Formatting Text Tips

Desktop Publishing

Why is properly formattingyour text important?

It’s what will make you look like an amateur or a professional

These items may seem subtle, but they add up to a professional look

The rules may have changed since High School Typing

“God is in the details” – Mies van der Rohe

The Grid

The imaginary guidelines that you see in PageMaker that define your columns

Use Them – they’re there to ensure alignment and consistency

Use Snap to Guides to help you View - Snap To Guides

This was one of the biggest complaints I had about your assignments

Leading

The amount of space automatically added between lines

Generally 120% of the point size (10pt type /12pt leading)

No absolute rules, develop an eye Keep it consistent throughout a piece Set leading in Control Palette (under size) What happens to automatic leading when

you try to set a big first character?

Leading Types

Types Top of Stamp Leading Baseline Leading Proportional Leading (2/3)

What is PageMaker’s default? What is Quark’s default? Look in Type – Paragraph – Spacing

CamTracy

12pt

2pt

12pt

Paragraph Spacing

Adjust paragraph spacing instead of double returning

You can control the space before and after a paragraph

Measured in point sizes Look at the Type – Paragraph Menu

3pt

Tabs & Indents

Always use tabs and indent settings in your piece instead of “spacing over” Typewriter – each letter has an equal width Computer – each letter has a width according

to the shape of the character Therefore, spacing over doesn’t work the

same way – so set tabs and indents instead

Tabs & Indents

Type some text and look at Type – Indents/Tabs and then Type – Paragraph

Use First Line Indent (in Paragraph) to maintain consistent indentations instead of a tab

Set alignment tabs on selected line Left, Center, Right, Decimal Tabs

Tabs & Indents

Use Left Margin Split (Type-Indents/Tabs) No Tabs

First line not alignedwith rest of text

Hanging Indent

Column Width

The proper minimum column width is 1.5 lowercase alphabets of the font and size in use.

Consider 2.5 alphabets to be the maximum.

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm

Columns & Baselines

When using columns, make sure your first baseline is even with all other columns

If baselines are uneven, it give the piece an awkward, uneven look

Widows & Orphans

Widow – the first line of a paragraph at the bottom of a page or column

Orphan – the last line of a paragraph at the top of a page or column

Look at Type – Paragraph for control of Widows & Orphans

Kerning

The process of removing small units of space between letters in order to create visually-consistent letterspacing

Totally dependent on your eye, not on the machine - adjust kerning according to your sensitive visual perception

Tracking

The process of removing (or sometimes adding) space between all the characters in a word, a line, a paragraph, or even the entire story

Use when you need to fill more space Change tracking in the Control Palette No Track, Very Loose, Loose, Normal,

Tight, Very Tight

Aligning Columns

Aligned Left (flush-left, ragged-right) Aligned Right (flush-right, ragged-left) Centered (ragged-left and ragged-right) Justified (flush-left and flush-right) Force Justified – don’t use in body text

Left Alignment

Conveys a nice, even color Often the best choice, especially where

columns must be narrow Adds visual interest to a page Hyphenation can be used here as well as

in justified text

Right and Center Alignment

Not familiar to most readers Decreases readability of body text

Use only for display type, special effects and captions, never body copy

Justified Text

Familiar and predictable Conveys a sense of orderliness Drastically affects the spacing of words on a line Preferred for long works that require continuous

reading and concentration: text, novels, newspapers, and magazines

Care must be taken to ensure that word spacing and letterspacing are handled properly

Justified Text

Rule of Thumb: The length of the line in picas

(6 picas = 1 inch) should be twice as long as the point size of your font

12 point type = 24 picas (6 inches) long This rule can be broken, but longer lines

can mean reduced readability

Justification Controls

When justifying text something’s gotta give to achieve even margins Word Spacing Letterspacing Hyphenization

Look at Type – Paragraph – Spacing

Justification

To achieve justification: Word Spacing is generally adjusted first Then it tries to hyphenate words at the end of

the line Then it tries to exercise letterspacing – a line

by line tracking adjustment – try to avoid

Hyphenation

Always hyphenate justified text Hyphenate left aligned to achieve a

pleasing silhouette Avoid having more than two hyphens in a

row and too many hyphens in a paragraph Avoid “stupid” hyphenations such as when

therapist is hyphenated (the-rapist) Never hyphenate display text Look at hyphenation under Type

Special Punctuation

Dashes Quotation Marks Apostrophes Accent Marks Superscripts and Subscripts Sentence Endings

Dashes

Hyphens Used to only to hyphenate words or when

words are divided at line breaks Located on the keyboard beside the equal

sign Example: multi-lingual

Dashes

En dashes Used to indicate a duration, such as the

length of time Can be used with a thin space on either side Slightly longer than hyphens (capital letter N) Interchangeable with the word “to” Use Option + Hyphen Example: 7:30 – 9:45 A.M., pre-Vietnam,

high-class – high-energy lifestyle

Dashes

Em dashes Used to punctuate sentences where we used

to use a double hyphen (they’re long dashes, twice as long as en dashes, width of an M)

Often used in a manner similar to a colon or parentheses, or indicating an abrupt change of thought

No spaces on either side of em dash Use Option + Shift + Hyphen Example: OK –– so where do you find the ice

cream?

Quotation Marks

Use real quotation marks – never those marks that actually symbolize inch or foot marks

Use “and” – not "and" Typewriter quotation marks are the single

most visible sign of unprofessional type Note this in your assignments

Quotation Marks

Commas and periods are always placed inside the quotation marks.

Colons and semicolons go outside the quotation marks.

Question marks and exclamation points go in or out, depending on whether they belong to the material inside the quote or not.

If more than one paragraph is quoted, the double quote is placed at the beginning of each paragraph, but only at the end of the last one.

Apostrophes

‘ not ' “Its” used as a possessive never has an

apostrophe!!! – The word it only has an apostrophe as a contraction – “it’s” always means “it is” or “it has”

In a date when part of the year is left out, an apostrophe needs to indicate the missing year – “In the ’80s” not “In the 80s”

Accent Marks

Where an accent mark is appropriate, use it

Most are hidden on the Option keyboard (p. 106 of Alspach) and some are in the Key Caps (under the Apple Menu)

Look at Key Caps Example: résumé not resume

Superscripts & Subscripts

Add polish to any publication Hang characters above or below the

baseline Superscripts – 5th instead of 5th Subscripts – H2O instead of H2O How would you do fractions like ½ ?

One space between sentences

Use only one space after periods, colons, exclamation points, question marks – any punctuation that separates two sentences.

Typewriters are monospaced - Computers are proportioned.

Capital Letters

On a typewriter, capital letters were the only way to make type stand out

Now the computer offers many other ways All caps takes up more space

With lower case, you can make your words bigger and bolder in the same space

All caps are more difficult to read Using all caps is a choice between design or

readability

Underlining

Don’t underline. Underlining is for typewriters; italic is for professional text.

Do you often seen a word underlined in a magazine or book?

This is an underlined phrase

This phrase has a rule drawn under it.

This phrase has an italic word.

Edit Story

PageMaker treats each text box as a story Look at Edit – Edit Story

Spelling Find/Change

Therefore, the more text boxes you have, the more stories you’ll have to open to perform these features

References

The Mac Is Not a Typewriter by Robin Williams

Design Principles for Desktop Publishers by Tom Lichty