Subscript misaligning text in frames

[pianoman723]

This is similar to an issue raised here, but whereas that issue seemed to be resolved with a bug fix, my issue remains.

I’m writing a paper in which I’m using fields to align a bunch of linguistic examples. Sometimes I need to add subscript labels, but when I do, two problems occur: the line itself actually moves down very slightly, and the line below it in the frame moves down as well. Both of these cause alignment problems that I’m not sure how to address. I’ve tried exploring the various spacing options in the 2 paragraph styles I’m using for those lines, but nothing seems to work. Could anyone offer any advice?

[ajlittoz]

Using frames for this is not the usual way to do it, as it becomes “unstable” formatting-wise. On a general point of view, frames are very very difficult to tame. Thus it is better to avoid them as much as possible and to use them only when there is no other solution. Note also that frames cannot be positioned relative to each other (in the style definition). Therefore, synchronising your text components is not guaranteed with frames.

To help me suggest a solution, explain more thoroughly what you want to do: what are the “linguistic” or “grammatical” components you split into your frames? Which data is considered a group? (likely the first italic line and the second Roman one).

I have a very simple idea in mind. I come back as soon as I have tested it.

[pianoman723]

Thanks very much ajlittoz. I appreciate your explanation and proposed solution.

@ajlittoz

it is better to avoid them as much as possible

Agreed, but unfortunately the publisher style sheet requires me to use frames. So I’ve worked out another solution in putting my brackets and subscripts outside each frame. It causes its own set of problems, but at least this alignment bit is fixed. Thanks again!

[ajlittoz]

Your problem is similar to study of East Asian languages like Japanese or Chinese. The practise is called Ruby.

Enable the feature in Tools>Options, Language Settings>Languages by ticking Asian in Default Languages for Documents. I don’t think setting a language is relevant in your case but select Japanese to be safe.

The procedure is simple though redious:

1. Type your text as usual (the numbered list item, e.g. “[aou wale-u]A Ø-mins-i lakoO”)
2. Apply the stylistic variations
   I applied custom character style Subscript to “A” and “O”
   1.Select a word (or group) you want to annotate and Format>Asian Phonetic Guide
3. The dialog shows a list of all words and separators on the left and a series of corresponding “annotation” boxes on the right
   You can either enter the complete annotation in the first box (what I did for “lako”) or separately for each component (what I did for “wale-u” and the central group).
   The rubi can be positioned anywhere around the annotated word. By default it is character-styled Rubies. You only need to customise this style to your liking.

Whatever you edit in your text, the rubies keep in sync. You no longer experience alignment problems.

Sample file AskLORubyAbuse.odt (12.1 KB)