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RuneEilertsen
Known Participant
August 31, 2017
Question

Paragraph shading

  • August 31, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 2612 views

Hi,

I wonder what the best practice is when using paragraph shading to "box in" several paragraphs that flows across several pages. My main issue is the space above/below when the "box" starts at the top of the next page in the middle of a paragraph. There is no margins above the text. Now, I have to manually edit every "box" and fake the margins. If the text reflows, I have to to it again. Is there a better way?

Rune

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      1 reply

      Bill Silbert
      Community Expert
      Bill SilbertCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      August 31, 2017

      If you are using InDesign's Paragraph Shading option from the Paragraph Panel then you can edit the shading inset globally or set up a paragraph style using the Paragraph Shading dialog window which you can access through the Paragraph Panel pull-down menu. It is also a section in the New Paragraph Style dialog window.

      You can control how much offset the color is from the text through this. You can also control the space between paragraphs using Space Before and Space After through the Paragraph Panel. You can set a margin for the beginning of each page if you're using a Primary Text Frame through the Master page and setting inset spacing for just the top through the Text Frame Options dialog window accessed by Command-B on a Mac and Control-B on a PC.

      R
      RuneEilertsenAuthor
      Known Participant
      August 31, 2017

      Hi,

      Thanks for your reply. This is all good, but it doesn't address my problem. I'll try to explain it better:

      If you have a long paragraph of text that doesn't fit on one page the top offset (padding) has not the same effect if the break happens i the middle of the paragraph. I want the padding to be the same at the top of the second page. This effect varies depending on font and grid spacing. I've attached a screenshot.

      Bill Silbert
      Community Expert
      Bill SilbertCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      August 31, 2017

      For some reason when I reproduce what you've done it actually works the way that you're looking for. I tested it both with a Master Frame and by manually threading text from one frame to another. The settings that I did for paragraph shading duplicated yours. Have you tried setting up a paragraph style with this? That would at least make sure that all settings are applied to all paragraphs and might make a difference.

      I am also wondering if this is a question of InDesign versions. I am using CC 2017.1. Perhaps you are using an earlier version.

      I assume that when you said you have been adjusting this manually you meant that you've been inserting a paragraph return at the end of each page. That would be the simplest way if it doesn't work globally.

      Screen shot attached to show what my test looked like:

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