Irregular text gaps between columns

[Solo46]

I have a classic problem with large documents. InDesign creates seemingly irregular gaps between columns/pages.

Paragraph style keep options are set to:

   At Start/End of Paragraph: Start 2 lines, End 2 lines.

And space between paragraphs is managed with only space above (space below is not used).

Here is an example of a large text gap that inDesign creates:

There are 8 empty rows and at the end and that's enough room for several paragraphs, but InDesign decides to move them to the next column.

With all keep options removed:

InDesign still leaves one blank row with no keep options set. Why?

Why is InDesign doing this? How does InDesign think when keeping paragraphs together?

What is best practise for working with keeping columns together and not end up with lonely single lines on new columns/pages?

[BobLevine]

And you checked those keep options for every style?

[Solo46]

Yes, for all paragraphs around the gap.

[Laubender]

Hi Solo46 ,

do all texts use the document's baseline grid?

Regards,
Uwe

[Solo46]

Yes. Sorry for not mentioning that.

[vinny38 · Accepted solution]

Not surprising really with the Keep With Next 2 Lines applied to all your paragraphs.

See below: the red border shows the lines that are kept together at the top of the odd page.

See how it just can't fit the space...

[Laubender]

Hi Vinny,

you are right, but would that explain the second layout screenshot where the last line of the paragraph is moving to the next frame?

It seems that there is space enough for that line in the frame before.

Regards,
Uwe

[vinny38]

Uwe,

my guess is that OP only remove the "Keep lines together" option, not the "Keep with next line" one.

This would explain why this widow sticks to the next paragraph.

But this is just a guessing game really...

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

You also have Keep with next 2 lines selected. That is essentially "gluing" each short paragraph to each other. I would create a based-on style and remove those restrictions, then apply when needed.

[Solo46]

Good point.

I thought that Keep with next lines only was active when Keep with Previous was checked. InDesign is a bit unintuitive here.

But you are right these settings are independent. When Keep with next lines is set to 0, InDesign removes the gap!

But how to do it? I want to use some of the keep functions to get rid of orphans.

[Solo46]

Hmm, should keep together be manually applied just to those paragraphs that are affected? That seems like a very slow workflow.

Or is Keep with Previous preferred over Keep Lines Together?

Maybe I am missing some fundamental when working with large documents.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

I reserve keep with next paragraph for headings and such things. Almost never for body text.

[Solo46]

That might be good practice.

But as I wrote above, I still don't want any orphans in body text.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Depends on your definition of an "orphan"--there are differences in some typography books/sites.

The definition that I learned is an orphan is a single, first line of a [multi-line] paragraph at the bottom of a column. (A widow a single, last line of a paragraph at the top of the page.) That is what your Keep Lines Together at the Start and End of a paragraph is for--2 lines is the default.

The Keep with Next X Lines is for making sure headings don't appear at the bottom of a column and the text that follows is in the next column (and possibly, next page).