Adding Paragraph Spacing in PageMaker

Adding Paragraph Spacing

You should not press Enter key to insert an extra space between paragraphs. There are several reasons for avoiding blank lines created with a carriage return.

Point 1

If the blank line lands at the top of a column, this extra space will cause the column to start lower than the other columns.

Point 2

The blank lines could possibly throw off the leading grid, so that the baselines of the type do not align.

Point 3

You cannot precisely control the amount of space – one carriage return might not add enough space and two might add too much.

None of these problems arise when you use PageMaker’s paragraph spacing options. In the Paragraph Specification dialog box, you can set the amount of space before and after your paragraphs. Another way to specify the paragraph spacing is in the Control Palette, these fields are marked in figure below.

In determining how much space to add before and after a subhead, you should keep in mind that a subhead, you should keep in mind that a subhead introduces a new topic and should therefore be separated from the text above it and tied to the text below it. You can show this relationship by placing more space above the subhead than below it. The leading of your subhead plus the space above and below it should be a multiple of your magic number. For example, suppose the leading of your publication is 12, and your subhead have 14 point leading. To keep on the leading grid, you should add 10 points of space above the subheads (14 point leading plus 10 points of space equals 24 multiple of the magic number).