How to Adjust Visual Alignment for Right-Aligned Multi-Line Headings in InDesign
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
I very rarely use right aligned text (maybe ten times in a career of 40 years) but I have a use for it now in a book. How do I align right aligned headings but still have the ability to adjust them so that they align visually? The heading is over 3 lines - the first ends in a colon, the second ends in N and the third line a T and they all need spacing so that the right line ends looks visually aligned.
<Title renamed by MOD>
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
——
Philip Jansseune | Creative Director | Walker Jansseune | Brand Communications
17 Avondale Road | Bath | United Kingdom | BA1 3EG
M +44 (0)7958 641313
philip@walkerjansseune.co.uk
https://linktr.ee/walkerjansseune
Finalist | World Media Awards 2018
Is your company celebrating an anniversary in the next year or two? We specialise in making them memorable! Email us for an initial discussion, samples or an estimate.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
The only consistent way to get the level of control you're seeking, especially with being able to tweak characters beyond the nominal frame line, is —
- Use an artificial right margin; e.g. set the body text in a few mm or points.
- Use a paragraph style for the heading that allows either one line, perfectly aligned right, or allows multiple lines for multi-line heads so that each line can be right-space tweaked, including "outward," to get the exact alignment desired.
Things like inserting invisible characters is a hack (that I occasionally use, but only in "art" layouts, not running text) and the need to do "negative" kerning etc. means some phantom space has to be built in to allow it. I can't think of a second approach, overall, for a running document.
┋┊ InDesign to Kindle (& EPUB): A Professional Guide, v3.1 ┊ (Amazon) ┊┋
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Like this (crude, but). Single style used for both headings.
Adjustments made in right margin spacing (default 6 points) on the three-line head.
┋┊ InDesign to Kindle (& EPUB): A Professional Guide, v3.1 ┊ (Amazon) ┊┋
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. This wasn't a long doc so there were no TOC issues to consider and I didn't want to spend the time setting up individiual paras and invisible characters. The solution I used was a hack but was by far the quickest and simplest - just make the text range left and add spaces to the left until they aligned on the right, with a little bit of tweaking to the left hand spaces before the text. Crude but effective.
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Your circus, your monkeys and all that, but of all the options, that seems like the crudest approach, the least "controllable" and quite fragile in any later editing.
┋┊ InDesign to Kindle (& EPUB): A Professional Guide, v3.1 ┊ (Amazon) ┊┋
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. This wasn't a long doc so there were no TOC issues to consider and I didn't want to spend the time setting up individiual paras and invisible characters. The solution I used was a hack but was by far the quickest and simplest - just make the text range left and add spaces to the left until they aligned on the right, with a little bit of tweaking to the left hand spaces before the text. Crude but effective.
By Jansseune
Wouldn't adding those little rects with TextWrap be much quicker?


-
- 1
- 2