Ppage outdents be hanged
15 messages in this thread
I am having a major problem with the output of hanging paragraphs in Ppage.
What I want is something with, say, a numeral and some text with the text
lined up with itself. I have defined a paragraph tag to do this. But when
my partner prints out the postscript from his Mac, he invariably finds that
the text is not quite lined up. You need to use kerning to make the first
letter of the text flush with the following lines. What I want: 1. text
text
text
What I get:
1. text
text
text
or some such. The first "text" is almost never quite right. Yet I am using
the exact same number of spaces in the Article Editor and, of course, the
same tag. What determines the microjustification in such cases? Is there
a way to avoid fixing all this by hand?
Thanks
Ooops, formatting troubles above. In example 1, the "1. text" should be
above the other lines. And in example 2, the amount of nonjustification is
usually less than a whole letter—which is why I have to kern.
Jim,
Hanging indents can be an frustrating experience at first. I have found
that using a TAB instead of a [space] makes all the difference in getting
things lined up. Use a TAB to position the 1. then a second TAB between it
and the text.
[TAB]1.[TAB]text of the paragraph.
The paragraph TAG I used before this reply to refresh things went like
this.
Margins: From Box unchecked for this one, and I set a right margin of .5
to make paragraph brought in tight in center of full page box which had a
1" border all around it. I had Hanging bulleted and .75 set in box to
right of it. The Tabs: box was unchecked, and the TAB settings I used for
test were 1. 0.50, 2. 0.75. The rest I left alone, since I only needed
the two TABS. I then imported some text, NEWLOREM.TXT, into the page and
set about hanging the indents on each paragraph. I set all tags at one
time, went in to first line TAB over once typed 1.[TAB] and the paragraph
body text all adjusted for me. I did each paragraph this way and it all
lined up. The trick it seems is adjusting the TABS and staying away from
using the space bar.
Hope this helps some,
Chris
Chris,
Right on about using TABs, not character spaces for lining up columns,
etc. Now wouldn't it be nice if PPage had Left, Right, Center and Decimal
(or any character) tab algnment?
In your example of [TAB]1.[TAB]text…
If the first tab was right justified, you could number 1., 10., or more
digits and sill have them all align. ie:
1.
10.
etc.
I like that and have needed that, but have no work around for it.
Remember, the Amiga is not a typewriter!
(My apologies to Robin Williams %-) )
Jan
Jan,
Yeah, and yes. It would be wonderful to have the TAB on left, right,
center and decimal (or any character) tab alignment, like QuarkXpress, and
Pagemaker. How about the TAB setting box that opens up? That is handy too!
For the 1., 10., and right justify desired need, well how about adding a
third tab and use the second TAB to move the single digit numbers over a
bit to align with the period of the double-digit number? Using picas it is
about 0.60 of one pica so the TABS would be 3.0 and 3.60 and 4.80 , or
0.50, 0.5833, and 0.7778, if the hanging was set to 0.7778. It isn't as
clean a way to do it, but it seems to work.
I also would like the ease those programs have for positioning guide
lines by dragging them out of the rulers and the resetting of the rulers'
0 position by draging out the crosshairs from the upper left-hand corner.
It would be nice if PPage's Block ON would allow for reversed (right to
left, bottom to top) blocking of text too, instead of only left to right,
top to bottom. The Article Editor allows for it. How about more
standardization of keyboard equivalents between PPage, PDraw and AE? Well
maybe version 4.0 will answer our cries. Although in my case I have to
shell out another $75 buckeroos to find out if the QUIT bug is gone even
though I'm only about a month short of the $25 buck upgrade path, AND had
complained of the bug since upgrading to 3.0. Well, as long as GD is
working on Amiga programs, I intend to give them the support. I would like
them to provide a function genie that would strip carriage returns from
selected blocks of paragraphs, instead of telling me I the user can write
their own ARexx(geine). <sigh>
Chris
Chris,
Not sure I follow your ..adding a third tab and use the second TAB..
statement. Wouldn't that be font size and typestyle dependent?
I would definitely like to see a PageMaker-like Tab ruler pop up over a
selected box.
I wonder if the PPage 4.0 upgrade includes a useful, completely new user's
manual? When I ordered my upgrade I forgot to ask.
It's nice(?) to be able to write your own genies, but how about a "record
these mouse/keyboard acions" mode? Then Name, Save and play'em back?
Jan
ps — It's (PPage) still a decent, capable package for the price!
Jan
I agree with your wish for additional tab options (maybe in 4.0????)
If anyone has a good workaround for aligning a column of numbers please
post it (a Genie would be fine).
Regards Leonard
Thanks, Chris. I had figured out about the tabs, but your posting helps a
lot.
Got any ideas on how to handle page numbers on long docs that are going to
need revisions? What about non-symmetrical footers?
–Jim
Jim-
Using PPage for some word processing tasks can prove to be quite
challenging. As an example, Wordperfect has a special command, Indent (F4
I think), which automatically aligns text to a tab stop until a carriage
return is received. Not so easyin the world of page layout. What I do for
indented paragraphs is as follows:
I type the number 1 followed immediately by the text I want indented. Then
I define a paragraph tag that does NOT use box margins. Rather, I set a
new left margin to correspond with the amount I want indented. It is then
just a matter of highlighting only the text you want indented (not the
number 1) and applying the paragraph tag to it. If it would be helpfull, I
could send you a PPage document as an example.
Good Luck! Bye-
Shane
– via Whap!
Thanks, Shane. I think the suggestions about TAB are even easier than your
method. I made a paragraph tag with an outdent of 1.5 and told it to NOT
use the box tabs but its own. Then I made the first tab 1.5. Then, in AE,
I typed the number and a CTRL-T (for tab) and when I applied the tag it
worked like a champ.
Chris recommends a tab BEFORE the numeral. I am not sure why, yet. Will
ponder it.
Thanks again for the help. It HELPS!
–Jim Ventola
Jim, That sounds a little easier (and perhaps more flexible) to use the
Paragraph Tag like you did. Wonderful!
Bye,
Shane
– via Whap!
Jim,
The first TAB isn't needed if your using the box's margin and not
indenting the pargargraph starting with the number. My example was for a
paragraph which was indented with the above paragraph having the default
margins of the page, you could also turn margins from box off and use
other settings. You don't need to use the first TAB.
Chris
Thanks, Chris. I have been experimenting with tabs and such. I never
quite got the hang of them but I am getting there slowly. The paragrap tag
gives you a lot of control.
Jim
RE your question on Indents/Outdents in PPage.
My suggestion is that you setup your Pagagraph Tag and use TAB stops to
define the spacing. You will have no end of trouble keeping text aligned
anyother way (as soon as you change fonts or sizes it will change for
sure.)
Enter your text as follows :- (tab) = use the Tab Key.
1.(tab)text
(tab)Text
(tab)Text etc…
The new line tends to screw up the Paragraph tag but if you have your
tab stops set correctly and use the paragraph tag over the whoe section it
will work out fine (or at least it does for me!)
Regards Leonard
Thanks very much for your help. I had been steered to the tab and
pagenumbering codes and I knew about Don Cox's Genies. I got them out
today and had a closer look. WOW. That is pretty impressive stuff.
Of course, you make it sound as if *I* could write a GENIE. I think it
takes at least a WIZARD to create a GENIE, no?
I have decided on a symmetrical page (for now) with the page number in the
middle bottom position. Updating should be easy. Then, I can add
non-symmetrical stuff if needed. Still, it would be nice o have a genie to
make it easy to add a verso or a recto as needed and have the others
updated. Maybe someone who knows ARexx will take up the challenge? I hope
more folks will upload Genie's. It makes the Amiga shine.
Thanks again.
Jim Ventola