Inspiring

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Tracking Issues in Paragraph Styles: Text Not Responding as Expected

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
September 24, 2024
3 replies
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I am on Windows 11 latest version and Indesign 19.5.

I'm having a strange effect with text tracking. My para style (called 'standard para') is set to zero tracking but the text nevertheless shows a tracking value of 50 and there there is no override indication. I have tried selecting some para text and changing the tracking to zero which works and the 'standard para' style then shows an override indication. If I then clear the override the tracking returns to 50. I then tried setting the style tracking to something outragous like 200 but it has no effect. I do incidentally have a character style for a Drop Cap and that has a tracking of 50 but it only applies in a different style ('standard first para' based on 'standard para') so I can't see why that is affecting it.

Any idea what is happening?

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Correct answer Peter Spier

if yoiu select some of that tracked text and look in the Paragraph Styles panel you'll see your correct paragraph style applied. If you also look in the Character Styles panel you'll see that the Drop Cap character style is also applied.

The reason thias happened is that with not text selected you must have clcicked on the Drop Cap charactter style as it is active in the panel when no text is selectred, making it the default character style, and it will be applied to any new text you add whther you want it or not. You must Change that to [None] with no text selected to correct the default.

I have given instructions above for how to use Find/Change to remove the character style from the Standard Para formatted text where it is applied in error. It appears to also be applied to your Chapter Heading paragraphs, so you would need to repeat the Find/Change specifying that style in the find format dialog insted of Standard Para.

I did not check all the text, so you may find it is applied erroneously in other styled paragraphs as well. Same fix.

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

The problem with the text is that the paragraph style is applied, but is being overridden by a character style named Drop Cap. The character style has the +50 tracking attribute within it. You accidentally have the character style clicked on. The correct way to run a paragraph style is to have the character style panel set to None.

Mike Witherell

M

m5heathAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Mike, thanks so much for helping out. I'm sure you must be right about the Drop Cap style but I just don't understand how it affects the 'standard para'. I have another style called 'standard first para' and that and only that is where I bring in the Drop Cap style. Here are screenshots of the 'Drop Caps and Nested Styles' tab and for good measure the 'Grep Style' tab for 'standard para' and you can see they are set to none. Can you explain that to me?

Robert at ID-Tasker

Brainiac

@m5heath

In InDesign there are two types of styles:

- Paragraph Styles - that format whole paragraph,

- Character Styles - that format just characters.

Whatever you've set using ParaStyle - CharStyle will overwrite it.

In order to apply CharStyle - you need to select some Text and select CharStyle on the Character Styles Pallet.

If you paste plain text - it will get "active" ParaStyle and - if other than "[None]" is selected - CharStyle.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Brainiac

Is there a Character Style applied by default? When a paragraph does odd things (not following the style), the two reasons why are an override — which it sounds like you've checked for — and an applied Character Style, which can often go past notice.

A third reason can be that the style applies a nested or GREP style — if you use those at all, or might have inherited a style with them, check. They would both need a companion Character Style to be applied, so look for that as well.

Worst case, create a new style from scratch and replace the existing one with it, to clear out any really crypto settings or even a corrupted style.

M

m5heathAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks for responding James. There is no Character Style applied or indeed a GREP style. I only have one Character Style (Drop Cap) and it is not applied to the standard para. I attach a screenshot of the standard para 'Basic character formats' with the Tracking set to zero and another showing the control panel with a tracking value of 50. I then created a new para called 'New standard para' (my imagination knows no bounds) based on 'no para style', set it up with Tracking zero and applied it to one of the original paras but the tracking in the control panel remains at 50. So I deduce that there is some high level setting that overrides a para setting.

I'm foxed.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Brainiac

You may have set 50 tracking as a default. Try this:

Close all documents.
Check the tracking setting.
If it's not zero, set it to zero.

(That, in a nutshell, is how you set various UI and document defaults; if you set them with nothing selected and/or no doc open, it will become the user default.)

And, not sure if you've tried this simple trick that amazes millions! but try setting your style's tracking to zero and do a Redefine Style.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @m5heath,

I can understand how frustrating this must be, especially when you're trying to maintain consistency in your document. It sounds like you've done a thorough job troubleshooting the issue already.

To help us get to the bottom of this, could you please share a screen recording demonstrating the issue? It would be really helpful to see what's happening in real-time. Additionally, if you could provide the InDesign file you're working with, we can test it on our end to see if we can replicate the problem.

In the meantime, it sounds like there might be an underlying issue with the character style affecting your paragraph style. Make sure that no other character styles are applied that might be influencing the tracking. Also, double-check that there aren't any hidden overrides in your paragraph style options that could be affecting it.

Looking forward to your response so we can get this sorted out!

Thanks,

Abhishek Rao

M

m5heathAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks for responding Abhishek. Regrettably I have no means of doing a screen recording but here is the book file I'm working on. No character styles but I don't know what you mean by 'hidden overrides'. See my response to James for more information. Is it possible that I could send you a para style? Happy to send more screenshots if they will help.

malice_domestic.zip