lovehhi wrote:
I have an image with a slight text wrap, but that would not be causing the uneven balance.
In fact, that's EXACTLY what caused the problem. If you look at the first screen shot you see the text wrap boundary extends part way into the line of the text on the left side, leaving only part of a leading slug below so that "partial" line on the left side must break and wrap at the left-side wrap boundary. Because the image extends completely across the right column, the text can start with a new leading slug directly under the bottom wrap boundary. In a case like this the only way to get the text to align across the columns is to use the align to grid or insure that the bottom wrap boundary falls on a baseline.
@Obi-Wan, your example is accidentally deceptive as the wrap boundary is almost exactly on the baseline grid, but if you add a ruler guide on one of the baselines below the image I think you'll see that the in the unaligned case the two columns are very slightly off.