Centre align to a character with text on the right of the character justified?

[Adam22686126ps27]

Basically what I'm trying to do is replicate the formatting seen on the left page of this spread: https://archive.org/details/Wonder_Stories_v04n11_1933-04/page/n49/mode/2up (the page numbered 848).

If you look at the list of dates, specifically 9,500 A. D. and 10,000 A. D., you can see that the text on that side of the column is essentially right aligned to the em dash, with everything on the right hand side being justified from that point to the rightmost edge of the column.

Everything I've tried so far has generated subsequent formatting issues which have rendered my methods unsuitable. Does anybody here have any ideas on how to replicate this design style?

[James Gifford—NitroPress · Accepted solution]

The simplest method would be to set the text to fully justified (giving the justified right margin), then set a left margin indent of about one inch. Set a first line outdent of that same value (1 inch). (An outdent is a negative indent, -1 in the field.)

Now set two tabs, a right-justify tab at (about) 0.95 inch, and a left tab at that same 1 inch.

Text should contain (tab)[date]—(tab)body body body.... and you'll get this:

It's the outdented first line and the back to back tabs that make it work. Adjust all values to suit your specific details.

There are other approaches, and this could be refined by, say, using three tabs: a right tab for the date, a center tab for the dash and then a following left tab; there are also tabs that will align on a character, such as the dash, but I can't come up with a variation that would work any better here.

[Peter Spier]

For clarity, I think James really means a left indent, not margin...

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Correct, and thanks. Laboring under the tail-end brain-fog of our new planetary companion.