Line Space at Top of Text Box

Question

I'm formatting a book in InDesign. The manuscript was done in MS-Word. The paragraphs in MS-Word were separated via standard carriage returns. I've been able to successfully copy my manuscript from MS-Word into InDesign resulting in multiple pages. However, in a few instances, where one paragraph ends at the very bottom of a text box on one page (flush), the paragraph on the subsequent page begins not with text but an entire line-space resulting from the paragraph-separating carriage return. (The new paragraph text begins on the next line below.) Is there a way to fix this automatically for an entire document/book such that text will always begin at the very top of each new page's text box?

Willi Adelberger · Accepted Answer

Never use carriage returns to separate paragraphs, not in InDesign, not in Word. Create paragraph styles and define space before and after and work with correct keep options.

James Gifford—NitroPress · Answer

Never use multiple paragraph returns for spacing. Use a paragraph style (or styles) with appropriate spacing above and/or below.

Back in Word, do multiple search-replace for all multiple white spaces. Delete all double spaces, double paragraph returns, and any combination of spaces and tabs. Other than a paragraph return followed by a tab, there should be NO two white space characters in a row, anywhere. (Nuke space-return and return-space, too — they will be in there.)

Then re-import the document and assign well-defined styles to every paragraph.

That's the basics; there are many more levels including being able to import the document with Word styles assigned to ID ones, but it sounds as if a very basic approach and work flow is best here. Ask away with more questions as you have them!

—

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded