In parts 1 and 2 of this series we discussed inserting and formatting tab leaders in columnar text. The process of separating columns of text is extremely straight forward: hit the TAB key on your keyboard, highlight the resulting tab character, and, using the Tabs Ruler palette (Text > Tabs in InDesign CS3 and Window…

Last week in the first part of this back to basics series on tab leaders we discussed creating dotted tab leaders in the Tabs palette to separate columnar text. Now, let’s talk about formatting those leaders. Tab leaders–dots, underscores, hyphens, smiley faces, whatever–inserted via the Tabs Ruler are automatically the same font and color as…

Way back in Podcast 25 listeners asked questions about underlining text and creating tab leaders. After hearing the same questions recently from colleagues, I thought the topic was worth revisiting. Vanessa from Australia asked: I have a name, address, and a company name. I want to follow each one of those with a dotted underline…

Here’s a quick tip for changing the font of text quickly in all versions of InDesign and InCopy–and without ever touching the mouse. Let’s begin by establishing two facts: First, CMD+T/CTRL+T opens or closes the Character panel/palette. Second, we know that typing into the Character panel’s Font Family field causes InDesign to try to match…

There are so many new features in InDesign CS3 that it’s easy to lose track of some of them. One I’d like to draw your attention to is the new discretionary line break. Like a discretionary hyphen, the discretionary line break (“DLB” from here on out) finesses where and how InDesign breaks a line of…

Among many exciting new and improved features in InDesign CS3, the totally re-imagined Find/Change function is among my favorite top five. The first time I opened the Find/Change dialog I was literally stunned into silence (shutting me up is not an easy task). What about it could possibly silence, even for a moment, this opinionated…