Block Quotes and Spacing Before/After

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carpelatin
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Joined: 2011-12-30 04:15:26

Block Quotes and Spacing Before/After

Post by carpelatin »

I have set up a paragraph style based on my normal style that I use for block quotes (with indents set and full justified). Most of these block quotes are a Greek/Latin text, followed by an English translation (for which I do not want any added line spacing between the two). When I try adding paragraph spacing to the block quote style, I thus get spaces within my block quotes. Is there some way to get Nisus to add some line spacing before and after every block quote but without it adding spacing within a block quote that consists of multiple paragraphs? I could do it by hand, but I have a lot of these and would love to know if there is a better way.


Example:
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xiamenese
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Re: Block Quotes and Spacing Before/After

Post by xiamenese »

I've always done it by setting up different paragraph styles for the first paragraph in a block quote and for subsequent paragraphs. For instance, on the simple example you give, I'd set up a "Block quote Greek" or whatever you want to call it, with the required amount of spacing before, none after and with Greek set as the language, etc.; then a second "Block quote translation" with no space before, the requisite following space and language English, etc. I would set the "Block quote Greek" to be followed automatically on return by "Block quote translation", and set that one to be followed by my normal body text style. You can also give them shortcuts through the preferences.

Of course that would not solve the situation if you have more than one paragraph of Greek and more than one paragraph of English, but you see how I've done it — but with Chinese and English as the languages.

HTH

Mark
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phspaelti
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Re: Block Quotes and Spacing Before/After

Post by phspaelti »

I understand this problem. It would be nice if Nisus could allow one to handle spacing the way it handles paragraph borders. There is however a problem, I think, since a user might want both, a general setting for space before/after for the style generally and a "blockwise" setting. And at that point things might be difficult, since there might be no place for this in the RTF specs.

Generally I too follow Mark's approach, except that two styles might not be enough. In the worst case you would need four styles: one for the first paragraph in a block, one for the last in a block, one for the middle paragraph(s) in a block, and one for paragraphs that form a block on their own, and then Mark's idea of using following style kind of falls apart.

Here is different approach: a macro which will adjust the setting for all paragraphs in a given style at once. As it is, it has a user interface that asks you to choose a style as well as the settings for the space before and after. If you want, you can easily "hard code" it for your particular case, so you don't have to go through the user input each time. Just open it and adjust the default settings.
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Groucho
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Re: Block Quotes and Spacing Before/After

Post by Groucho »

I use a white border like this:

1. Select the paragraph(s).
2. Select Thickness: Hairline.
3. Set border color to white, so the border is invisible (I suppose the background is white too).
4. Set vertical padding to whatever you want the vertical spacing to be. Please not that this will affect bot space before and space after equally.

This setting can be enforced with a style.

I hope that helps.

Greetings, Henry.
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xiamenese
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Re: Block Quotes and Spacing Before/After

Post by xiamenese »

phspaelti wrote:<snip>
Generally I too follow Mark's approach, except that two styles might not be enough. In the worst case you would need four styles: one for the first paragraph in a block, one for the last in a block, one for the middle paragraph(s) in a block, and one for paragraphs that form a block on their own, and then Mark's idea of using following style kind of falls apart.
<snip>
Absolutely, but I didn't want to be too verbose. I have actually created three styles for first, middle and final for each of English and Chinese, i.e. 6 in all, adjusting the 'next style' accordingly, and giving them shortcuts. As I had to teach English literature, this also allowed me to enter poetry easily, both with and without stanzas. I never needed to create one for a block on its own, though.

Mark
carpelatin
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Joined: 2011-12-30 04:15:26

Re: Block Quotes and Spacing Before/After

Post by carpelatin »

Thanks for these tips. They are extremely helpful.
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