Random increase in space between last 2 lines of paragraph!

[David_C_Anderson@adobeforums.com]

I have been puzzled for some time by apparently random occurrences of a rather strange and irritating problem.

Documents I regularly create in InDesign 2.0.2 have a succession of short indented paragraphs of text under non-indented headings. These paragraphs are formatted as 10 point Arial Regular with auto-leading. Most of them behave in a perfectly normal manner. However, some of these paragraphs display and print with a slightly increased spacing between the last 2 lines of the paragraph. This extra vertical spacing is about 1mm and is therefore quite noticeable to a critical eye.

Retyping the text makes no difference, but if I copy such a paragraph to another page then the problem goes away!

Any suggestions for fixing this problem would be much appreciated.

[mikewitherell_at_jetsetcom_dot_net]

Suggestion one: Control all text paragraphs with paragraph styles. Within the paragraph style, define the point size AND the leading measure. Autoleading is eeeeeevil and leads to allowing mixed leading within the paragraph and will often show this way. Likely, the last, invisible character (the hard return pilcrow) will be set to a larger point size, and hence, to a larger autoleading.

Suggestion one-and-a-half: 4 clicks with the type tool selects the entire paragraph, including invisibles, and lets you set the point size and leading for the whole thing.

Suggestion two: If you don't like paragraph styles as a discipline, at least go to Preferences > Text and turn on "Apply Leading to Entire Paragraphs" so you can't inadvertently set this in motion.

Mike Witherell in Washington DC

[David_C_Anderson@adobeforums.com]

Thanks Mike.

I had actually fixed the problem about 10 seconds before your reply! A more extended search of previous posts to the forum revealed the potential problem with the settings of the hidden paragraph return character.

This hidden return was a different font from the paragraph text.

I'm already using paragraph styles but was unaware of the 'Apply Leading to Entire Paragraphs' option. Thanks for that. Thanks also for the 4-clicks selection method. Nifty.

[JohnO@adobeforums.com]

> This hidden return was a different font from the paragraph text.

Did you make them visible? Ctrl-Alt-i does the job. I can barely work in ID
and Word unless I see the par marks, tabs, etc.

-John O