Adobe FrameMaker 8: Aligning Text Across Columns, Part 2

We started this discussion last week and came up with two ways to address text alignment in Adobe FrameMaker: column balance and feathering. The final step in the process is to address baseline alignment. It's a great concept, but doesn't make much sense if you don't understand the word "baseline". Take a look at the image below. The blue line underneath the word Typography is the baseline. Think of it as the imaginary line that keeps the letters from falling into the line below. Certain letters have descenders that descend below the baseline, like the y, the g, and the p.

 

Baseline alignment means lining up the baselines across columns. Here's how it works: when you synchronize, or align, text in a flow, FrameMaker creates an invisible grid in each text frame and aligns the baseline of the first line of each specified paragraph to the grid. FrameMaker also aligns the first line after an anchored frame and tries to align the first line in each column.

1. Jot down your Body paragraph leading value (leading is the typographer's term for line spacing). Make sure you have fixed line spacing selected.
2. Click in the flow you want to synchronize
3. Choose Format > Page Layout > Line Layout
4. Select Baseline Synchronization and turn off Feather
5. In the Synchronization Pgf's area, enter your Body paragraph leading
6. In the First-Line Synchronization Limit text box, enter the largest font size to align at the top of a column.

   For example, suppose the leading for Body paragraphs is 12 points, the column grid is 12 points, and the headings are 22 points. If you want the headings to be aligned when they appear at the top of a column, specify 22 as the first-line limit.

7. Click Update Flow.

So, why did we turn off feathering on step 4? If feathering and synchronization are both on for a flow, feathering takes precedence over synchronization. Sigh. Here's where I remind you not to shoot the messenger. Like everything in life, it's a balancing act. You have to pick what is most important and let the rest go. The good news is that if you have them both on, at least the first lines in the columns are synchronized with each other. 

Barbara Binder is the president and founder of Rocky Mountain Training. Barbara has been a trainer for nearly two decades and was recognized by Adobe as one of the top trainers world-wide for 2007.