[EmData] InData CS4 - Controlling Line Location of Line Breaks

[Stephen H. Owades]

One good way to deal with something like this name-and-phone number problem is to create two paragraph styles, one for the name and one for the phone number. The "name" style should be flush left, with a right indent on the "name" style that is as wide as the phone number, and a right-aligning tab (with a dot leader) at the indent point. Define the "phone number" style with zero leading, and flush-right alignment.

Set each name in the "name" style, followed by a tab to create the dot leader and a hard return. Then set the phone number in the "phone number" style, followed by a hard return. This will ensure that there's always some part of the name on the same line as the number, and the number will be properly placed.

Using this scheme, if the last line of the name comes very close to the start of the phone number there may not be any dots between them. If you want to guarantee some dots there, make the right indent (and the tab stop) in the "name" style enough wider than the phone number to leave room for as many dots as you want to guarantee. Then set a left indent in the "phone number" style to the column measure less the name-style's right indent value, and set a right-aligning tab (with dot leader) at the column measure in the phone number style. The text should be set as described above, except that the phone number paragraph should begin with a tab. (In other words, set <name><tab><return> in the "name" style, and <tab><phone number><return> in the "phone number style.

    Stephen H. Owades
    owades at alum.mit.edu
    617-661-7798