April, 2007
In this tutorial we will explore two ways to use Flush Space. The first use we will explore is when an icon is added at the end of a magazine article. In almost all cases this icon is right justified at the end of the very last line of the article. There are several ways to set this up and one of them is by using a Flush Space. Tutorial Includes project files.
1. First we will need to open a new document in InDesign. I have chosen to set this up as a three column article to give the appearance of being in a magazine. You can see the setting I used in the picture below.
2. Once we have our new document open, a text box in each column and those boxes linked we will need to fill our text boxes with filler text. InDesign has a special function that will do this automatically for you. You can find it under the menu Type – Fill with Placeholder Text.
3. I chose to pull the third column’s text box up slightly so it looks like the picture below. Again, this is to make the appearance much like you would see in a magazine.
4. To help us work with the special spacing it is ideal to turn on your Hidden Characters. To do this you go under the menu Type – Show Hidden Characters.
5. With your text cursor located at the very end of the article, you will now need to add the icon you wish to have indicate that the article is finished. I have decided to use the solid square icon available in the ITC Zapf Dingbats font. To find this icon we will bring up our Glyphs dialog box. You can find this under the menu Type – Glyphs.
6. Making sure the ITC Zapf Dingbats font is selected in the bottom left corner of this dialog box, you will then double click on the solid square icon you wish to place at the end of the article.
7. The square will then appear at the end of the last sentence where your text cursor is sitting.
8. Now we want to have that square flush to the right side of the text box.
9. First we need to highlight the entire article and then open the Paragraph Formatting Controls. Here we will click on the Justify with the last line aligned left. You may see your text move around a bit to fit this new justification. If your last line ends up falling below the end of the text box, just open up the box so you can see the last line.
10. Now as you can see the solid square is still close to the last word of the last sentence. Place your text cursor right before the solid square so that it is between the square and the last word.
11. Next you will insert the Flush Space. You can do this by going under the menu Type – Insert White Space – Flush Space.
12. You will see a little character insert itself between the solid square and the last word of the article. It is a bit hard to see but it is very similar to ~.
13. To get the Flush Space to work the way we want it to we will need to change the justification of the very last line. With the last line highlighted we will go back to the Paragraph Formatting Controls and change the justification to Justify all lines.
14. When you do this you will see the solid square move to the right hand side of the text box. You can see the hidden character for a Flush Space a little easier now that there is more room.
15. As you can see the solid square icon indicating the end of the article is now in its proper place.
The second use we will explore is the use of Flush Space to evenly space information at the bottom of a letterhead. This can be used just as easily on other types of stationery, such as business cards and envelopes.
1. First we will need to open a new document at the Letter size and then select the Type Tool.
2. We will create a text box at the very bottom of our letterhead.
3. In this new text box you will type your information you want to have evenly spaced. I have chosen to use cities where a company might have their offices. Place only a single space in between each city.
4. Highlight the text you have entered and then go to the Paragraph Formatting Controls. Select the Justify All Lines button.
5. As you can see the cities will spread out across the entire text box. It even adds extra space for cities with two parts to their name, such as New York and San Francisco in the example. We will use Flush Spaces to correct this issue.
6. Highlight where you want the even spacing to be located between two of the city names.
7. Next you will add a Flush Space by going to the menu Type – Insert White Space – Flush Space.
8. You will notice that New York now has the correct single space between the words New and York but has now forced all the other cities towards the right.
9. To get the spacing to be even between each city you will need to add a Flush Space in that location. So following step 7-8, you will do the same between each of the other cities.
10. As you can see, each time you do so it will move the cities over making the spacing a little more even between them.
11. Once you have added the Flush Space between each city, you should have something similar to the picture below. The spacing between each of the cities is now even.
Be careful not to add a Flush Space between San and Francisco because this will cause a large space to occur between them. You only want a single space between those two words, the same as what you see between New and York.
Download the original source files from this tutorial in Zip format Here
Copyright (c) 2007, Jacob Van Ness, All Rights Reserved
