Xenetech Graphic Workstation uses many routines to automatically adjust text objects for layout positioning. In XGW, the term "JUSTIFICATION" refers to the mathematical positioning of an object between the margins applied to that specific object.
This is slightly different than what might be used to in a word processing program such as Microsoft® Word, where the term "JUSTIFY" refers to applying an affect to the text so that it appears with even lines down the left and right sides of the column. This is the same effect that you can see on a news paper column where the text spacing is varied to achieve even edges on the left and right sides of the column. To achieve this effect in XGW, we use a feature called "PARAGRAPH GROUP."
Let's start with a new plate. Before putting anything on the screen, you can set your left and right margins to .25". Now you can either import a logo or type text into the layout. These layout margins of .25" will be applied automatically to these new objects. Therefore, if you "CENTER JUSTIFY" the object, it will be centered BETWEEN THE LAYOUT MARGINS. This is why it is important to consider that your left and right margins should be set to the same value for most cases. If you "LEFT JUSTIFY" or "RIGHT JUSTIFY" these object, they will move against the left and right margins of the plate.
Because the default margins are actually applied to the margin values for each individual object, it is possible, and sometimes handy to apply a different margin amount to an individual layout object different than those of the actual plate margins. Therefore, when you apply a left, right, or center routine to these object, it is applied to its own unique margins rather than the default plate margins.
To create a paragraph group, follow these steps:
- If you are copying a large bit of text to paste into XGW, start with a new plate in XGW.
- Set the letter height to a value that will allow all text to fit on a single master plate.
- Select PASTE from the EDIT menu.
- Select all of the text lines that you want to include in the individual text paragraphs (you may want two paragraphs side by side, so select only the ones for the individual paragraphs here. We will cover multiple paragraphs below)
- With the desired text selected, set the justification to LEFT.
- Select GROUP it from the Line/Group Menu.
- Deselect the text group.
- Set your default margins with no items on the plate selected.
- Select the text group. Under the Line/Group Menu, select PARAGRAPH GROUP.
If you want to include two paragraphs of justified text on a single plate, refer to these steps:
- Let's start with the leftmost of two paragraphs on the plate.
- If you are copying a large bit of text to paste into XGW, start with a new plate in XGW.
- Set the letter height to a value that will allow all text to fit on a single master plate.
- Select PASTE from the EDIT menu.
- Select all of the text lines that you want to include in the individual text paragraphs (you may want two paragraphs side by side, so select only the ones for the individual paragraphs here. We will cover multiple paragraphs below)
- With the desired text selected, set the justification to LEFT.
- Select GROUP it from the Line/Group Menu.
- Deselect the text group.
- Set your default margins with no items on the plate selected. Set the left margin to a smaller left margin than right margin to represent where the text will reside on the plate.
- Select the text group. Under the Line/Group Menu, select PARAGRAPH GROUP.
- Delete the first paragraph group BEFORE pasting in the second paragraph of text.
- Repeat these same steps in order to create the paragraph on the right. However, for this one, enter a greater margin for the right side than the left to designate the position of the paragraph on the plate.
- Select UNDELETE from the EDIT menu to bring the first paragraph back to the layout.
Attached to this article are two xot jobs that show different examples of this procedure.
