Set an alternate baseline grid in an InDesign document, different to the rest of the document

Question

Baseline grids in InDesign are set on a per-document basis, in preferences. What if I need a different baseline grid somewhere in a document?

Can I override the document baseline grid in one section, frame, page or master page?

For example, you might want a different baseline grid to the rest of a document on a contents page, a references block, or on a master page that is used for a very different type of content e.g. photo spreads with side captions.

Answer 1

As far as I can tell, the only place you can override the document's baseline grid and set a different baseline grid is at the text frame level.

There are a few ways to do this:

• As a one-off: select a text frame, then Text Frame Options > Baseline options
• For a class of text frames: in the Object Styles window, create an Object Style, then set the new baseline grid for everything with this style in Text Frame Baseline Options
• For everything on a page: the only way I can find that prevents multiple frames becoming misaligned to each other is to give everything on one page a common object style with a custom baseline grid set to Relative to: Top of page
• For a master page: I can't find anything specific to master pages. The most reliable way seems to be the same as pages: have all frames on your master page use a shared object style with a custom baseline grid, set to be relative to the page

For very complex documents, with long sections needing different grids, you could also consider setting it up as a book with different InDesign documents for different sections.