Adding a single bracket to a paragraph in InDesign

Maksim Goffin
3 min readSep 11, 2017

This is a simple trick to get a square bracket in front of a paragraph. The bracket gets taller or shorter automatically. In my case, it’s used for an agenda.

Note: This only works when you don’t change the column width.

Let’s assume the column is 50 mm wide. First, set the Left Indent at 4 mm in the Paragraph Style. This will give room for the bracket.

Let’s start with the vertical line: select Paragraph Shading in the Paragraph Style and put the right offset to -49 mm.

The top and bottom line are created with Paragraph Rules. Give a weight of 1 mm and a Right Indent of 48 mm to the Rule Above and Below. The offset above and below depends on the selected font, in my example this came out at 1.7 mm above and -0.5 mm below.

All paragraphs with this Paragraph Style are now given a square bracket. It’s a quick trick with a nice result.

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