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lewis678
Participating Frequently
March 7, 2018
Answered

Hanging Indent plus Left Justify makes words float out of text frame

  • March 7, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 3967 views

I often use bulleted lists with the commmand/backslash (hanging indent) tool. If the text is aligned left, no problem. But when I use left justify, it sends some of the words off to the right — outside of the text frame! Please see examples below.

I cannot find a fix for this or imagine why it's happening. I can only figure that it is a bug. Is anyone else having this problem? I haven't been able to find any other record of it in my searches.

I've been having this problem for a while. Before I updated to InDesign 2018 and after the update as well. I'm running El Capitan 10.11.6 on a Mid 2011 iMac.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

    Correct answer Laubender

    I can recreate the problem with a combination of Wingdings plus Source Sans Pro Bold. In the moment I add the special character Indent Here Tab the paragraph composer is showing the issue:

    If one of the two characters following the Wingdings character is formatted with "Regular" the issue is gone.
    Or if the "A" from Access is formatted with "Regular".

    Regards,
    Uwe


    Obviously there are problems with Wingdings, Wingdings 2, Wingdings 3 and Webdings fonts. If I replace the Wingdings character with something else, e.g. character \x{2192} from Adobe Sans Serif Black, there is no issue at all with the paragraph composer.

    And for all who want to vote for fixing the bug a report is done here:

    Hanging Indent plus Left Justify makes words float out of text frame – Adobe InDesign Feedback

    Regards,
    Uwe

    3 replies

    D
    Drew1365
    Participant
    January 8, 2025

    Here we are nearly seven years later? Has this bug ever been fixed? I just encountered it using the latest InDesign (2025) on an M2 running Sequoia. I've been doing this same "indent to here" method for years, and until today (my first time after upgrading from . . . the 2023 version?) never encountered it before. Solved it by using the ol' left indent with a matching negative first-line indent, but that's a lot more clunky than the quick "indent to here" Command-Backslash method.

    Bug reported, but ever solved/fixed?

      Abhishek Rao
      Community Manager
      Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      January 8, 2025

      Hi @Drew1365,

       

      Thank you for sharing the details. I have escalated this with the product team and will update this thread as soon as I hear back. 

      Feel free to share any additional details or questions in the meantime.

       

      Best,
      Abhishek



      D
      Drew1365
      Participant
      January 9, 2025

      The weird thing is it seems peculiar to "Wingdings"  (and Wingdings 2 and Wingdings 3) typefaces. If I use the <Command>-Backslash method with standard bullets of whatever typeface I'm using (<OPT>-8) it works fine. But often I'm using something from one of the Wingdings sets and the copy breaks the frame. Very strange. See the attached screenshots.

      TᴀW
      TᴀW
      Legend
      March 9, 2018

      It looks like the sort of bug that occurs with the Adobe World-ready Paragraph Composer.

      Are you using the Middle Eastern version of InDesign.

      If you place the text cursor in some of that text, and go to the flyout of the Control Panel menu, you can see which paragraph composer is being used (Singe Line, Paragraph, or (for ME versions of ID) World-Ready Single or World-Ready Paragraph). Which is it?

      Ariel

        L
        Community Expert
        LaubenderCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        March 9, 2018

        TᴀW  wrote

        It looks like the sort of bug that occurs with the Adobe World-ready Paragraph Composer. …

        Yeah. Had the same thought, Ariel.
        And for this kind of text the Adobe Paragraph Composer could be used.

        Regards,
        Uwe

          Barb Binder
          Community Expert
          Barb BinderCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          March 7, 2018

          That's odd and I really can't give you coherent explanation for it. Have you considered setting a regular hanging indent with a left indent and negative first line indent? Benefits being:

          1. It won't do that (good enough for me!);
          2. You don't have to manually add the Indent to Here character for each paragraph and
          3. You can save the custom bullet and hanging indent as a paragraph style for 1-click formatting.

          ~Barb

          ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
            L
            lewis678Author
            Participating Frequently
            March 9, 2018

            Thanks, Barb. You make some good points!!

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