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d.l.c.
Participant
April 15, 2017
Answered

InDesign formatting issue - extra tab space with paragraph indent

  • April 15, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 3224 views

I've never had this issue before. I'm taking what I think is plain text with indented paragraphs as I have done before.  When I paste into InDesign with a specific paragraph style it sometimes includes an extra tab space in the indents and other times it maintains the style set for it.  Not sure why. I never had this issue before. Some paragraphs are indenting as they should while others seem to have a tab space in addition to the indent. Crazy making.

Anyone else have this experience?  Is there some trick I am missing?

Thanks for your help

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Barb Binder

    Is there a tab character at the beginning of the misbehaving paragraphs? A lot of typists do this regularly, because they don't understand the concept of first line indents. To find out, go to Type > Show Hidden Characters. Look for the >> at the beginning of the line.

    If they are there, the fix is easy. Find: ^p^t, replace with ^p. (which means find a ¶ followed by a tab, replace with a ¶). Save the query because you will probably need it again. If that isn't it. please share a screen shot with hidden characters showing, your cursor in a problem paragraph and the ¶ view of the Control panel open.

    1 reply

    Derek Cross
    Community Expert
    Derek CrossCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 15, 2017

    For Paragraph Styles indents it's best to use the indents feature in Indents and Spacing (rather than tabs).

    D
    d.l.c.Author
    Participant
    April 15, 2017

    Yes. I am using an indent in the paragraph style but when I input the text it sometimes adds extra space which appears to be tab related.  This never happened before. Before (in earlier InDesign)  the tab was read as an indent and put in place as such. Now it is randomly adding space to indents. I've tried going from word to a .txt file first but it doesn't make a difference.  I don't do this a lot - is there a "best practice" when placing text into text boxes?  I have a paragraph style set etc.  Thanks again for any insights.

    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    Barb BinderCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    April 15, 2017

    Is there a tab character at the beginning of the misbehaving paragraphs? A lot of typists do this regularly, because they don't understand the concept of first line indents. To find out, go to Type > Show Hidden Characters. Look for the >> at the beginning of the line.

    If they are there, the fix is easy. Find: ^p^t, replace with ^p. (which means find a ¶ followed by a tab, replace with a ¶). Save the query because you will probably need it again. If that isn't it. please share a screen shot with hidden characters showing, your cursor in a problem paragraph and the ¶ view of the Control panel open.

    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
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