Baseline Shift Mystery

Report · Feb 23, 2022

InDesign 15.1.4 on Mac OS 12.2.1.

I'm cleaning up some inconsistent text, and to check if everything is the same, I select a paragraph and see if any of the fields are blank (meaning mixed values somewhere). So I decided to check the whole story for baseline shift, and saw that it was applied somewhere, but when I tracked it down, this is what I found.

This character doesn't have any:

…and this character doesn't have any:

…but when selected together, I would assume that the baseline shift field would be the same as the first two, but it's blank:

The font is the same, the size and leading are different, and the $ is using only the Superscript button. Is this just a bug in the file (I can't replicate it in a new document), or is there some setting I'm overlooking?

Report · Feb 23, 2022

Since you can't replicate it in a new document, the document may have some corruption. You could try saving it as .IDML and then reopening it. Or, you could try copying the text and pasting it into a new document.

Report · Feb 24, 2022

You could try saving it as .IDML and then reopening it.

By @barbara_a

That didn't work, but if I rebuild a blank with the same fonts and sizes, I can duplicate it and paste the buggy text into each blank without formatting and it doesn't copy the bug. It will take a while, but I'd rather not have a bug, even if you can't see what it's doing. Thanks for responding.

Report · Feb 24, 2022

Check if there is a Character style applied to the problem area. If there is, remove the character style and reapply the paragraph style.

Report · Feb 23, 2022

In the third scenario, what happens if you type "0" in there... does anything change?

Also, you selected only the paragraph return on the "Chuck" line. this may not reflect the rest of the line.. What happens if you select that entire line?

Report · Feb 24, 2022

In the third scenario, what happens if you type "0" in there... does anything change?
By Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Nothing that can be seen.

What happens if you select that entire line?
By Brad @ Roaring Mouse

The same thing—the input field is blank, indicating that there are mixed values in the selected text. The reason I showed the issue by selecting only the paragraph return and the $ separately was to show that there was no baseline shift in either, and that if there was no bls in either, there shouldn't be any when selected together. Since there is, there must be a bug in there somewhere. Going back to the original post, this is a way that I check a range of text to see if there are any stray deviations. A blank field says yes, so when it's blank when it shouldn't be, that negates my method of checking. It's not a huge problem, but its like a pebble in your shoe. Just anoying enough to be noticed, but not something to stop you in your tracks. Anyway, thanks for chiming in.

Report · Feb 24, 2022

"but its like a pebble in your shoe"

Yup. Now I want to see the file! Can you copy that text box onto a new document and upload it here?

I doubt it's a corruption, just an override that we can't see somewhere.