Documents
Tidy a document layout
Hand editing drifts. Each block is placed relative to the one above it, small errors are inherited, and after twenty edits the top of the document is on a rhythm and the bottom is not.
One gap table for everything
There is a single set of spacing rules: a wider gap above a heading than between paragraphs, a smaller gap between a block and the block that belongs to it. The canvas, the PDF and the layout engine all read the same table, which is why the document you tidy on screen prints with the same rhythm.
The gap belongs to the block below
The space above a row is that row’s own spacing, not the previous row’s. It sounds like a detail and it is the reason moving a section moves its breathing room with it, instead of leaving a gap where it used to be and arriving somewhere too tight.
Spacing, not structure
Prettify changes vertical spacing. It does not reorder blocks, resize them, rewrite text or change which page anything lands on. That makes it safe to run at any point, including on a document you have spent a long time arranging.
Run it before you export
The habit worth forming is to run it as the last step before the PDF. Drifted spacing is invisible while you are working, because you have been looking at each block as you placed it, and it is obvious in a printed page seen for the first time by somebody else.
Why documents drift in the first place
Because every block is placed relative to what is already on the page. Nudge one paragraph down to make room, and everything after it inherits that nudge. Do it twenty times over an afternoon and the document has three different gap sizes doing the same job. Nobody can point at what is wrong, which is exactly why it goes out of the door unfixed: it looks slightly amateur without looking broken.
How it works, in three steps
Step 1
Finish the content first
Prettify fixes spacing, so run it once the blocks are where you want them.
Step 2
Run it
The whole document is re-spaced against the same gap rules the PDF uses.
Step 3
Then export
It is the cheapest step between a document that reads as typed and one that reads as designed.
The full walkthrough with screenshots is in the guide Lay out a document exactly how you want it.
Limits worth knowing
- It changes vertical spacing only, never order, size or text.
- It does not choose page breaks; the layout engine does that afterwards.
- Deliberate large gaps you added as spacer blocks are kept.
See it on a finished piece
Questions people ask
Will Prettify move my blocks around?
No. It adjusts the vertical spacing between them. The order, the sizes and the words are untouched.
Does it change my page breaks?
Not directly, though spacing changes can shift where pages fall, because pagination is worked out from the content.
When should I run it?
Last, just before exporting. Drift is invisible while you are working and obvious on a printed page.
Make your own document
The button opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match yours, generate, then edit anything you like.
Create a document with OneCraftRelated pages
Drag and drop document editor
The canvas is a page, not a text box. Blocks are dragged, resized and snapped to a grid, and the pagination is worked out from what is on the page rather than from where you pressed enter.
Undo changes in a document
Two things stop you losing work: an undo stack fifty steps deep, and a header that always tells you whether what is on screen has been saved. Both are worth understanding before you need them.
Control page breaks in a document
Most page break problems fix themselves, because the engine already refuses to strand a heading or split something that would fit a page whole. The rest are fixed with one block, deliberately placed.
More finished work of this kind is on the document examples hub.