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
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