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In Microsoft Word, for paragraph formatting, you have this option:

"Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style"

Is there a similar feature in InDesign?

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The short answer: no.

The useful answer: you can do this by making use of "Next Style" in the Paragraph Style definition:

  • Set up the Paragraph Style for (as an example) body copy with no space before/after. Call it "Body" (or whatever you like).

  • Set up a Paragraph Style for your lead paragraph. Lead paras often have slightly different styling from the rest of the body copy, but don't have to. Under "Based On" select your body copy style. Under "Next Style" select "Body," or whatever you named that style.

When you paste text, select all and in the Paragraph Styles panel right-click the "Lead Para" style and choose "Apply Lead Para, then Next Style".

For repetitive formatting of text in individual frames, a killer shortcut is to set one up as above, then make it a new Object Style. In the Object Style definition check "Paragraph Styles" and "Apply Next Style". You can then drop text into a new frame and apply all the formatting with one click on the Object Style.

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    It would sure be nice if InDesign gave us the same capability that we have with CSS selectors. For example, "p + p" selects a p element only if it is preceded by another p. Imagining that, instead of an HTML element, the 'p' were to represent a Paragraph Style, the problem would be elegantly solved.
    – Cary Millsap
    Commented Jan 29, 2016 at 22:34
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You've defined that your Body style has no extra space. The only time there's extra space around Body is when it's next to something which isn't Body.

So put the space in the other styles — your Headline, Subhead, Scene, whatever. Any running Body copy will have no spaces. Any Headlines will have them.

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    That surely works, and is simple for body copy.
    – Alan Gilbertson
    Commented Oct 14, 2011 at 20:17
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Adobe InDesign CC 2019 has a new feature that elegantly solves this problem. You can now set “Indents and Spacing” › “Space Between Paragraphs Using Same Style” to 0p0, which will eliminate the spacing (that is, set the spacing to zero) between same-style paragraphs.

Choosing the value Ignore for this new option makes InDesign behave as it did prior to the new feature.

If you manipulate the space between same-style paragraphs, then the “Space Before” and “Space After” options allow you to define the spacing before and after the sequence/block of same-style paragraphs.

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    This thread (and the fact that Word had a useful feature and InDesign didn’t) was actually one of the main reasons I suggested this feature to the InDesign team. I was very happy when it turned out they were actually working on implementing it!
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Nov 16, 2018 at 0:34
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Use your Styles to define your spacing before and after specific paragraphs...

You'll most likely need to create a custom style (eg. "No space") and define the paragraph spacing within that style. Then when you select that saved style for each of the paragraphs you've stacked, it will adjust the spacing between paragraphs as defined in the style.

One way to set your paragraph spacing...

  1. Push Alt + Ctrl + T to show the paragraph options.
  2. Adjust your spacing options in boxes 5 & 6
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    So you mean there is no way to set this in the same style decleration (in itself). We need to make a new style and mark manually each of the paragraphs with the appropriate style. And if we happen to insert a new paragraph somewhere, the layout is broken. Did I get it right?
    – turzifer
    Commented Oct 14, 2011 at 7:23
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I would love for Adobe to implement a feature that would behave like the :first-of-type and :last-of-type selectors in CSS.

I have a similar problem. In my document, I have these paragraph styles:

  • Code Listing uses line numbering and a fixed-pitch font.
  • Code Listing: First Line is based on Code Listing but has additional Space Before.
  • Code Listing: Final Line is based on Code Listing but has additional Space After.
  • Code Listing: Single Line is based on Code Listing but has additional Space Before and Space After.

I have to select from these paragraph styles manually. It's an error-prone process. I wish I could include the :first-of-type and :last-of-type conditions within the definition of Code Listing so that ID would take care of the spacing for me, even when I insert or delete lines of code.

But, alas, I don't think there's a way to do that, at least not as of InDesign CC 2018.

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