Chapter 10
IN THIS CHAPTER
Setting indents and leading
Setting space above and below
Keeping lines together
Aligning paragraphs to a grid
Adding bullets, numbers, and rules
Setting five kinds of tabs
Styling paragraphs automatically
Paragraphs are the basic building blocks of stories. They break stories into digestible chunks, both visually and logically. Over the centuries, publishers have developed many formatting techniques to help readers not only follow the story but also keep them visually interested. In this chapter, you learn basic formatting techniques such as controlling line spacing, interparagraph spacing, indents, justification, and aligning to a grid. You also learn to apply more creative formatting, such as drop caps, lines (rules) that float along before or after a paragraph, and how to hang characters outside a paragraph.
In addition to the creative stuff, I also teach you to use practical formatting tools such as bullets, numbers, and tabs. To save time when formatting long documents, you learn to copy formatting from one chunk of text to another, how to keep related lines and paragraphs together, how to use style sheets to ensure consistent formatting, and how to use Conditional Styles to automatically format sections of complex paragraphs.
Formatting a paragraph is different from formatting characters in a couple of ways. For one thing, you don’t need to select anything on the page — your formatting changes will apply to the paragraph where your text insertion point is. To make changes to multiple paragraphs, just be sure that some part of each paragraph is selected.
Also, paragraph formatting applies to the entire paragraph, even if you don’t select the entire paragraph before applying the formatting.
In this chapter, I focus mainly on using the Paragraph/Paragraph Attributes tab of the Measurements palette because it contains almost every control you need, as shown in Figure 10-1.
FIGURE 10-1: The Paragraph tab of the Measurements palette.
Later in this chapter, I cover the Rules tab, which controls paragraph rules, and the Tabs tab, which controls tab stops. I also cover style sheets and Conditional Styles.
Whenever you activate the Paragraph/Paragraph Attributes tab, a text ruler appears at the top of your currently active text box. The text ruler is useful for setting the left and right indents as well as tab stops. (I cover tab stops later in this chapter.) If you’re familiar with the ruler in Microsoft Word, you’ll find that this ruler works the same way.
To set the left paragraph indent, drag the bottom triangle to a new position on the ruler. As you drag, the top triangle travels along with it, and a vertical, dotted indicator line appears on your page to help you see where the indent will occur.
To set the first-line indent at a different location from the other lines in the paragraph, drag the top triangle. If you drag it to the right, the first line indents farther than the rest of the paragraph. If you drag it to the left, you create a “hanging indent,” which makes the first line of the paragraph extend to the left of the rest of the paragraph.
To set the indent for the right-hand edge of the paragraph, drag the triangle at the right end of the ruler to a new position on the ruler.
To set the left and right indents of a paragraph, you can use the text ruler, as explained previously, or use the Paragraph/Paragraph Attributes tab of the Measurements palette, shown in Figure 10-2. You can enter a new value in the Indent fields, or use the up or down arrows to the right of each field to increase or decrease the amount of indent as you watch it change.
FIGURE 10-2: The left half of the Paragraph tab of the Measurements palette.
In a perfect text document, you never have two returns in a row. Instead, page layout professionals set an amount of space to appear before and after each paragraph to add space between them. (Multiple returns create many headaches, including unwanted space at the top of a text box when the text flows from one box to another.)
To set the amount of space you want to have above and space below selected paragraphs, use the Space Before Paragraph and Space After Paragraph fields in the Measurements palette. You can enter an amount in the fields or click the up or down arrows to increase and decrease the amount as you watch it change.
When a paragraph begins at the top of a text box, the Space Before amount is ignored. When it ends at the bottom of a text box, the Space After is ignored. That way, you never have empty space at the top or bottom of a column.
Leading determines the amount of space from baseline to baseline of text in a paragraph. By default, the “auto” amount in QuarkXPress is 120 percent of the font size. For example, 10-point text set to Auto Leading will have a leading value of 12 points. To increase or decrease the space between lines of text, you type a new value in the Leading field of the Measurements palette or you can click the up or down arrows to the right of the Leading field to watch your lines of text spread out or get closer together.
To set paragraph alignment, click one of the paragraph alignment options in the Measurements palette. You can probably guess the meaning of each icon, except perhaps the bottom two, which are Justified and Forced. Both cause each line of text to extend across the full width of the paragraph; Justified allows the final line to be shorter than the paragraph, and Forced spreads the words of the final line to extend across the full width of the paragraph. Normally, you use Justified instead of Forced.
QuarkXPress has an extremely advanced text-formatting engine, which you can control to an extreme degree. H&J (hyphenation and justification) controls how words are hyphenated when they appear at the end of a line of text, as well as how letters and words are spaced when paragraph alignment is set to Justified or Forced.
You can create and edit H&J settings by choosing Edit ⇒ H&Js, but the presets available in the H&J drop-down menu on the Measurements palette (see Figure 10-3) are perfect for most uses.
FIGURE 10-3: The H&J presets.
You may need to experiment to see which setting works best for your text, but fortunately, the names match their best uses: Standard works well for average columns of text; Narrow Measure and Very Narrow Measure are good for narrow columns of text. Wide Measure is good for a wide column, and Titles is best for headlines. No Hyphenation usually isn’t used on Justified paragraphs because it doesn’t allow words to break at the end of lines, which creates large gaps between words.
Because the text in some documents is more complicated than others, and because you really want your readers to keep reading your stories, you use special formatting to engage the reader, organize important text, and ensure that text stays together that belongs together. The following sections explain how to use the advanced formatting tools in QuarkXPress to keep your readers engaged.
The presets in the Hanging Character Set drop-down menu, shown in Figure 10-4, let you create a smoother edge on a column of text by allowing punctuation to hang beyond the normal edge of the story. The presets are as follows:
FIGURE 10-4: The Hanging Character Set presets.
Drop caps are large initial caps that hang two or more lines below the top of a paragraph. To apply drop caps to a selected paragraph, select the Drop Caps check box in the Paragraph/Paragraph Attributes tab of the Measurements palette, as shown in Figure 10-2.
To specify how many characters to use as drop caps, enter a value from 1 to 127 in the Character Count field. To specify the number of lines you want the characters to be dropped, enter a value from 2 to 16 in the Line Count field.
If you select the drop cap character(s) and then switch to the Character/Character Attributes tab, you see that the size of the character(s) is measured by percentage rather than by points. To push a drop cap to go above the top of a paragraph, as shown in Figure 10-5, increase the percentage.
FIGURE 10-5: A drop cap at 100 percent size (left) and 150 percent size (right).
Sometimes you need two or more paragraphs to appear together, even if one of them would otherwise jump to a new column or text box. A good example is a headline that should never be at the end of a page. To keep the paragraphs together, select the first paragraph and then select the Keep with Next check box in the Paragraph/Paragraph Attributes tab of the Measurements palette, shown in Figure 10-6. Selecting this check box keeps the two paragraphs from being separated. To keep two paragraphs together with the next (third) paragraph, select both paragraphs and then select Keep with Next.
FIGURE 10-6: The right half of the Paragraph tab of the Measurements palette.
To be sure that your paragraph doesn’t break and leave its first or last line at the bottom or top of a column, select the Keep Lines Together check box in the Paragraph/Paragraph Attributes tab of the Measurements palette, as shown in Figure 10-6. Then select one of the radio buttons to choose what to keep together: You can choose All Lines in Paragraph, or you can specify a specific number of lines to keep together at the beginning or end (or both) of the paragraph.
If you set up a page grid or a text box grid (as explained in Chapter 4), you can force a paragraph to align to it by selecting the Lock to Grid check box in the Paragraph/Paragraph Attributes tab of the Measurements palette, as shown in Figure 10-6. Then choose Page Grid or Textbox Grid from the drop-down menu next to it, and choose which part of the text to align: Topline, Centerline, Baseline, or Bottomline.
QuarkXPress offers a vast array of bullet and numbering options — just choose Edit ⇒ Bullet, Numbering, and Outline Styles to have your head spin. Fortunately, you can choose from several useful presets supplied by Quark in the Paragraph/Paragraph Attributes tab of the Measurements palette, as shown in Figure 10-7. By using the supplied presets, you won’t have to create these complex beasts yourself.
FIGURE 10-7: The Bullet, Numbering, and Outline Style presets.
After choosing one of the presets, you can adjust the distance between the bullet or number and the text by entering a value into the field below the presets (or use the up or down arrows to increase or decrease the amount). If you choose a numbering style, you can start the numbering at something other than 1 by selecting the Restart Numbering check box and entering a value into its field. If you choose an outline style, you can click the right-pointing arrow to increase the paragraph’s indent, or click the left-pointing arrow to decrease its indent.
If your line of text includes characters of different styles, sizes, or scripts, you can choose to align them by Baseline (the default), or by Top, Center, or Bottom. Choose your option from the Char Align drop-down menu at the far right end of the Paragraph/Paragraph Attributes tab of the Measurements palette (refer to Figure 10-6).
You can add a rule (line) above or below a paragraph that travels along with the paragraph if the paragraph moves to a new location. You can format these rules with most of the attributes that you can apply to any line in QuarkXPress, including dashes, dots, colors, and opacity. However, you also have control over the distance (offset) between the rule and the paragraph, and the paragraph’s length and indent. All these controls are in the Rules tab of the Measurements palette, shown in Figure 10-8.
FIGURE 10-8: The Rules tab of the Measurements palette.
To understand the controls for style, weight, color and opacity, see Chapter 3.
Here’s what you can do with the Rules tab:
To apply tabs to selected paragraphs, use the text ruler at the top of the column of text in combination with the controls in the Tabs tab of the Measurements palette, as shown in Figure 10-9.
FIGURE 10-9: The Tabs tab of the Measurements palette, with a Decimal tab and a period for a Fill Character.
To set a tab stop, a drag tab icon from the Measurements palette to the ruler or directly into text. As you drag a tab, a vertical line displays onscreen to help you position the tab.
You can choose from six kinds of tab stops:
To remove a tab stop, drag it off of the text ruler. To remove all tab stops, click the Clear All button in the Measurements palette.
To adjust a tab, either drag it in the text ruler or click once to select it and then make adjustments in the Measurements palette.
If you know the exact location you want a tab, enter it into the Position field in the Measurements palette and click the Set button.
To create a dotted leader, where a series of dots or other characters extend from the end of the text to the tab stop, type a period in the Fill Characters field (refer to Figure 10-9). Dotted leaders are often used in menus and tables of content to help guide the reader’s eye from the item on the left to the number on the right.
If you don’t set custom tabs, QuarkXPress sets left-aligned tabs every half-inch.
The Format Painter lets you copy formatting from one selection of text to others. It copies all formatting from that text, including any applied style sheets (paragraph and character).
Whether the Format Painter applies only character formatting in addition to paragraph formatting is determined by your source selection, as follows:
To use the Format Painter, follow these steps:
In the Measurements palette, go to the Home/Classic or Character/Character Attributes tab and select the Format Painter, as shown in Figure 10-10.
The formatting of the selected text is copied to the Format Painter.
Select the text that you want to apply the desired formatting to.
The formatting copied from the previously selected text is applied to the newly selected text.
FIGURE 10-10: The Format Painter in the Character/Character Attributes tab (left) and Home/Classic tab (right) of the Measurements palette.
A style sheet is a group of paragraph or character attributes that you can apply to selected text all at one time. Using style sheets is essential for numerous reasons:
You can create, edit, and manage style sheets in two places: the Style Sheets palette and the Edit Style Sheets dialog box (choose Edit ⇒ Style Sheets to open that dialog box). Using the Edit Style Sheets dialog box has two advantages: You can append style sheets from other layouts to the current layout by clicking the Append button; and you can see which style sheets are not being used. I focus on using the Style Sheets palette because it offers many more features.
You can build a style sheet from scratch, or you can format some text and base your style sheet on it. To build a style sheet from scratch, click the New button in the Style Sheets palette or choose New Paragraph Style from the Style Sheets palette menu, shown in Figure 10-11.
FIGURE 10-11: The Style Sheets palette menu.
The Edit Paragraph Style Sheet dialog box, shown in Figure 10-12, displays with four tabs:
FIGURE 10-12: The Edit Style Sheets dialog box, with the General tab (left) and Formats tab (right) exposed.
If you apply new formatting to text that already has a style sheet applied to it, you can push those changes back into the style sheet so that other text that has the style sheet applied will also receive those changes. To do that, select the updated text and then click the Update button in the Style Sheets palette (it looks like a curved green arrow).
You can also update a style sheet definition from a style sheet in another project — as long as both style sheet definitions have the same name. To do that, see the next section, “Appending style sheets.”
You can add or update style sheets from an existing project to your current project in two ways:
The safest way to delete a style sheet is to choose Edit ⇒ Style Sheets. This displays the Edit Style Sheets dialog box, shown in Figure 10-13. To delete a style sheet, click the Delete button.
FIGURE 10-13: The Edit Style Sheets dialog box with the Show options exposed.
If you select a style sheet that has been applied to some text in the project and then click the Delete button, an alert displays that lets you choose a style sheet to replace it with.
Helpfully, the Show drop-down menu lets you choose to see only the style sheets that are in use, or those that are not in use.
To apply a style sheet to selected text, click the style sheet name in the Style Sheets palette or use the keyboard equivalent (if any) displayed next to the style sheet name. If you want to remove local formatting as you apply a new style sheet, press Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) as you click the style sheet name in the Style Sheets palette.
For more complex options, click the Style Sheets palette menu or Control-click (Mac) or right-click (Windows) the name of a style sheet. In the context menu that appears, you see the following options:
When you choose one of the following items from the Style Sheets palette menu, QuarkXPress applies the paragraph style sheet to the selected text, and then if that style sheet has a specified Next Style, it applies that style to the following paragraph. This process continues until QuarkXPress encounters a paragraph that does not have a specified Next Style.
To create, edit, delete, and apply Character style sheets, follow the same steps outlined for Paragraph style sheets. The main differences are that Character style sheets don’t have a Next Style option, and the style is applied only to selected text (instead of to the entire paragraph).
If your project has dozens or hundreds of text blocks that need to be formatted similarly — for example, a directory or even a menu — conditional styles can save you many hours of work. Figure 10-14 shows an example of text formatted with a conditional style.
FIGURE 10-14: All this text was formatted with one click of a Conditional Style.
In this example, the first rule applies the Head character style sheet to the first paragraph. The second rule applies the First Sentence character style sheet to the first sentence of the next paragraph. The third rule applies the Quote character style sheet to the rest of the paragraph. The fourth rule moves the focus backward from the end of the paragraph through the first em dash (—) character that it encounters. The fifth rule applies the Source character style sheet to all the text from the — character through the end of the paragraph.
To create a conditional style, first make sure you’ve created a Paragraph or Character style sheet for each of the text styles you want to apply. Choose Edit ⇒ Conditional Styles or open the Conditional Styles palette (Window ⇒ Conditional Styles) and click the New button to display the Edit Conditional Style dialog box, shown in Figure 10-15.
FIGURE 10-15: The Edit Conditional Style dialog box.
With the Edit Conditional Style dialog box open, follow these steps:
Choose an option in the first column:
Your choice in the first column determines which options are available in the other columns.
If you chose Apply in the first column, then in the second column, choose the Paragraph or Character style sheet that you want to apply.
You use the next three columns to indicate which text to style or jump over, as the following steps take you through.
To add another rule to the conditional style, click the + button at the end of the row.
To delete a rule, click the - button.
If your text contains no character or sentence pattern that lets you stop or start a rule in a conditional style, you can insert a conditional style marker into your text where you want the conditional style to start or stop. To insert a conditional style marker, choose Utilities ⇒ Insert Character ⇒ Special ⇒ Conditional Style Marker. You then choose Conditional Style Marker in the fifth column when defining your conditional style (see Step 6 in the steps in the preceding section, “Creating a Conditional Style”).
To apply a conditional style, get the Text Content tool and either click in the paragraph you want to format or select multiple formats. Then click the Conditional Style in the Conditional Styles palette.
To edit a conditional style, either click the Edit icon (pencil) in the Conditional Styles palette or choose Edit ⇒ Conditional Styles. The Edit Conditional Style dialog box displays, and you can make your changes.
After you have applied a conditional style to a paragraph, that paragraph continues to be automatically formatted until you remove the style from it. To remove a conditional style from a paragraph, do one of the following:
FIGURE 10-16: The Conditional Styles palette with its palette menu exposed.
To delete a conditional style, click the Delete icon (trashcan) in the Conditional Styles palette or choose Edit ⇒ Conditional Styles to display the Edit Conditional Style dialog box. After clicking Delete, if the conditional style was applied anywhere in your project, a dialog box displays that allows you to choose to replace it with a different conditional style or no conditional style.