Centre a left-justified paragraph in in-design
July 3, 2019 5:16 PM Subscribe
I need to centre left-justified paragraphs in In-Design. What's the best way to do this?
I have 2 or 3 stanzas of verse on each page. Since they're verse I feel like they need to be left-justified, but I want the paragraphs to sit in the centre of the page. I'm sure there's a better way than eye-balling it.
I want both/all three stanzas on each page to be aligned together (i.e. for the left edge to line up), but I don't care (and expect) that the exact position of the left-alignment will vary across pages.
I have 2 or 3 stanzas of verse on each page. Since they're verse I feel like they need to be left-justified, but I want the paragraphs to sit in the centre of the page. I'm sure there's a better way than eye-balling it.
I want both/all three stanzas on each page to be aligned together (i.e. for the left edge to line up), but I don't care (and expect) that the exact position of the left-alignment will vary across pages.
I don’t know anything about Indesign but I’ve seen plenty of left-justified centered text for blockquotes that looks just fine. I could tell you how to do it in LaTeX if you’re interested:
The basic idea is to take your textwidth for normal page (e.g. 6 in), take a smaller textwidth for your block (e.g. 4 in), and you will have the center of both textboxes aligned on the center of the page and both left-justified, even though no one single line is exactly spanning the textbox such that its center is perfectly center on the page.
This is basic and simple in my world of publication-ready typesetting software (TLDR LaTeX), YMMV.
The main point is you can center a text box without centering a given line, this is basic functionality for typesetting.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:26 PM on July 3, 2019
The basic idea is to take your textwidth for normal page (e.g. 6 in), take a smaller textwidth for your block (e.g. 4 in), and you will have the center of both textboxes aligned on the center of the page and both left-justified, even though no one single line is exactly spanning the textbox such that its center is perfectly center on the page.
This is basic and simple in my world of publication-ready typesetting software (TLDR LaTeX), YMMV.
The main point is you can center a text box without centering a given line, this is basic functionality for typesetting.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:26 PM on July 3, 2019
Am I right in assuming you aren’t using the text box to set line wrapping? If so then you can set the frame to fit the text using Object > Fitting > Fit Frame to Content. After this is done it’s relatively simple to center the frame in the page using the ruler and guides or just eyeballing.
posted by q*ben at 7:35 PM on July 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by q*ben at 7:35 PM on July 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I am kind of confused as to what you’re looking for but I think this will help. Apologies if it’s too basic!
1. Make a guide on the center of the page. Easiest way to do this is create guide—> 2 columns, 0 gutter
2 now create your text box so it stretches to the margins & is centered.
3 now enter your text, left justified by pressing that button in the paragraph options box
4 now resize your text box so it is only as wide as your longest line.
5 move the text box until it is centered on the guide you created.
6 ummm . . .profit!!!
posted by mygothlaundry at 4:08 PM on July 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
1. Make a guide on the center of the page. Easiest way to do this is create guide—> 2 columns, 0 gutter
2 now create your text box so it stretches to the margins & is centered.
3 now enter your text, left justified by pressing that button in the paragraph options box
4 now resize your text box so it is only as wide as your longest line.
5 move the text box until it is centered on the guide you created.
6 ummm . . .profit!!!
posted by mygothlaundry at 4:08 PM on July 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
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When your text is left aligned, each line in the stanza is going to be a different length. So although you can center one line, you can't center them all, since they're all different lengths, and they all start at the same point on the left.
You can choose to center it by the longest line in the stanza. In this case, just set your text box as wide as that line, then you can easily center that box on the page.
But, trying to center left-aligned text on a page is just never going to look correct. Just choose a left margin and go with it. Or center all your text.
posted by hydra77 at 5:51 PM on July 3, 2019 [3 favorites]