Adjusting position of a dash from side to side

[DigitalChickster]

Hi all! This is probably a simple thing, but I can't figure it out. You know how can adjust one character up and down using the baseline shift? Is there a way to do that... except from side to side?

I have an agenda with a start time, a dash, and end time and the event. The start time, end time and events are tabbed so they all line up. But I can't do that with the dash between the start and end times because I want it centered... and those spaces vary depending on the time. So I'd like to scoot that dash a little left or right so that visually it looks like it's centered.

I've attached a screenshot that shows what it looks like with invisible characters turned on (left) and off (right).

I was just adding spaces after the start times and that works for the most part. But I thought maybe there was a more elegant way of doing that, as it is not perfectly centered when I do that.

Also, I just realized that in the example image, the start times all sort of line up. But that isn't the case throughout... some are quite a bit longer than others.

I'm using InDesign CC on my iMac. Thank you!

[MW Design]

If I wanted the dashes lined up, I would use a center-aligned tab for them.

Mike

[John Mensinger · Accepted solution]

Set another tab before the first one, make it center aligned, then type it before each dash (and get rid of the space after each dash).

[DigitalChickster]

Thank you both for your quick responses.

[amaarora]

Hi,

So if the text is not so complex(involving images, footnotes etc) you can add the text in a table. That would be the easiest way to align the dashes. You can add start time, dash , end time and events in separate columns. The columns with the dashes can be aligned centrally and made a little smaller in width thatn the rest.

Well this is just a quick hack.

-Aman

[DigitalChickster]

Thanks, Aman. I did that elsewhere in this program... but it didn't occur to me do it in this case. Tables are always helpful!