Space after, or space before -- not working.

[kittyw96645481]

Oddly, on some paragraphs it works, others -- not. For example, when putting together a "Praise for..." for a book, trying to use the space after for the author name -- 2 of the 4 worked, 2 didn't. This has been throughout this book. Ideas?

I have the latest ID updates, Windows 11, plenty of RAM and hard drive space.

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

Hi @kittyw96645481:

Without screen shots and more detail it's just guesswork:

1. Are you using paragraph styles?
2. Do some of the styles have overrides?
3. Are you occasionally using double returns between paragraphs?
4. Do you have any paragraphs separated with a line break instead of a hard return?

Providing us with a screenshot of each scenario that includes Type > Show Hidden Characters enabled, and your cursor in the heading, and the Window > Control panel open, set to  ¶ view (far left of the control panel) will answer all of these questions and should allow us to give a specific answer. 

~Barb

[kittyw96645481]

Yes, I'm using paragraph styles. You'll notice the 2 that have space after use the PS called "PP after subtitle--no indent," while the other two have their 2nd pp as "body text". In checking both styles, aside from the lack of indent on the "PP after subtitle" style they are the same -- and "PP after subtitle" is based on "body text."  The only override is on the "PP after subtitle" using a space after of 0.0625.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

You mean third? The one with a tab in front? You have soft enter there instead of normal / hard - and probably wrong style applied - the one for the place - instead the one for the name.

[Barb Binder]

You'll notice the 2 that have space after use the PS called "PP after subtitle--no indent," while the other two have their 2nd pp as "body text".

Actually, if you look again at your screen shot, you will see that we can't see which paragraph styles are applied or where they are applied or how spacing was defined.

Let me try this a different way. Keeping in mind, that style names are not important – they simply need to mean something to you—I would use four paragraph styles on this page.  Title, Body Text No Indent, Body text, and Citation which I color-coded as follows:

Body Text No Indent—Yellow

Body text—Orange

Citation—Green

• Body text should have 0 space defined Before and After.
• Body Text No Indent (based on BodyText) should have space defined before but not after.
  For example, Space Before: 0.5" and Space After: 0
• Remove the extraneous ¶ and >> pointed out with orange arrows.
• Citation needs a litle space before and 0 after.
  For example, Space Before: 0.065" and Space After: 0
  And use a line break between the two lines (and not a paragraph break) the way you did on the 3rd and 4th citations.

Again, the style names and exact values are not important—I'm trying to show you the logic of how to work with the spacing values. 

~Barb

[kittyw96645481]

You did point out the right problem. Although, I've never had this issue before... I hadn't made the citation style. When I did, with the 0.0625 space, it worked. Thank you for pointing that out! I've been so wrapped up in this book (dealing with old-school professor author) I just did the "quick fix" and it didn't work. Thank you again!

[Barb Binder]

We are always happy to help, @kittyw96645481.

~Barb

[AlanGilbertson]

In a situation like that, the first thing I would try is to export to IDML, then open that as a new InDesign document and see if that clears it up. Try that, and let us know the result.

[kittyw96645481]

That didn't work.

[kittyw96645481]

Thank you for the suggestion.