Solving Problems With Complex Table Formatting

I recently had to design a calendar in InDesign using complex table formatting with very specific requirements for row and column strokes:

• Thick lines separating each month, spanning across the columns
• Names of the months in white, with a colored background
• Individual days with row dividers, but not column dividers
• Row dividers could not span across the columns
• Weekends formatted like the weekdays, but with blue row dividers
• Weeks starting with Monday

Initially, I tried to use InDesign’s row and column strokes to accomplish this, but that proved to be impossible. After mentally chewing on this issue for a week, I decided to almost completely ditch the idea of using row and stroke formatting for this. This table is so complex and unusual that I thought I would share how I created it.

Read the entire article at InDesign Secrets: Solving Problems With Complex Table Formatting

An Easier Way to Apply Gradients to Table Cells

For years now, it has been extremely difficult to apply gradients to individual table cells. David Blatner wrote an article nearly seven years ago dealing with the subject, and since then it has never gotten any easier to apply gradients to table cells... until recently.

Previously, gradients would by default stretch across the entire width of the table, by my new technique uses Paragraph Shading and Paragraph Styles to easily contain the gradients to a single cell. Read the entire article at InDesign Secrets.

Making a Checkerboard Pattern With Nested Styles

I love coming up with new and unusual ways to make patterns in InDesign. Awhile back, I came up with a way to make 1950′s inspired floor tiles; basically, a black and white checkerboard pattern. But I recently thought it would be fun to try creating this same effect using text.

Read the entire article at InDesign Secrets.

Remove Trailing Whitespace Gotcha! Underline Tab Stops Disappear

As a book designer, I often design study guides. They're small little workbooks that are used in a roundtable discussion group. The workbook is designed to be written in. And of course, like every book designed to be written in, there are handy little lines on which to write. I have set up a paragraph style to format these lines. (Click on the images below to see a larger version of them.)

To format my line in InDesign, I have set up my document with a right-aligned tab stop, with an underscore leader, and then adjusted the tracking to tighten it up a bit.

Some people instead like to make underlines by creating an underlined tab (rather than a tab with an underscore leader), and then adjusting the thickness of the underline in the underline Option sections of the Paragraph Styles dialog box. Either way works fine.

But I discovered something yesterday that I feel compelled to share. I often use InDesign's built-in GREP find/change to clean up formatting. My favorites are "Multiple Return to Single Return", Multiple Space to Single Space", and "Remove Trailing Whitespace."

 

While wrapping up a project yesterday, I ran these GREP find-changes, clicked "OK," and then was about to scroll back through my document to give it a final look before making a PDF. But what did that dialog box just say?

Well, hang on a minute! I know that I had some extra space at the end of paragraphs, but 465 replacements seems a bit excessive. Remember how I had all those nicely formatted lines for writing on? Now they are all gone!

Apparently, InDesign's default GREP expression for "Remove Trailing Whitespace" also removes tabs at the end of a paragraph. But my tabs served a very important function: they provided the lines on which to write.

So, if you use InDesign's default "Remove Trailing Whitespace" GREP Find/Change expression, be aware that it can affect much more formatting than just the few extra spaces at the end of your paragraphs.