Line spacing disappears

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Level 1

5 points

Line spacing disappears

I attempted to insert some new text in a multi-page, multi-column Pages document, which already had been formatted with reduced (0.9 rather than 1) line spacing. The new insertion both changed the whole page's spacing back to "1", It also appears I can no longer reduce it to 0.9. What's that all about?

One of Pages major tools is the adjustable spacing of lines and characters. Why/how have I "lost" it by making the insertion? How do I recover the tool to accomplish line spacing <"?

Thank you.

iMac/Intel27, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 3, 2010 11:30 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 3, 2010 12:09 PM in response to RHPC

The question is, how did you insert the text? Copy and paste?

If you pasted in text from another source without using Paste and Match Style, you brought in the styling of the source text. You may also have brought in multiple size text.

Using relative spacing instead of absolute spacing (leading is the proper term) is poor practice.

Try selecting all the text and setting:

+Inspector > Text > Text > Spacing > Line > click on the little double arrows under the field > Exactly > set to a reasonable amount (usually 1.2 times the text point size)+

Minus leading reduces legibility by cramming lettershapes together and making it harder to follow line endings and beginnings, I recommend against that also.

Peter

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Answer 2

RHPC Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 3, 2010 12:49 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

This is for a "family chronicle" and to my olde eyes 0.9 (something) looked just fine. However, it now seems as if the reference is to Points, not percentages, though I could be mistaken. 0.9 now is quite cramped, so 1.1 looks quite good for my 10 pt font.

This is puzzling. I still don't understand the difference between "then" (%) and "now" (pts.) as to composition, though the appearance changes are dramatic - and not unsatisfactory.

Thank you for the prompt and informative reply. Much appreciated, Mr. Breis. May I ask another related question here . . . dealing w/Object Placement––>Text Fit––>Extra Space adjustment. It always seems to "adjust" only horizontally, while I would also prefer to shrink to white space above and below the picture to a bit <2 lines/spaces. That does not seem possible. Am I asking Pages for too much, wonderful program that it is?

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Answer 3

Jan 3, 2010 2:04 PM in response to RHPC

When you leave it to the proportional number you are leaving it to an unexplained algorithm.

0.9 seems to be a mathematical calculation on the conventional type size plus the approximately 20% that is considered legible leading.

Exactly 14pt spacing is fixed irregardless of what the largest type or object is in the paragraph.

+Inspector > Wrap > Text Fit > Extra Space+ does work in all dimensions but you have to take into account that text is laid out in bands of fixed size and the 2 settings of the spacing and "Extra Space" only interact when they need to. If you leave the text spacing on proportional, this throws in another unexplained variable to give odd results.

Set the Extra Space on an object to something extreme and move it about to see when and how it affects the surrounding text.

Peter

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