Space Before as negative value

[JeffreyK]

Greetings

I had a suggestion, the "space before" style should be able to be a negative value. For example, I want my bullet lists closer to the line above them since that line explains what the list is. The thing is the list is being pushed away from that line because of it's spacing. I don't want to change the top line's spacing because it's great for the rest of the document, just the bullet lists could be closer. Is this a possibility or will it open a can of worms?

Thanks.

[Old Bruce]

You can't get closer than 

22 minutes ago, JeffreyK said:

I want my bullet lists closer to the line above them since that line explains what the list is. The thing is the list is being pushed away from that line because of it's spacing. I don't want to change the top line's spacing because it's great for the rest of the document, just the bullet lists could be closer. Is this a possibility or will it open a can of worms?

Easiest way to do this is to have very small values for the List Style and then set an increase in the Space Between Paragraphs section of Spacing.

These are all 11 points on 12 points, the heading and the list. In the second shot I changed the space between paragraphs (I added 7 points) and it will only affect the spacing in the list.

 

[walt.farrell]

29 minutes ago, JeffreyK said:

I had a suggestion, the "space before" style should be able to be a negative value.

You shouldn't need negative. You may need to adjust the "space after" for the paragraph style of the paragraph that precedes the list. It probably defaults to 12pt. You could cut it down to 0, for example.

[JeffreyK]

I guess its just about simplicity. There are a number of work-around's, like making the line before each list a new style and pulling the list closer to it. I was trying to avoid additional styles since it can become a challenge in larger documents. By keeping more of the document on the standard base style spacing and then just getting the bullets to have a negative value that cuts into the base style space, it opens up some additional options for conditional formatting.

I don't know if I'm explaining this nicely, sorry.

@walt.farrell If I adjust the "space after" it going to affect the whole documents spacing. I just want a list closer to the line above it that explains what the list is.

@Old Bruce I understand spacing the bullets, but their space is fine, (a little closer than normal paragraph spacing), but the line that explains what the list is will push the (bullet list) paragraph away from it's self, which is the exact behavior you would want across the rest of the document, but may not want before the a bullet list.

Of course this isn't the only way it could be used but just my current dilemma that makes me ask about negative "space before" paragraph values. Thanks for the interaction so far, it's important that these things get kicked around as much as possible before they are considered in any case.