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Anonymous

Answered

Second Line Indent - Bullets

Forum|Forum|13 years ago
January 23, 2013
4 replies
202799 views

Hey there. Newbie here. I haven't been in Indesign for 6 months. I am creating a bulleted list using a pragraph style. I used to hit (I think) Ctrl \ to get the second line of a bullet to line up with the text on the first line. When I am doing it now, it indents the second line but way too far to the right.

How to

Correct answer Chris1868

Here is an image to further show what Peter is talking about.

J

joeln13442755

Participant

I need help as well. I have a bulleted list inside a table and the second linne of the second bullet has an extra indent.

I have the left indent and first line indent opposing each other mathmatically. It still isnt working. This software would greatly benefit from what Apple did with Logic., as to where it has a help button and whatever you hover your mouse over, it explains what the object is and how it works. Too many times am I lost in inDesign due to how specifically it works. Its not intuitive at all.

It would make sens that if I have a bulleted list and I dont add hard return, the next line would line up. This is bonkers to me. When would I ever need my second line of text to do this, if its apart of the previous sentence?

Here is the example. Notice my second bullet point. It is inside a table and I have no idea how to make it behave.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

In InDesign, each level of a list is a separate Paragraph Style. Set up your first style (BULLET-1, say) as you like it. Then create a child style of that ("Based On" BULLET-1), named BULLET-2, and adjust the spacing for it to suit your preferences. Repeat for third and fourth levels, if you like.

While you can have basics like the font and font size cascade through this list, you can also make any changes you like to each level, including different bullets (or, for numbering, different numbering styles).

Ask again if that's not clear enough.

ID's list feature is very, very powerful and allows extensive configuration of every element. To be honest, pop-up help wouldn't be more than a guide to the very basics. When you need help with a topic, it's best to find the relevant InDesign help page, which might be 1,000 words long and will link to other, associated pages, like this one: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/bullets-numbering.html.

ID's list feature is somewhat more complex to set up but completely avoids the tricky nonsense and gotchas of, for example, Word's version. Easy to use at first usually means a tangled mess later, and that's a good example of it.

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DAVID293523471b2l

Participant

Tabs are the way to go here. Just set your tab size and soft return and hit tab instead of worrying about indent.

BobLevine

Community Expert

I'll pile on here only to let anyone lurking and looking for answers know that while well-intentioned (I hope) is absolutely awful advice.

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Andrew Mikelsons

Inspiring

Okay.

InDesign is not just a variation of Word or other word processors. It's a very, very powerful page and document layout tool. If you're using it at a simple, word-processor or (augh!) electronic typewriter level, you're missing the majority of what it can do for you... even when used for relatively simple work.

I'd suggest you look at some of the basic tutorials and introductions, here on the Adobe site and elsewhere, and work through them to gain some mastery of ID's features and functions. The time spent will pay off in multiples as it will allow you to find and explore more advanced levels of features.

That's not blowing off an answer — but those features/functions are so very elementary that explaining them in a vacuum wouldn't really answer the bigger questions here. You need a grounding in the fundamentals of ID so that questions and answers have a context. (And yes, ID has a significantly steeper learning curve than tools like Word, but it's worth the climb if you want to do more than memos and reports.)

Thank you James, excellent suggestions. I self-published 2 books using Word into Kindle, both paper and electronic copies. It was quite an onerous procedure. I then learned ID is the industry standard. I started an online course this week and am meeting with someone next week for 10 hours of tutorials. They are going to format one of the books I'm editing. I'm going to do it alongside of them. I very much appreciate you taking the time to steer me in the right direction. Nothing like jumping in and doing it to learn.

Andrew MikelsonsAndy Fairchild Publishing Inc.

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Chris1868Correct answer

Participant

Here is an image to further show what Peter is talking about.

vivekg17706440

Known Participant

I'm having the same issue (trying to get the second line of a numbered section to start with the text of the line above). Adjusting the settings to match the ones above doesn't seem to fix it.

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Laubender

Community Expert

Increase the value for left indent a bit and set first line indent and tab position accordingly.

Regards,
Uwe

Peter Spier

Community Expert

In the paragraph style, make sure you've got bullets enabled, then set the left indent on the paragraph to the amount you want all but the first line to be indented, then set a negaive indent of equal size on the first line (this is called a hanging indent). You can adjust the tab value as well to match the left indent to make the first line text start at the same point after the bullet as the following lines. You don't need the indent to here character.

MADink_Designs27

Inspiring

This works, but I've always felt like there should be an easier way.

I used to do negative indent, but if you set the alignment to right instead of left, you'll notice it's only indenting the second line. You can then indent until the first line moves without the need to negative indent. I always place an upper case character on the second line matching the first line such as a B, L, or H to ensure both line up the delete it after I've set up the style.

I still think in 2024 there should be a more automatic way. Honestly, in what use-case would you not want your bullet to hang?

Willi Adelberger

Community Expert

There is a fast waz> Create a Paragraph Stzle with automatic buletts and a character stzle for the buletts. Where is the problem_

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