Tina Ricks wrote: > Hi all, > > > > Would love some help with forced line breaks in justified text. > > > > The text is justified (not my choice, it's what the client wants). This is a > textbook, and there are a lot of references to URLs. I'm trying to follow > the Chicago Manual of Style's guidelines on breaks in URLs, which > specifically says do not allow hyphenation (which would make the URL no > longer correct), break at slashes, before periods, and so on. > > > > If I put in a line break (Ctrl-Enter), then Frame also discontinues the > proportional spacing that makes the text justified, for that line only. I > can add a slash to the allowed characters for line breaks (Format > Document >> Text Options), but I can't add a period to the text options, or I get > weird effects like a line break placing a lone right quote on the next line. > Breaking at slashes doesn't always get a reasonable length line in a URL. > > > > I'm guessing this is the level of line and character control I would get > with something like InDesign, but I couldn't stomach InDesign's lack of > automatic cross references. Does anyone know how to do this in Frame-break > lines exactly where I want them, but still maintain justified text? > > > > Tina Ricks | kristina.ricks at verizon.net > Editor > Trial Guides, LLC > 503-531-8485 > >
Tina, Have you tried just putting in a space? FM should then treat the remaining part of the URL as a single word and wrap it to the following line. (Of course, it's a maintenance headache, but then so are the Ctrl-Enters.) Another approach that may or may not be acceptable to the author is to use a service like tinyurl.com to reduce the length of URLs. For example, http://www.phoenix-geophysics.com/products/transmitters/txu-30/ is reduced to http://tinyurl.com/2s3493 That won't eliminate the line-break problem, but would reduce the number of occurrences. Or maybe with that approach you could move the URL references into a bordered or shaded table cell set off in some way from the body text; then you could have a very uniform appearance, because the tinyurls are all the same length. HTH, -- Stuart Rogers Technical Communicator Phoenix Geophysics Limited Toronto, ON, Canada +1 (416) 491-7340 x 325 srogers phoenix-geophysics com "On the contrary." -- Henrik Ibsen (last words, after a nurse said he "seemed a little better.")
