Setting ligatures
Click the Character
palette options
arrow, and make sure
Ligatures are turned
on (checked). You can
also do this through
the top menu bar in
InDesign. Another
option: Choose a specifi
c ligature in the
Glyphs palette (select
Type > Glyphs).
Ellipsis
You can also locate
“true” ellipses in the
Glyphs palette (see
above). Or try this
key command shortcut:
Press Option +
semicolon (;). Note:
An ellipsis should be
treated as a word
when used in a paragraph,
with a space
before and after. “He
was, well … without
clothes, sir.”
Em and en dashes
Locate em and en
dashes in the Glyphs
palette as well. Key
command shortcut:
Press Option + hyphen
(-) for an en dash (–)
or press Option + Shift
+ - for an em dash (—).
Hyphenation settings
1. Nothing makes text
look worse than “bad
breaks.” You can set
hyphenation rules in
InDesign that fix these
automatically.
2. Click the Options
arrow in the Paragraph
palette. Select
Hyphenation.
3. Use the options
shown to avoid bad
breaks like ladders
(more than two
hyphens at the end of
a line in a row), and
breaking words right
before the last two
letters of the word.
Key command shortcut:
Press Command +
Option + Shift + H to
turn on/off automatic
hyphenation in your
InDesign document.
Hanging punctuation
When punctuation is
flush with the left margin
(or the right margin
if text is justified)
like the other letters, it
looks slightly indented
and doesn’t line up.
To fix, first select the
text. Choose Type
> Story. The Story
palette lets you set
the Optical Margin
Alignment, which will
allow you to hang
punctuation in the
margin. Check Optical
Margin Alignment. The
text will reflow so that
the punctuation and
serifs now lie just outside
the margin edges.
Enter a size for the
amount of overhang.
As a general rule,
set the overhang the
same size as the text.
