I’ve been working on a series of on retail ads that feature lists of sale items in five columns. The running copy is broken up into categories using subheads. As part of the look of this campaign, all of the listings of sale items have to line up from column to column across the page. I use “Align to Baseline Grid” as part of my Paragraph Style for the listings (The two buttons at the bottom right of the Paragraph palette that depict copy alignment across columns turn the feature on or off.) Align to Baseline Grid locks the baselines of all copy using the feature to an invisible grid, which by Default starts a half inch down from the top of the page and repeats ever 12 points.
Because the leading of my sale listings rarely works within the 12 point grid, I set up a Custom Baseline Grid for the Text Frame (new in CS2) by going to Object > Text Frame Options and selecting Baseline Options. I set the Increment of the Grid so that it equals the Leading of my list formatting. Once I click OK, all of my listings line up perfectly across the five columns of the Text Frame no matter how many subheads or even Text Wraps interrupt their flow. Talk about precision!
Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.
Author: jeff witchel
Jeff Witchel graduated from Pratt Institute in 1973 with a B.F.A. (Cum Laude) in Advertising Design and Visual Communications. He has been an award-winning advertising art director, writer, designer, illustrator, and TV producer ever since.
Before starting his own advertising agency in New Jersey, Jeff built his career at top New York ad agencies such as Young & Rubicam, Grey Advertising, and Wells, Rich, Greene. Over the years, he has created award-winning work for many clients including AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Jell-O Pudding, The Plaza Hotel, and Pfizer. His many prestigious awards include N.Y. Art Directors Club Gold Award, One Show Gold Award, N.J. Art Directors Club Award, multiple Andy Awards, Graphis Annual, numerous readership awards, plus an Emmy Award nomination.
Jeff is a self-taught computer artist with over 19 years of experience. His initial introduction to the computer was with PageMaker, but he switched to Quark 1.0 when it was first introduced in 1987. Having arrived on the desktop publishing scene so early, Jeff became the “go to” guy for answers when others started getting into computer graphics.
As an Adobe Certified Expert, he’s provided online support for Adobe and is now an Adobe Certified Training Provider for both Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Adobe InDesign CS2. Jeff is one of just a handful of Adobe Certified Instructors in the New York metropolitan area. He also is a Quark Certified Expert in QuarkXPress 6 as well as a master of Adobe Photoshop and related applications. He counts among his training clients ad agencies, design studios, magazines, illustrators, and photographers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
