Lesson D: Combining Paragraph and Object Styles

• Open the downloaded document called object and paragraph styles.indd. Fit the spread in the window (⌘-option-0/Ctrl-Alt-0).

As it says, this document is derived from a test file made in preparation for laying out a novel. The objective was to flow in the text as one story with as little cut and paste as possible.

The text that reads “Part One” should be about a third of the way down the page. The words “Chapter One” should automatically be on the next page. We can achieve that by cutting and pasting into multiple frames, but in a book with several sections and many chapters, that would be very tedious.

Setting the First Baseline Offset to Leading for these text frames (using Text Frame Options) means that the first line’s baseline will be a predictable distance down the page. If that leading is 28.8 points, that’s where that line of text will land. If it’s 200 points, that’s what we’ll get. Text like these words will be in a more or less normal position near the top, but a section header that is alone on a page can be well down the page, not oddly tucked up at the top.

• Select the text frame then right-click on the object style named MainTextFrames and choose Edit “MainTextFrames”….
• Go to the section Text Frame Baseline Options.
• Set the First Baseline Offset to Leading. Click OK. You’ll see that the section header moved down a bit, but the body copy on the right-hand page moved very little.
• Right-click on the paragraph style named section header, choose Edit “section header”…. That’s the one styling “Part One” at the top of the left-hand page.
• In Basic Character Formats, set Leading to a value that puts the section header about 40 percent down the page (maybe 250 points). Click OK.

To ensure that certain paragraphs are always the first element on a page (hint: chapter headers), use the paragraph style Keep Options.

• Right-click the paragraph style named chapter header, choose Edit “chapter header”….
• Go to Keep Options.
• Set Start Paragraph to On Next Page. Chapter headers often benefit from Start Paragraph In Next Column, On Next Page, or On Next Odd Numbered Page. Click OK.