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Inspiring
June 22, 2022
Answered

What is causing this vertical spacing problem?

  • June 22, 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 4421 views

Hello, does anyone have any idea why the left page text is not going to the top of the text frame like the right page is? (pls see screenshot) Their text frame settings are identical.

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Correct answer rob day

I meant that the blue line is incorrectly aligning on the inside of the stroke line

 

I think you are misinterpreting the selection as the text frame edge—when you use the black Selection tool, the selection includes the stroke. If you zoom in you can see the light blue frame edge is centered:

 

 

If you Direct Select the frame, the selection will be the frame without the stroke:

 

 

So, if you are using Align to Baseline Grid, the frame’s Y coordinate affects the first baseline.

 

The frame with the story marker is on the A-Master/Parent—you are not using the text frames on the parent pages:

 


Also, look at the First Baseline Min you have set in Text Frame Options. That’s the reason such a slight change in the frame’s Y coordinate is pushing the first baseline down. If I turn off Align to Baseline Grid you can see the minimum setting is pushing the firstline just over the baseline grid line on the right side frame, so with Align to Baseline Grid turned on the line has to go to the next baseline:

 

 

 

If I set the Min to something like .25", which allows for more Y difference in the text frames, the alignment problem is fixed:

 

4 replies

rob day
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 24, 2022

Hi @tturiano , Also make sure the Y coordinates for the two frames match–it looks like the frame on the left side is slightly lower than the one on the right. And check that the two frames’ First Baseline setting is set the same in Text Frame Options—with Align to Baseline Grid turned on, the Offset you choose might push the text down to the next baseline.

 

 

 

tturianoAuthor
Inspiring
June 24, 2022

Rob...you got it. It was the Y coordinates. The left frame was placed just a pixel or two lower than the one on the right, and the result was that it bumped it one text space down. Thanks!

rob day
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 25, 2022

sorry...I meant that the blue line is incorrectly aligning on the inside of the stroke line, when it should be aligning in the center. These few pixels of error are causing some pages to bump the text down one space.


I meant that the blue line is incorrectly aligning on the inside of the stroke line

 

I think you are misinterpreting the selection as the text frame edge—when you use the black Selection tool, the selection includes the stroke. If you zoom in you can see the light blue frame edge is centered:

 

 

If you Direct Select the frame, the selection will be the frame without the stroke:

 

 

So, if you are using Align to Baseline Grid, the frame’s Y coordinate affects the first baseline.

 

The frame with the story marker is on the A-Master/Parent—you are not using the text frames on the parent pages:

 

Mike Witherell
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 24, 2022

It sure seems like there is another textframe there. Have you examined master pages and layers to see if something is actually there, empty, and likely possessing textwrap?

Mike Witherell
Barb Binder
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 22, 2022

Hi @tturiano:

 

You have cropped off the left side of the left frame so we can't see what's going on at the beginning, and that is likely where the problem is. The hashtags that you referred to in your second post are likely in a frame that is above or below the frame with the text. The hashtag is an end of story marker. I think you have overlapping frames. It's a problem, but not what you are asking about. 

 

It appears you have the baseline grid enabled. Look for something at the beginning of the first line on the left side that's pushing the text down to the next baseline. Perhaps there's a space above command that is slightly larger than the baseline value. Or an empty ¶.

 

If you are new to InDesign and this isn't making sense, I'm happy to look at your file. You can put it on dropbox and put a link either here (public), or you can message me the link directly (private) by clicking on my avatar above this post. Then choose Message.

 

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
tturianoAuthor
Inspiring
June 24, 2022

Thanks Barb...sorry, here's the full width screenshot. I checked my layers, and there is no other frame underneath or overtop the problem text frame. The horizontal rule and page header "Select Peaks of Greater Yellowstone" are part of the page template that every page uses, so that can't be the issue, otherwise every text frame would be messed up. Only a few are.

tturianoAuthor
Inspiring
June 24, 2022

Barb...no space command or hidden symbols pushing the text down.

tturianoAuthor
Inspiring
June 22, 2022

The little number symbol (not sure what that means) in the left page is not in the same place as it is in the right page. On the left page, the number symbol is about 1/3 of the page from the left edge of the text box. On the right page, the number symbol is flush with the left edge of the text box. Could that have something to do with it? I don't know how to move the number symbol.