Adding nonbreaking spaces using find/change

[Jim Haven]

I did a search and i dont think there is a post regarding this.

I use non breaking spaces quite a bit to keep company names and lines of business from breaking and have found this tip to work very well and saves alot of time. See the attached Screenshot and follow the instructions below. 

Open your InDesign file, and under the edit menu drop down go to "Find/change"  (or command F on mac). Navigate the "Find what" field and enter for example, "Name of Company". Then navigate to the field below it that is labeled "Change to" and put in Name of Company again. Then highlight each space and click the "@" symbol to the right of the field, dropdown to white space, then nonbreaking space and release. This will put in a non breaking space where you highlighted (represented by an upward facing carrot and a capitol S). 

After you fill in both the "find" and "change to" fields, I suggest saving it as a preset by clicking the "Save Query" button in the upper right, next to the trash can (this way you can access your search easily the next time you need it).

Now you can either click the "find next" or "change all" button and Indesign will add the non breaking spaces for you within your document. I usually use the Find next function so i can watch for any new line breaks that may be caused throughout my layout.

I also use this to find/change double periods to single ones, double spaces to single spaces, etc. You can even search for specific paragraph and character styles or colors! its REALLY handy.

Hope this helps someone as much as it's helped me.

Jim

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Thanks, those are all good "cleanup" tricks. I do most of that in Word when I'm importing material, to get rid of all the sloppy-user, "typist" stuff like the double spaces. But ID's find/replace, especially when coupled with GREP, can do some amazing things.