How to adjust the baseline grid spacing in InDesign

A good habit to get into when typesetting in InDesign is to use the Align to Baseline Grid function to ensure lines of text on neighbouring columns sit on the same baseline.

However, the baseline spacing panel isn't that obvious…

In the menu bar, go to InDesign>Preferences>Grid. Here you will find the area where you can adjust the baseline grid, application-wide. The options available are: baseline start distance from top margin, relative to…, increment (this should be set to the body text leading unit, for example if your body text is 12pt on 14pt leading enter 14pt in the increment box), and view threshold for zoom level.

To make the grid visible go to View>Grids and Guides>Show Baseline Grid, and to align the text to this grid highlight the text and click on the Align to Baseline Grid button in the bottom right hand corner of the Paragraph palette.