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Dan Rodney/3 min read

Paragraph Spacing & Working with Tabs

InDesign Document Setup

1

New Document

Set page size, margins, columns, and bleed up front.

2

Build Master Pages

Add page numbers, running heads, base layout grid.

3

Define Styles

Paragraph, character, and object styles for the whole document.

4

Place Content

Flow text and images into frames with styles applied.

Master InDesign at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop's Graphic Design Certificate covers InDesign alongside Photoshop and Illustrator.

Master the fundamentals of paragraph spacing and tab styling in InDesign with this comprehensive step-by-step tutorial.

Topics Covered in This InDesign Tutorial:

Paragraph Spacing, Tabs

Exercise Preview

tabs done

Exercise Overview

In this exercise you’ll learn about paragraph space before/after, leading, and how to properly style tabbed text.

Creating the Letter

  1. Choose File > New > Document.

    • At the top, click on the Print tab.
    • Click once on the Letter (8.5 X 11 in) preset.

    • On the right, set Units to Picas.

      Picas are InDesign’s default units, and are often preferred when styling text.

    • Uncheck Facing Pages.

    • Expand the Margins section if needed, and make all Margins 1 in (InDesign will convert the 1 in to 6p0 for you.)

  2. Click Create.
  3. Go to File > Place.
  4. In the InDesign Class folder, double–click on Sales info.txt to choose it.

  5. The text will be loaded into your cursor. Aim the cursor at the top margin guide (pink guide) and click once.

    This should to create a text frame that fills the entire width of the margin guide, starting where you clicked and going to the bottom of the margin area.

Formatting the Text

  1. In the View menu, select Zoom In to magnify the text, if necessary.
  2. To view the hidden characters, choose Type > Show Hidden Characters.
  3. With the text frame still selected, select the Type tool type tool.

  4. In the Control panel (at the top of the screen), enter the following specs:

    Size type size: 12 pt
    Leading leading: 17 pt
  5. Select the first 2 paragraphs.

  6. In the Control panel, on the far left side, click the Paragraph Formatting Controls button controlpanel paragraphformatting.

  7. In the Control panel, go to Space After space after paragraph and enter p6 (refer to the screenshot below if you can’t find this option).

    space after control

    NOTE: The number will change to 0p6 but you can type it as p6.

  8. Select the single line of the column labels (Color Store 1 etc.).

  9. Make the Space Before space before paragraph p6.

  10. Select the last paragraph of text (These figures will…).

  11. Make the Space Before space before paragraph 1p.

Tabs: Formatting the Statistics

  1. Select the line of the column labels (Color Store 1 etc.).
  2. In the Control panel, switch to the Character options controlpanel characterformatting via the button on the left.

  3. In the Control panel, under the font name change the Regular weight to Bold.

    TIP: To choose the bold version of the current font, you can press Command–Shift–B (Mac) or Control–Shift–B (Windows).

  4. Select the first line of column labels and the 4 lines of the statistics plus (so you have 5 lines selected).
  5. Go to the Type menu and choose Tabs.

  6. At the top left of the Tabs panel that appears, click the Left-Justified Tab button tab left aligned tab if it isn’t already chosen.

  7. As shown below, add a tab by clicking in the lighter gray area above the tab ruler—the small arrow tab stop left shows you where it has been placed.

    tabs add a tab

  8. Drag the arrow tab stop left until the X field shows around 9p0 (you don’t have to be exact).

  9. Click again above the ruler near the 15p mark.

  10. Drag the new arrow to around 16p0 (you don’t have to be exact).

  11. Add one last tab at 23p0.

  12. If everything looks good, close the Tabs panel. If not, adjust the tab arrows tab stop left to their proper position, then close the panel.

  13. From the File menu, select Save As.

  14. Name the document yourname-tabs.indd, and then choose where to save the file:

    Mac: If you are already in the InDesign Class folder, just click Save. If not, navigate to Desktop > Class Files > InDesign Class and click Save.
    Windows: If the top bar with a file path already says InDesign Class, just click Save. If not, from that menu choose Desktop. Then go into Class Files > InDesign Class and click Save.