Last-line justification in InDesign CS?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

This one's got me scratching my head. I'm using InDesign CS (on a  
Mac, though that should make no difference). In defining a paragraph  
style, I can set the text alignment to "Full justify" in the Indents  
and Spacing part of the style definition, and I can set the single- 
word alignment to "align left" in the Justification part of the style  
definition. So far, so good.

Here's the problem: in the layout that results, many of the lines in  
paragraphs are poorly spaced because the composition engine valiantly  
tries to fully justify the last line of the paragraph if it's longer  
than about half the line width. There doesn't seem to be any way to  
specify that the last line should not be force-justified. I can do  
this manually by opening the Paragraph formatting palette; the fourth  
icon is "justify with last line aligned left", and that solves the  
problem perfectly. But I don't want to have to do this manually,  
paragraph by paragraph, for an entire book.

If I edit the hyphenation settings to allow much more hyphenation (in  
the Hyphenation part of the style definition), the problem becomes  
less dramatic, but the tradeoff is that I end up with enormous  
numbers of hyphens. Not really an acceptable tradeoff. If I disable  
hyphenation, spacing improves, but then I'll have to manually tweak  
all the typography, which I'd prefer not to do.

So: Any way to set the "don't force-justify the last line" property  
directly in the paragraph style? The online help... isn't. <g>


----------------------------------------------------
-- Geoff Hart
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
www.geoff-hart.com
--------------------------------------------------
Coming soon:  _Effective onscreen editing_ (http://www.geoff-hart.com/ 
home/onscreen-book.htm)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or 
printed documentation. Features include single source authoring, team authoring,
Web-based technology, and PDF output. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

Now shipping: Help &amp; Manual 4 with RoboHelp(r) import! New editor,
full Unicode support. Create help files, web-based help and PDF in up
to 106 languages with Help &amp; Manual: http://www.helpandmanual.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- infoinfocus -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40infoinfocus.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.