Formatting Text Tips Desktop Publishing

Why is properly formatting your 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 Cam Tracy 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 aligned with 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 – 5 th instead of 5th Subscripts – H 2 O 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