For Typographers Only

If you want to have multiple paragraph bullets with correct left-justify formatting, you have to use a soft return. That means in order to get the correct paragraph spacing the “bullets” style should be set for a “space before” and not a “space after.” Someday I should make a decision matrix of what kinds of styles need space before or after. Headlines, for instance, need space after, and sometimes space before too, but not always. And, by the way, check that your tabs line up from style to style or else for instance the bullets tabs will look different than the rest of the text. Robert Bringhurst is at once a blessing and a curse. It’s my favorite book, and my biggest time-sink. Now back to work.
[Update: And when you change space-before and space-after settings, make sure you go back through the whole document and make sure that it hasn’t re-flowed your text, changing all the page numbers and un-linking your section pages. That can really twist your knickers right up against the deadline.]