Spacing issue between body text & footnotes

[warlordkittens]

For some reason, the space between my body text and footnotes is unequal, as can be seen here:

Has anyone encountered this issue? I've tried aligning the text boxes differently and nothing happens...

Thanks in advance!

[jane-e]

Show your frames. Are they in the same place? If yes, then it's a paragraph level setting or a frame setting.

[Barb Binder]

As Jane said, it would be helpful to see the entire spread with the frame edges showing.

The minimum space above the first footnote is set in Type > Footnote Properties > Layout, but you might have Keep settings on that are causing the paragraphs to break where they are, or maybe there's a footnote in the first line of the 2nd page, and if the note can't fit at the bottom of the left page, InDesign will push it to the top of the next page.

One other idea to toss out is to try setting the frames to justify vertically. InDesign will add spacing between the lines on the left page to do this, but you might like that better than the inconsistent spacing.

And if it were my doc, I wouldn't worry about it at all. (But, we all have different tolerances for spacing issues, so I understand if it is bothering you.)

[warlordkittens]

Full frame:

Text frame is justified:

Footnote settings:

[vinny38]

As Barbara suggested, this is due to "Keep Lines Together" option.

If we look at the second paragraph on your left page (the one that ends with "monumental Talpiot market", we can see that there is not enough space for the two last lines to fit in the left column.

My suggestion: align your text on document grid while keeping the vertical justification.

[jane-e]

vinny38,

Do you mean Document Grid or Baseline Grid?

warlordkittens​

I don't think it's a footnote setting, as there is one setting for the document. It's a frame setting or a paragraph setting. Vinny probably has it right that it's a Keep Options setting keeping two lines together. To quickly test, add or delete some text to avoid the two lines. Does that solve it?

• If so, the best solution is to rewrite the text.
• Second best is to track some text (character spacing) to solve the problem. You might look at the previous page for a good paragraph if the two paragraphs in the first column don't work.

[vinny38]

Huh... Baseline grid alright... My mistake, thxs for spotting it.

Justify vertically a text that is aligned on baseline grid has that effect : 1st and last lines are aligned while the others act as non aligned. So in this specific case, it would do the trick. Now, extra space is just normal behavior and I wouldn't care either, just like Barbara.

About modifying the text, it also could be a solution, but what if you do loads of modifications and then have to do The One that would reflow everything? Urgh... I wouldn't go that way personally...

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

I micro-manage so many page elements—this is one that just doesn't bother me at all, and it's because overall the columns are even—texts starts at the top margin and ends at the bottom margin. Even my pickiest clients would let this go.

And, Viinny, I agree with you that it's the Keep with Next setting on the body text, that impacting the left page.