Need help decreasing leading between only selected lines of text

[audreyk50922446]

I have a two-column text box listing out bullet points; I need the two circled phrases to have decreased leading so the second line doesn't look like a new bullet point. Every time I decrease the leading it also affects the rest of the text that I'm not trying to edit. Can anyone help? I don't know how to phrase the question via Google so can't really find any answers:(

[Frans v.d. Geest · Accepted solution]

Use Space before and Space after in the Paragraph styles setting. You can now also set before/after for listed items. Adjust leading in the Paragraph styles for the leading in the paragraph itself.

Make sure your Align to Baselinegrid is also set as needed!

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/formatting-paragraphs.html

[audreyk50922446]

Hi, thanks for your answer. adjusting the before/after settings does not have any affect - text does not move. Selecting align to baseline grid does not have an effect either. Any other ideas?

[jmlevy]

Can you post a screenshot of your text, showing the hidden characters and the paragraph settings?

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS · Accepted solution]

You need to adjust the leading tighter AND add to the space before.

(No baseline grid involved.)

[Frans v.d. Geest]

Exactly what I said. But if it was aligned to baselinegrid that would be another reason that text would not adjust to a lower leading value.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

But simply tightening up the leading and adding space-before won't keep the bullet items horizontally aligned, as I think the OP wants to do.

I think three things are needed here:

1. close up the leading;
2. add some space-before/above;
3. set a baseline grid with "first line only" so that the bullets in each column will start aligned even if there is a difference in the number lines in each.

Or am I missing something?

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[audreyk50922446]

Hi everyone, none of these solutions with decreasing leading and adding space before/after is looking. I attached a screen recording. Super sorry but I couldn't figure out how to trim the video so it begins at 1:17. Let me know if anyone can help! https://vimeo.com/758551478 

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Go to the Type menu and turn on Hidden Characters at the bottom of the menu. I have a feeling there are not two columns but tabs separating the "columns". Also, I suspect there are paragraph returns after each line, including the two-line bullet items you want to keep together. 

A screen capture should confirm.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Almost certainly — I thought I saw two columns but I think you're right.

This material needs to be split into two columns, if only for this short passage, and then the spacing techniques above will work correctly.

Two columns, one paragraph return at the end of each bullet, no paragraph returns in between. If that doesn't make sense, one of us will probably upload a screen diagram.

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[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

This is what you want to look for (it may not have all the problems, but even one or two will mess the settings up):

[defaults2aq0czkx4gl]

If paragraph spacing isn't working as expected, the first things I would look at here are the leading, then to check whether soft returns have been used after those bullet points instead of paragraph returns. Assuming justified horizonal spacing isn't applied to the frame, there can't be many culprits. It's also unclear whether this is a one or two-column text frame and the way you've achieved this may be having a bearing on this.