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.
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