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aztecknight9
Participant
August 25, 2022
Question

Tracking changes

  • August 25, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 394 views

I have documented that when I move from two different comptuers, if I have set the tracking to make the text just fit in a text box, when I move to a different system it might no longer fit. This has been happening when I set tracking to -15. Then I open on a different systems and a word is gone. If I set the tracking to -16, the word comes back. Has anyone else seen this? We have a variety of designers that might work on the same page using both Windows and Mac systems. 

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2 replies

Mike Witherell
Community Expert
Mike WitherellCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 25, 2022

Advice:

Always use clean paragraph styles, never based on Normal nor Basic Paragraph Style.

Dont tend to reach for Tracking first. 
Instead, in your paragraph style, set

Hyphenation 

9,3,4,1, off off off

And set Justification ( your real tracking)

80/100/120

-5%/0%/5%

95%/100%/105%

 

Set Kerning Method to Optical

 

Therefore stop manually tweaking your text with Tracking values manually applied. Delegate that to InDesign.

 

Having said that, moving between 2 computers that have maybe two different versions of the same font might flow it differently. It can be hard to see differences in versions of fonts, but at any rate, resorting to manually applied Tracking values that are so exact is much like micro-managing. You create more problems than you solve.

Mike Witherell
    Geоrge
    Geоrge
    Legend
    August 25, 2022

    https://creativepro.com/force-text-reflow-when-indesign-forgets-to-flow-the-text/

    Remember, never say you can't do something in InDesign, it's always just a question of finding the right workaround to get the job done. © David Blatner
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