- Creating Text Frames
- Typing Text
- Selecting Text
- Moving and Deleting Text
- Using the Character Palette
- Setting the Typeface and Point Size
- Styling Text
- Setting Line and Character Spacing
- Applying Text Distortions
- Setting the Language
- Applying Paragraph Formatting
- Setting Alignment and Indents
- Inserting a Manual Indent
- Setting Paragraph Effects
- Working with Hidden Characters
- Using the Glyphs Palette
- Working with Text Flow
- Setting Text Frame General Controls
- Using the Control Palette for Text
- Using Special Text Characters
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Setting Alignment and Indents
In addition to the common paragraph alignment controls found in page layout or word processing programs, InDesign offers some special controls for setting alignment.
To set paragraph alignment:
to set the alignment as follows:
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You might want to indent a paragraph so that it stands out from the rest of the text. Or you might want to indent the first line of each paragraph to make text easier to read. These looks are created by the margin indents.
To set the margin indents:
- Select the paragraphs.
- Use the margin indent controls
to move the text as follows 
:
- Left Indent moves the left side of the paragraph away from the left side of the text frame.
- First Line Left Indent moves the first line of the paragraph away from the rest of the paragraph.
- Right Indent moves the right side of the paragraph away from the right side of the text frame.
- Last Line Left Indent moves the last line of the paragraph away from the right side of the text frame.
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Another look you can create is to hang elements on the first line outside the rest of the paragraph 
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To create a hanging bullet or numbered list:
- Select the paragraphs.
- Set the Left indent to the amount that the body of the paragraph should be indented.
- Set the First Line indent to a negative amount. This hangs the first line outside the main body of the paragraph.
- Insert a tab character (see page 306) to separate the bullet or number from the rest of the first line.
TIP
A negative number for the Last Line Left Indent combined with a positive Right Indent lets you hang items on the last line outside the rest of the paragraph
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