Hi all, I'm tring to align these words for a poster I'm making using tabs so it spells "VOTE" vertically inside, Though trying this the tabs have been unpredictable with trying to get the alignment I want, and could use advice for tabs, or if there's an easier way to achieve this.
2 Correct answers
You have multiple tabs at the end there - which is not helping
In my opinion it has to be done each line as a paragraph
then adjust the Tab Stop for each paragraph
Personally I'd style the letters and leave the spacing alone
Comparing the two methods
or you could insert this special character
Break the lines up with Forced Line Breaks
`
Generally, I agree.
But turning each line into a separate paragraph kills the ability for digital reading and machine readability.
The concept of the words should be maintained as one paragraph, not multiple paragraphs.
@Eugene Tyson's example is an excellent way to do this.
Another is this example I use in my accessible InDesign classes: it's one sentence and each word is in a separate text frame that's threaded to the next frame.
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Replies
You have multiple tabs at the end there - which is not helping
In my opinion it has to be done each line as a paragraph
then adjust the Tab Stop for each paragraph
Personally I'd style the letters and leave the spacing alone
Comparing the two methods
or you could insert this special character
Break the lines up with Forced Line Breaks
`
Generally, I agree.
But turning each line into a separate paragraph kills the ability for digital reading and machine readability.
The concept of the words should be maintained as one paragraph, not multiple paragraphs.
@Eugene Tyson's example is an excellent way to do this.
Another is this example I use in my accessible InDesign classes: it's one sentence and each word is in a separate text frame that's threaded to the next frame.
This allows me, as designer, to easily manipulate the alignment of each frame's text and format (in this example) with different colors, fonts, and sizes — and it keeps the sentence intact so that it will reflow correctly into various devices for digital publishing (PDF, EPUB, XML, etc.).
But the freqency with which "just plain ol' posters destined for print, in one language only " show up in my inbox, with request to translate into twenty-odd languages, has to be seen to be believed.
By @Joel Cherney
I have an entire business segment built on this model: fixing InDesign layouts with sloppy construction into something that will transform to XML, or EPUB, or accessible PDF, or HTML.
The job was designed by a traditional designer for traditional print. Someone from the top offices says, lets post this on the website. And now, federal, state or provincial laws mandate that it be fully accessible. Or the HTML team wants XML and when they try to run transforms on it, the stories come out in pieces rather than one continuous story.
Takes lots of time and money to correct these INDD files because there are so many times where a heading is split into separate paragraphs. Or a paragraph is split.
Wish I had more skilled designers who could work on these projects, but most can't stomach the work.
Except: soft returns may fly just fine in screen-readers, but most translation environments trip over 'em, so I can't globally endorse Bevi endorsing Eugene's soft returns. 😛
By @Joel Cherney
I don't endorse manual line breaks in mid-paragraphs. Ask my students who just finished a course! (These are adult professionals, not college students.)
They definitely kill all reuse for other types of media publishing. And they cause problems for all assistive technologies, even screen readers which often pause slightly at Shift+Enter manual line breaks.
But it can be a cheap hack for a quick project, like the OP's in this thread.
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