line space after bullet list

[emmaTPR12]

I want to set up a bullet style which will add space after all the bullets are done in that instance. I'm thinking this is can be achieved with a nested style maybe, but I can't work out how.

Here's what I've got:

Here's what I want to happen:

Any suggestions?

Thank you.

[BobLevine]

You need to create another style, either for the last bullet or for the first paragraph after the last bullet.

Bob

[emmaTPR12]

Is there really no better way? I was hoping for something more streamlined and automatic.

[TᴀW]

Which version of InDesign are you using?

[emmaTPR12]

CS6.

[TᴀW · Accepted solution]

Ah, good. Then there is a way someone told me about recently:

Define your bullet paragraph style to "Span Columns". Set it to "All",

or something. Now specify the space before and after the span that you

want. This can all be down in the style definition, so now whenever you

apply the bullet paragraph style to a range of paragraphs, you'll

automatically get your space before and after.

It looks like this will only work if you're not using a multi-column

layout (otherwise the list will actually span the columns). But for many

cases it should be fine.

Personally, I'm a little wary of using the span columns feature, because

in the past it has been a cause of slowness in InDesign, plus it didn't

use to adhere to your "keep options" settings.

Instead, I use a script which simply automatically creates the necessary

"Bullet before", "Bullet middle" and "Bullet end" styles, and applied

them throughout the document.

Still, the above workaround may be a solution for you.

Ariel

[emmaTPR12]

Ariel, you're the best. Thanks so much.

[Laubender]

@emma – just an annotation:

Ariel's suggested method for one-column text frames is working since the introduction of the Column Span feature in InDesign CS5. It's not a unique CS6 feature.

Uwe

[TᴀW]

@Uwe -- an annotation to your annotation:

Span columns was so buggy (or incomplete in implementation, as I

mentioned) earlier than CS6 that I would never recommend in general for

anyone to use it.

Ariel

[tomaugerdotcom]

Neat solution, but using this completely bogs down InDesign CS6. Even if it's not applied to the paragraph you're typing in, you will see the typing refresh rate drop by 50% or more. I would caution anyone against using this technique, sad as I am to say it (because it's a really cool technique, if somewhat hackish).

[camilo_umana]

Here are two solutions:

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1541828

A third one could be an script wrote by Ariel/Bookkraft, something called

Change consecutive paragraphs.

[peter_minneapolis]

There's no automated way to do this in InDesign. Consider posting a formal feature request here: Wishform

HTH

Regards,

Peter

_______________________

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

[AllenCobb]

Better late than never:

I just submitted a feature request for this situation. It seems simple to set up, but hopefully it is also relatively simple to implement and won't lead to undesirable side effects.

How would you like the feature to work?

Add 2 new Paragraph Style settings:

"consecutive paragraphs space before"

"consecutive paragraphs space after"

When set, these would add a user-specified white-space above or below a sequence of consecutive paragraphs in the current style.

Why is this feature important to you?

Every style of list that I use, whether numbered or bulleted or unnumbered, requires a separate "list first' and "list last" style which does nothing but add some leading above and below the list. This bloats my paragraph styles collection, takes extra time to set up, and makes rearranging list order very inconvenient. It also leads to errors when the added leading isn't visually obvious at first glance. Many designs would make use of this feature.

Allen

[AllenCobb]

Update: I've changed my feature request to define a simpler feature -- just add a new Space Between setting.

The Space Between setting would control the spacing of consecutive paragraphs in this style. The Space Before and Space After settings would only be used if the paragraph before or after was a different style.

I keep running into situations where this feature would be tremendously convenient. In a short article template, I'm forced to use three styles for every list -- List-First, List-Middle, and List-Last. Actually four styles, because sometimes a "list" has only one item, so I use a List-Single style as well. The only reason these four styles are needed is to provide additional leading before and after the list as a whole. The Space Between setting would cover all four situations with one style instead of four.

Allen

[BabelFish0407]

OMG that's so awesome I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

[AllenCobb]

Well, gee. Thanks.

Now I've got to convince the InDesign team to implement this. Not sure how to do that . . .

Allen

[BabelFish0407]

How do you mean? I've tried and it works how you described. I'm happy enough

[AllenCobb]

BabelFish0407  I guess I hadn't noticed that your "awesome" post was directed at emmaTPR12. I thought you were commenting on my new feature suggestion (a "list spacing" field that would eliminate the need for multiple list styles) which was listed right before your post.

I've been agitating for a new field that would be used to separate paragraphs (a special Space After setting) in a list. This would allow the designer to use the Space Before and Space After settings to control the space before and after the whole list, and the List Spacing setting to control the space between items. In books, I usually have to maintain 4 List Styles for each type of list.

For example:

     List - Single (extra space before and after)

     List - First (extra space before)

     List - Middle (no extra space)

     List - Last (extra space after)

With the List Spacing feature, I could do the whole thing with just a single List style, a single List-Bullet style, a single List-Numbered style, etc.

Allen

[AllenCobb]

I should mention that the Span Columns trick described above by Arial (@TaW) does work (thanks Arial!), but it "consumes" the column features which might be needed elsewhere. It's another obscure solution that really ought to be easier to implement, like the Rule Above trick for positioning a chapter title down from the top of a page (without having to apply a special master page).

Allen

[BabelFish0407]

yes, having that feature built in properly would be ideal, of course. If they can make spacing options after tables and spans, it shouldn't be that difficult to have it after lists, I wouldn't imagine.