"Space before" at top of page, again

[chronodm]

So more than seven years after I first complained about this [1], more than a decade after other people made the same complaint [2], there's still no good, simple, sensible way to achieve the standard manuscript format guideline of starting a new chapter one-third to halfway down the page.

I'm still getting frustrated with this and driven back to Word every time I start a new document. Especially galling now that you can actually set "ensure page break before" as a style attribute [3].

Meanwhile line height is arbitrarily capped at 100 points, so that's not a workaround, and "different first page" only affects header text, not margins/insets, so even creating a separate section per chapter is no help.

So far the best I can come up with is either:

• Separate sections for first page of each chapter and body of each chapter, using Insert > Section Break > Same Page immediately after the chapter title, and requiring finicky margin setup every time I create a new chapter
• Creating a special 'end of chapter' style with "ensure page break before" (getting some use out of the new feature, at least), allowing the space before the chapter title style to take effect, but also putting the logical, conceptual structure of the document at odds with the physical style.

Is there some deep technical reason why it's impossible to offer any straightforward solution for this use case?

1. https://www.nisus.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5089
2. https://www.nisus.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3264
3. https://www.nisus.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11537

[Þorvarður]

Hello Chronodm,
If I understand this correctly, I suppose this can be done with a Header 1 style and a macro.

Meanwhile line height is arbitrarily capped at 100 points, so that's not a workaround

This is a misunderstanding. It's true that the arrow counter in the Paragraph palette stops at 100, but you can enter 216 manually into the Space-Before-box (and then hit Return) if you want 3 inches, like you mention here:
<https://www.nisus.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5089>

I think 3 inches is equal to 216 pt.

Here is what I did:

1) I turned on the Vertical Ruler and chose Inches (in)

2) I created a Paragraph Style called 'Chapter 1,2,3 CENTER, 216 pt before' which, when applied, automatically enters the word "Chapter" and a list number which increments by 1, hence the name 'Chapter 1,2,3. Make sure the next style is set to be Normal! You can of course get rid of the empy line by implementing Space After in the Paragraph palette, but I guess that's six of one and half a dozen of another.

3) Then I created a simple macro to enter the style.

Code: Select all

Page Break
Type Newline
Format:Paragraph Style:Chapter 1,2,3 CENTER, 216 pt before
Type Newline
Type Newline

To enter the 1st chapter, you just apply the paragraph style manually. After that, every time you finish a chapter, let the insertion point reside at the end of the chapter and then run the macro.

1.png (107.04 KiB) Viewed 4849 times

2.png (39.33 KiB) Viewed 4854 times

[Þorvarður]

I think 3 inches is equal to 216.

150 pt looks more natural (than 216 pt) to me, but you can of course change it and use whatever size you think is best.