Three points separated at the end of the line/beginning of the next line

[Pedrober]

It's a controversial matter but I don't use ellipsis. I prefer three points. Unfortunately, Apub separates those three points at the end of the line in justified text, leaving a full stop at the end of the line and the other two points at the beginning of the next line. Any way to modify this behaviour? I know the "No break" attribute, but it's a manual case per case solution like other suggestions I have received.

[MikeTO]

I don't think this is a great idea, but you could type three middle dots (U+00B7) and lower their baseline with a character style so you didn't have to type a precise value each time. Three middle dots wouldn't break at the end of the line.

But if you're doing to apply a character style to it you might as well just use no break and apply it to actual periods.

[kenmcd]

4 hours ago, Pedrober said:

It's a controversial matter but I don't use ellipsis. I prefer three points.

Out of curiosity… what font are you using?
And what is different that you like by using three periods instead?

In some fonts the spacing of the ellipsis is the same as three periods.
In some fonts the spacing of the ellipsis is tighter.
In some fonts the spacing of the ellipsis is looser.

So I am just wondering what font and what is the desired change.

 

[Pedrober]

In general, the spacing of the ellipsis is tighter than the three periods and I don't like it. As stated, it's a controversial matter in typography. The fonts I am using are Sabon or Garamond variants and this difference exists. Anyhow, by chance, the difference is acceptable in the font I am now using. Thank you very much for your message.

[A_B_C]

13 hours ago, Pedrober said:

… but it's a manual case per case solution like other suggestions I have received.

Find and Replace is your friend here. Make a Character Style with only the No-break Attribute set, and replace any sequence of three periods by a sequence of three periods formatted with this Character Style.

[Pedrober]

Good idea. Thank you.

[garrettm30]

The “proper” spacing of ellipsis is variable according to the house style. I regularly use the ellipsis character, and for all of my documents I pass them through a series of find and replace operations that includes changing three periods to an ellipsis. If our house style were to use looser ellipses, then instead of replacing the periods with ellipses, I would replace them with three periods separated by whatever special space achieves the look I am going for, such has the narrow non-breaking space or the hair space, as most of the special spaces have the non-breaking characteristic in Affinity (and a few others). If you like the spacing of three periods back to back, then I recommend adding the character called “word joiner” (U+2060) between the periods, as it will cause them to stick together and yet they will be spaced the same as though nothing were there.

The approach to define a character style with the no-break attribute works fine too, but it is not my preferred option because sometimes an ellipsis might also need another character style applied, which adds additional complications. Not the end of the world, but my preference is to keep the text and the style separate, and using these explicit characters that define your intentions will work no matter what style is applied.

Note that the word joiner (U+2060) is not one of the special characters available in Affinity’s insert text menu, so you will have to find it using whatever special character method is available on your system, such as the “Show Emojis & Symbols” in the keyboard layout menu on Mac. Not to patronize you as though you don’t already know how to do that, but in case you (or later readers) do not, here is an “ellipsis” of three periods separated by the word joiner so you can just copy and paste it and save it however you manage your find and replace routines:

.⁠.⁠.

(Just double check that the forum hasn’t done something weird with the word joiner spaces. Edited to add: now that I have posted and am able to test, here on Safari on my mac, the word joiners are in fact retained as hoped when I copy from the thread and paste into Affinity.)

 

Edited March 20 by garrettm30
Added confirmation that the forum did not mess up the word joiners

[MikeTO]

The word joiner approach is the perfect solution.

AutoCorrect replaces three periods with an ellipsis so just edit that and change it to replace with .|.|. where | is U+2060. Type it once into a text frame, cut it, and paste it into the AutoCorrect editor's replace column. Click the Replace button at the bottom of the list to update the autocorrect shortcut. Then Publisher will use your preferred approach rather than an ellipsis character.

[Pedrober]

Very useful and enlightening posts! Thank you very much.