Center Text Block Between Other Lines of Text?

[er...@morrellprinting.com]

I'm working on a business card with lots of adors/variables. The individual can have 1 line of text beneath their name, or possibly 4. The bottom text block can contain 3 lines or 4. The address, city state zip block is two lines. The goal is to have the address block center so there is equal white space above it and below it, accounting for the differing amounts of information. The attached screenshots so the two extremes of content, and you can see the card with minimal information is way off balanced.

What I really want is a text box that centers itself between two other boxes that dynamically change size, but I don't think that exists.

The only way I can think to accomplish this is to create a new layer for every combination, but that seems like a lot of work for what seems like a common scenario. Anybody have a more elegant way of accomplishing this?

[couch]

There is a basic InDesign feature for this:

Use direct select tool, select the text box in question.

Right-click and select "text frame options". 

Then in the dialog, set "center" for vertical justification.

[er...@morrellprinting.com]

Sorry, should have been more precise. The bottom block of text needs to be aligned with the bottom of the URL, and the top needs to align to the top of the card (about a 1/8" margin). So the address block needs to change position depending on the number of lines for the title, etc. Using center vertical justification won't work since it won't align at the top and bottom, and using justified won't work either since it alters the leading between text lines (and blank lines). 

[couch]

maybe I'm still missing something, but wouldn't you have three text boxes, one at the top (set to align to the top), one at the bottom (set to align bottom), and the middle one?

[er...@morrellprinting.com]

I tried having it arranged that way. The problem is that the person may have no cell phone number, so only three lines and the bottom, but all 3 titles and an NMLS number in which case the spacing between the middle box and the top line of copy on the bottom text box would be big, but the top of the address box (middle) would have very little space from the last line of text in the top block . . . but the customer wants it to be centered. It really needs to be able to move up or down depending on which options are selected (I think).

[couch]

In this case, I think your only solution will be to add empty lines (using "\r\n") when you have empty lines.

[er...@morrellprinting.com]

I figured out a way . . .

Set the Vertical Justification in the Text Frame Options to Justify, and set the Paragraph Spacing Limit to a value (anything greater than zero will probably work). Then in the frame itself, separated the lines with Forced Line Breaks and the paragraphs with Paragraph Returns. This makes InDesign force justify the text box only by adjusting the paragraph breaks and not the leading between lines. Works like a champ!

[Simon Knott]

You can have a text box in a text box as well just to let you know, by creating one text box then create another, cut then click into the first textbox with the text selection tool and paste.

I have attached an example.