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.