Blank underline spaces between tabs

[Mckenzie Creative]

Hi I have a tabed price list and I want all the things ie Code description price etc etc to be underlined with a dotted line but I want the line to break between tabs so only the tabs width will be underlined like the attached image

[Barb Binder]

Are you doing this as a tabbed table, or using the table feature. How to do this depends on your answer.

[Mckenzie Creative]

Thanks for the quick reply I am fairly new to indesign was always Quark for me anyway all I have done is import a .xlsx file straight into a text field as unformatted tabs if that helps

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

Ok, so I would suggest selecting the text and converting to a table with Table > Convert Text to table. Format the text and table as desired, including removing the default ruling lines above, below and within the table.

Create a paragraph style for the body of the table. I called mine CellBody.

Define a Paragraph rule below, as shown in the ss  below.

For this result:

~Barb

EDIT: I recommend styles over any other approach because you can quickly format whole tables with a single click if you set them up thoughtfully with nested styles. When you have time, read up on paragraph styles, character styles, table and cell styles, and how to nest one within the other. I do a lot of long document layout, and IMHO, it's the only way to go.

[vinny38]

In addition to this great post, I would suggest a couple of things:

- Go > Preferences > File Handling > make sure you checked "Create Links When Placing Text and Spreadsheet Files"

- Check "Show Import Options" while placing your excel file and choose Unformatted Table instead of tabbed text.

- Create Cell style "based on" your newly created paragraph style. Apply this cell style to all cells you want to format.

This way, you can modify your Excel file and just update links in INDD, and everything should reflow nicely.

[Mckenzie Creative]

Thank you

[rob day]

You could follow the tabs with an em or en space. Or a table might make it easier to handle?

Here are evenly spaced, left justified tabs, followed by an Em Space (Type>Insert White Space) with no underline

[Mckenzie Creative]

I will give it a go but I presume that it will break the flow of the imported file, that way if it gets altered the flow will not work, which is what I am trying to avoid.

Thank you for your help

[JonathanArias]

you should do this as a table. not with tabs.