Last lines of text in column jumps to next column

>  or to keep a cluster of paragraphs bunched together

Not quite: the scope of 'Keep with next n lines' is the following paragraph only. If you have 10 consecutive single-line paragraphs and set Keep with next 5 on the paragraph preceding those 10 paragraphs, the Keep targets only the next (single-line) paragraph. Not the next 5 single-line paragraphs. Another confusing aspect of the dialog.

First, I owe an apology to everyone here. I let a personal insult get the best of me, and I shouldn't have done that. I let it make me angry and cloud my judgement, and I diverted myself from helping someone asking for assistance here.

I let my emotions get the best of me, and for that I'm truly sorry. I've calmed down now, and want to get back to addressing the original point.

Nonetheless, I believe the idea that flipping a global switch to "automatically" fix any problem is fraught with peril. Especially when it comes to long documentation, and absolutely when it's done after documentation is already laid out. Because changing global parameters may fix the problem in front of you, but in return it changes the rules throughout your entire InDesign document. Way too often, that creates multiple issues elsewhere in your completed document. Fixing one problem by changing global settings is a false economy, because very often it creates multiple problems after you apply The Magic Fix.

Code warriors may tell you this is a hypothetical. But anybody who does this work for a living has suffered repeatedly at the hands of such a gamble. Graphic design veterans will tell you that all too often global changes in completed documents cause multiple problems that now have to, as was derided by folks telling you flipping a global switch will magically fix all that ails you, result in now having to manually fix multiple problems. Because, I want to emphasize, that "automatic" global change will stuff new problems into your completed InDesign document. Exactly because, as technicians arguing here point out, those changes are made everywhere in your document.

Now again, I've got to admit, this is a hypothetical. Maybe nothing bad will happen. Maybe.

But hoping for that is just like playing dice in Las Vegas and betting everything that you're going to hit double sixes. There's a chance you may get lucky, sure. But the odds are 35 to one against you. And every other possibility is the wrong one.

This may seem primitive to some, but I'd rather fix one problem manually than bet some Magic Global Fix will eliminate one problem and not "automatically" introduce multiple new ones throughout my documentation. Which, by the way, will still demand manual fixes to make things right once again. Condensing the type slightly to get rid of the widow, or expanding it slightly to completely fill the column and place the last two lines of the paragraph into the next column, is easy to do. Especially with a paragraph where type is set loosely in a rag right/left align paragraph.

You'd only have to do it once. Because the specific issue will be fixed without applying global changes throughout your entire InDesign document.

Computers do perfect things perfectly well. To do things imperfectly, so things are done right in the end product, you've still got to rely on operator skills. Some folks may consider that unenlightened. I believe that's their folly. And if I'm being blunt about it, my job security.

Again, I apologize for losing my temper today. But I will never change my mind on this: changing global settings on completed InDesign documents is perilous. If nothing else, please take that to heart. Because I can guarantee you that it'll save you tons of heartache further down the line.

Randy Hagan

Well, looking at the screen grabs I don't think it has anything at all to so with Keep Options. I suspecrt you have Balance Columns selected in the Text Frame Options and turning it off will correct the poroblem.

Do you have an exceptionally long "word" in the last line of the document? I put that in quotes, because the "word" might be expressed numerically or with other characters than a grouping of letters with resulting syntax. If InDesign can't easily define a break, those kinds of things can happen. It can also happen if you use the No Break character formatting from your Character flyaway panel.

If none of those are the case, and you have a long paragraph that ends with that unfortunate orphan, you may be able to cheat it away this way:

• Quadruple-click — quickly, one-two-three-four — to highlight the entire paragraph.
• Go to the Character Width edit box in your Control Palette and change it from 100% to 99%. If the orphan doesn't skip back, try 98%. Still not back in the previous column, try 97%. then 96%.

I wouldn't go further than that, because that will likely compress the paragraph characters enough that it'll be evident. The longer the paragraph, the smaller adjustment will be needed. I do book production, among other things, and use this little cheat (with as small a cheat as I can get away with) all the time to tame widows and orphans between layout pages. As long as you don't go overboard, nobody will notice anything at the scene of the little layout crime.

Hope this helps,

Randy

This is undoubtedly a Keeps issue. Select the two paragraphs at the top of column 2 in your first screen shot (the professor's name and part of the next paragraph) and change the settings for both to exactly what Robert shows in his screen shot. Does that take care of it?

~Barb

What do you have in Keep Options: