the last line on some was spaced lower. I ended up going to the end of the line with the issue and hitting Delete, solved the problem in every instance.

    Thanks for the help!

      _
      _Dave_Saunders_
      Inspiring
      June 11, 2008
      A lone paragraph return at the end of a story will never cause overset, but if you have an XML-closing-tag after that paragraph return (or any white space character), then you'll get an overset warning even though the only overset item is non-printable and not relevant to most of the things that one worries about for overset text.

      Dave
        Mr. Met
        Mr. Met
        Inspiring
        June 11, 2008
        Be sure there is a hard return after last paragraph. I get a lot of word files with no hard return after the last paragraph in a section/chapter and when I place into ID, the last line floats away until I enter a hard return.
          BobLevine
          Community Expert
          BobLevineCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          June 11, 2008
          > Be sure there is a hard return after last paragraph.

          That may solve one problem but could lead to another. If the text is in
          a copyfit state, you're going to wind up with overset warnings.

          Bob
          B
          Brutus_Maximus
          Known Participant
          June 10, 2008
          Louis, are you using fixed leading or autoleading? If you're using autoleading, any variation in point size on a line of type will affect the leading above that line. It's usually caused by a carriage return in a different point size on the terminal line of a paragraph, often in copy imported from Word.

          Addendum: So far as I'm aware, InDesign contains all-new code, with nothing carried over from PageMaker. I'm sure Dov Isaacs will come along to confirm this for us.
          A
          Anonymous
          June 10, 2008
          Was code from PageMaker pasted in InDesign and then compiled. Oh no !
          _
          _peterpica_
          Participant
          June 9, 2008
          Brings back not-so-fond memories of PageMaker too!
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