How to center the caption of a picture with a photographer on a single line.

[dublove]

When the caption and photography are on the same line, center the caption and use "Shift+Tab" to align the photographer to the right.

Between these, I can only add multiple spaces before the caption to center it.

What is a good way to make the middle captions easier?

To eliminate the step of manually typing countless spaces?

I tried Tab, but it doesn't seem to work.

[Steve Werner]

Put the caption and the photographer on the same line in the text frame.

Use the Tabs panel and use the Align Center tab for the caption and the Align Right tab for the photographer.

To reuse the layout save the text frame as an Object Style which you can re-apply.

[dublove]

A good method.

I just feel like it's not as fast as typing multiple spaces earlier

[Barb Binder]

HI @dublove:

I like Steve's suggestion to define a center tab in place of the spaces to center the caption, but if the images are different widths, you're going to need to adjust the center tab position for each image. For that reason, you may want to just continue with the right intent tab for the photo credit. That would give you one less thing to worry about because it always pushes everything after it to the right margin. and you won't need to adjust the right align tab too.

~Barb

[jmlevy · Accepted solution]

Have a look at the attached file. I have used 2 paragraph styles and 2 paragraphs. The image name has a zero leading and is centered, the photographer name is right aligned. I also have created an object style “CAPTION”.

[Barb Binder]

Salut, @jmlevy. It's early here! It took a minute to see you used leading and not a baseline shift. LOL

This is a good approach. Editing is tricky, of course, so I'd add that if @dublove sees a typo in the frame, to click on the photo credit, and tap Ctrl/Cmd+Y to edit in Story Editor.

But I love the nested styles, starting at the object style. This will be the quickest route, once @dublove fully understands the workflow.

~Barb

[jmlevy]

Editing is tricky, of course, so I'd add that if @dublove sees a typo in the frame, to click on the photo credit, and tap Ctrl/Cmd+Y to edit in Story Editor.

Thanks @Barb Binder  I forgot to mention that.

[dublove]

thank you

Setting the line spacing to 0 may be the fastest method besides scripts

[Barb Binder]

OK, going to get more coffee. You said leading but I stopped reading at "Have a look at the attached file." 🙄

~Barb

[dublove]

thank you

Perhaps besides the script, this is the fastest method

[Eugene Tyson · Accepted solution]

I agree with @jmlevy to use 2 lines - you can even use Apply Next Style which makes it even faster 

Top shows the original setup with original paragraph styles

Bottom shows use of new styles with baseline shift (or use 0 leading whichever works best for you)

And with one click you can apply the paragraph style and the next style to invoke the changes.

https://creativepro.com/where-is-apply-__-then-next-style/

 

[dublove]

@Eugene Tyson 

Apply Next Style？

I didn't understand. Can you provide a sample

[jmlevy]

Hi @dublove look at my file. The next style feature is applied. That means that a return after the first style (image name) changes to the following style (photographer name).

And as I wrote in my first answer I created an object style. Just create the frame, type your text and apply the object style using the black arrow.

[Eugene Tyson]

Sorry I didn't have time to look at your file - thanks for clarifying the situation. 

[dublove]

I understand, the next style is good.

Just one problem: the first style of text seems to be difficult to select.

Then, I came up with a solution,

Set the line spacing of the first style to 4 points, and then offset the next style up by 4 points.

[jmlevy]

See @Barb Binder advice: use story editor to easily select the text.

[rob day]

Also, a center tab’s  position would be half the width of the text fame, which could be scripted if the caption widths are always changing:

//With the cation text selected:
var s = app.activeDocument.selection[0];
var tf = s.parentTextFrames[0]
var b = tf.geometricBounds
s.tabStops[0].position  = (b[3]-b[1])/2

[dublove]

The script did not run successfully.

Perhaps this way:

On the far left, use "tab" and align it with a center aligned tab.

Use "Shift+Tab" after captioning the image

But it's not as fast as entering multiple spaces on the left side

[rob day]

But it's not as fast as entering multiple spaces on the left side

Right, the script is for accuracy—you are probably not going to get an exact center with spaces. You have to setup the center aligned tab and select all before running the script. if the width of the captions doesn‘t vary you don’t need the script, tab stops can be saved with a paragraph style

You could also group a pair of text frames, which makes editing a bit easier than @jmlevy ’s 2 paragraph solution.