Make hanging indent Indesign

[Stefanie Langwerden]

Hi all,

For a while, i've been learning Indesign.

I'm struggling with my Indesign tabs while making a indent with a symbol.

I would like the text to be indented like above, what is the correct way to do this?

See image below:

[m1b · Accepted solution]

Hi @Stefanie Langwerden, you can achieve that using a few features accessed via the Paragraphs panel: Left Indent, First Line Indent, and Bullets and Numbering.

The counter-intuitive idea is to (a) indent the whole paragraph from the left by, say, 10mm, then (b) indent just the first line by –10mm (negative ten), so that it goes back to the left edge of the frame, or you could do –5 mm to go not all the way to the edge (as in your screen shot).

Then to do the bullet, choose Bullets and Numbering from the Paragraph Panel menu, click Add to create your own bullet (assuming you don't like the default bullets) and in the dialog (as shown below) choose a font and glyph to use as a bullet.

That pretty much it.

- Mark

Edit to add some extra information:

• I would highly recommend setting up paragraph styles for your indented bullet style, and also a character style for the actual bullet character (you can assign the character style in the "Bullets and Numbering" dialog (see below).

In the character style is also where you would set the colour of the bullet (eg. your example shows a grey bullet).

Also I have attached a demo.indd for you to look at.

[Stefanie Langwerden]

Hello m1b,

Thankyou so much for you clear explaination.

I have my text aligned right now with using the Paragraph menu, but the whole text won't go to the left

if I change my values in the Left Indent:

[m1b]

In my opinion that is a VERY annoying choice that the Indesign team made.

But it is logical: if the first line indent is –10mm and you change the left indent from 10mm to, say, 9mm, then the first line indent is now illegal—it hangs outside the text frame.

Personally, I wish that Indesign, rather than give you the warning, would just either (a) allow the overhang, or (b) reduce the first line indent to match.

So to get around the issue, always change the first line indent first before changing the left indent.

- Mark

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

Hi @Stefanie Langwerden:

Mark's answer is correct and I've marked it correct for you, but I wanted to add one more thing. 

There are usually multiple ways to accomplish the same task in InDesign, including setting a hanging indent. The tab bar that you have open in your first screen shot can also be used to set a hanging indent. Those two white triangles at the far left represent the first line indent (top triangle), and the left indent (bottom triangle). The left indent usually moves them both together.

One of the best kept secrets in InDesign is that you can hold the Shift key and drag the lower triangle to set the hanging indent without fighting the constraints that Mark addressed in his last response to you. 

~Barb

[m1b]

Thank you @Barb Binder. For many users, the tab ruler would feel more accessible. I mentally work in terms of numbers a lot and it shows in my answer. 🙂

[Barb Binder]

Haha. After I posted that, Mark, I headed out on a long ride and was thinking about programmers vs designers. Our minds work very differently, and of course you approach things numerically, whereas I have been a math-avoider my entire life. 😂

~Barb

[Fred.L]

Hey there,

I mentioned the other day to one of my co-workers that the Ruler is basically useless—and honestly, more trouble than it’s worth.
Since I mainly work on long documents, manual overrides to paragraph styles (not to mention CharStyles, which is even worse) are particularly painful. They might seem minor at first, but by the time we reach the print stage, everything tends to fall apart—nothing is consistent, and it all has to be checked manually.
That’s why I’m fully on board with @m1b ’s approach: using paraStyle (and the related styles) is the only way to build stable, maintainable layouts, especially at scale.

I don’t mean to sound arrogant or dismissive—it’s just that this is a recurring pain point in our line of work and well, I couldn't stop myself sharing the feeling ^^

[Barb Binder]

Hi Fred:

I hear you. As a career InDesign instructor who teaches brand new users all the time, I am grateful for the choices that InDesign (and the other CC apps) offer. What clicks immediately for one student may be baffling to another in the same class. Zooming is a great example: some prefer the menu, some prefer shortuts, some prefer the scroll wheel and some prefer tools.

I've been in the classroom for 35 years, and I learned a long time ago not to push one techique or another, but to observe and listen and adapt to each individual. I try to incorporate that mindset in my Community Forum answers because I don't have any idea about the background of the OPs, how they think or what mobility issues they may have. 

Like you, I specialize in long document layout (InDesign and FrameMaker) and to me, the techiniques I employ while working alone don't matter to anyone but me. Just a thought!

~Barb

[Fred.L]

I totally agree with the mindset.
Compromise is definitely key—though not always easy to put into practice!
I bet 35 years of teaching have brought you plenty of opportunities to master the art of compromise ^^

[Barb Binder]

Being married for the same 35 years taught me more! 😂

~Barb