Aligning and Arranging Objects
In This Chapter
ᮣ Using exact coordinates
ᮣ Working with document grids and guidelines
ᮣ Making objects line up
ᮣ Anchoring objects to text
When you draw objects like frames or lines, they appear where you draw them. That’s what you expect, right? But sometimes you want them to appear where you meant to draw them, not where you actually did. Working with the mouse is inexact, but you can overcome that obstacle. This chapter shows you how to use a variety of InDesign features to precisely control the placement of objects, including the ability to enter actual coordinates for objects, to use grids and guidelines features to ensure that your objects and text line up where you want them to, and to use the Align panel and related commands to make sure that objects line up relative to each other, so that your layouts are all neat and tidy.
The other part of keeping your layouts neat and tidy is managing the arrangements of objects. In addition to the grouping and locking functions covered in Chapter 9, InDesign also lets you control the stacking order of objects that overlap and tie objects to spots in text so they stay close to the text that references them. Positioning Precisely with Coordinates
The most precise way to position objects is by entering the object’s desired coordinates in the X: and Y: fields of the Control panel or the Transform panel. (You can also precisely change the object’s size by entering values in the W: and H: fields.) The Control panel is visible by default at the top of the document window. If it’s not visible, open the Control panel by choosing Window➪Control (Option+Ô+6 or Ctrl+Alt+6).
168 Part III: Object Essentials
The Control panel is more powerful than the Transform panel, which is a holdover from older versions of InDesign, but if you want to use the Transform panel, choose Window➪Object & Layout➪Transform. Figure 10-1
shows both the Control panel and Transform panel and a selected frame. Everyone should use the Control panel’s coordinates to make sure that objects are consistently placed from page to page. Many designers place objects by eye, using the mouse, but that approach typically means that small position and size variations that shouldn’t be there occur from page to page. Many readers won’t notice if the differences are slight, but even small differences make small adjustments to text flow that can add up over pages. And it’s all so unnecessary.
You usually want to enter coordinates based on the upper-left corner, so be sure that the upper-left reference point is made into the control point (just click it if it’s not). How do you know which reference point is the current control point? The control point is black, while the other reference points are white. (Chapter 1 provides the deeper details.)
Figure 10-1:
The Control
panel
(top) and
Transform
panel (right)
let you enter
precise
coordinates for
an object’s
position.
Lining Up Objects with
Guidelines and Grids
If you’ve ever seen a carpenter use a chalked string to snap a temporary line as an aid for aligning objects, you understand the concept behind ruler guidelines and grids. They’re not structurally necessary, and they don’t appear in the final product, yet they still make your work easier.
Chapter 10: Aligning and Arranging Objects
169
InDesign provides several types of grids and guidelines:
ߜ
Ruler guides are moveable guidelines that are helpful for placing objects precisely and for aligning multiple items.
ߜ
Margin and column guides are part of your page setup when you create or modify a document (see Chapter 3), providing the default margin around the sides of the page and the space between the default text frame’s columns.
ߜ Smart guides are created on the fly as you work with objects. They use the centerpoints and frame edges of nearby objects and display accordingly so that you can line up your current object to match a nearby object’s position or size.
ߜ
A document grid is a set of horizontal and vertical lines that help you place and align objects.
ߜ
A baseline grid is a series of horizontal lines that help in aligning lines of text and objects across a multicolumn page. When a document is open and it has a baseline grid showing, the page looks like a sheet of lined paper.
ߜ
A frame-based grid is similar to a baseline grid except that it’s just for a specific text frame.
You won’t need to display all the grids and guidelines at once. You’ll most likely use a combination of guides and grids, but using all four at once is more complicated than necessary.
Using ruler guides
InDesign lets you create individual ruler guides manually. You can also set ruler guides automatically with the Create Guides command (Layout➪Create Guides).
Manually creating ruler guides
To create ruler guides on an as-needed basis, follow these steps:
1. Go to the page or spread onto which you want to place ruler guides.
2. If the rulers don’t appear at the top and left of the document window, choose View➪Show Rulers (Ô+R or Ctrl+R).
3. Drag the pointer (and a guideline along with it) from the horizontal ruler or vertical ruler onto a page or the pasteboard.
16_388488-ch10.indd 169
9/23/08 7:03:40 PM
170 Part III: Object Essentials
4. When the guideline is positioned where you want it, release the mouse button.
If you release the mouse when the pointer is over a page, the ruler guide extends from one edge of the page to the other (but not across a spread). If you release the mouse button when the pointer is over the pasteboard, the ruler guide extends across both pages of a spread and the pasteboard. If you want a guide to extend across a spread and the pasteboard, you can also hold down the Ô or Ctrl key as you drag and release the mouse when the pointer is over a page.
Place both a horizontal and vertical guide at the same time by pressing Ô or Ctrl and dragging the ruler intersection point (where the two rulers meet) onto a page. You can also place a guide that extends across the page or spread and pasteboard by double-clicking the vertical or horizontal ruler. Ruler guides are cyan in color (unless you change the color by choosing Layout➪Ruler Guides) and are associated with the layer onto which they’re placed. You can show and hide ruler guides by showing and hiding the layers that contain them. You can even create layers that contain nothing but ruler guides and then show and hide them as you wish. (See Chapter 4 for more information about layers.)
To create ruler guides for several document pages, create a master page, add the ruler guides to the master page, and then apply the master to the appropriate document pages. (Chapter 4 covers master pages.) Automatically creating ruler guides
Here’s how to create a set of ruler guides automatically:
1. If the documents contain multiple layers, display the Layers panel (Window➪Layers [F7]) and click the name of the layer to which you want to add guides.
2. Choose Layout➪Create Guides to display the Create Guides dialog box, shown in Figure 10-2.
To see the guides on the page while you create them, check Preview.
3. In the Rows and Columns areas, specify the number of guides you want to add in the Number fields and, optionally, specify a Gutter width between horizontal (Rows) and vertical (Columns) guides.
Enter
0 (zero) in the Gutter fields if you don’t want gutters between guides.
4. In the Options area, click Margins to fit the guides in the margin boundaries; click Page to fit the guides within the page boundary.
5. Remove any previously placed ruler guides by checking Remove Existing Ruler Guides.
Chapter 10: Aligning and Arranging Objects
171
Figure 10-2:
The Create
Guides dialog box and
the guides it
created.
6. When you finish specifying the attributes of the ruler guides, click OK
to close the dialog box.
Working with ruler guides
You can show and hide, lock and unlock, select and move, copy and paste, and delete ruler guides. Here are a few pointers for working with ruler guides: ߜ
Display or hide ruler guides by choosing View➪Grids & Guides➪Show/
Hide Guides (Ô+; or Ctrl+; — note that these are semicolons).
ߜ
Lock or unlock all ruler guides by choosing View➪Grids & Guides➪Lock Guides (Option+Ô+; or Ctrl+Alt+;). Ruler guides are locked when Lock Guides is checked.
ߜ
Select a ruler guide by clicking it with a selection tool. To select multiple guides, hold down the Shift key and click them. The color of a guide changes from cyan to the color of its layer when it’s selected. To select all ruler guides on a page or spread, press Option+Ô+G or Ctrl+Alt+G. ߜ
Move a guide by clicking and dragging it as you would any object. To move multiple guides, select them and then drag them. To move guides to another page, select them, choose Edit➪Cut (Ô+X or Ctrl+X) — or choose Edit➪Copy (Ô+C or Ctrl+C) to copy — then display the target page and choose Edit➪Paste (Ô+V or Ctrl+V). If the target page has the same dimensions as the source page, the guides are placed in their original positions. 172 Part III: Object Essentials
ߜ
Delete ruler guides by selecting them and then pressing Delete or Backspace.
ߜ
Change the color of the ruler guides and the view percentage above which they’re displayed by choosing Layout➪Ruler Guides. The Ruler Guides dialog box appears. Modify the View Threshold value, choose a different color from the Color pop-up menu, and then click OK. If you change the settings in the Ruler Guides dialog box when no documents are open, the new settings become defaults and are applied to all subsequently created documents. ߜ
Display ruler guides behind — instead of in front of — objects by choosing InDesign➪Preferences➪Guides & Pasteboard (Ô+K) on the Mac or Edit➪Preferences➪Guides & Pasteboard (Ctrl+K) in Windows. Then select the Guides in Back option in the Guide Options section of the dialog box.
ߜ
Make object edges snap (align) to ruler guides when you drag them into the snap zone by selecting the Snap to Guides option (View➪Grids
& Guides➪Snap to Guides [Shift+Ô+; or Ctrl+Shift+;]). To specify the snap zone (the distance — in pixels — at which an object will snap to a guide), choose InDesign➪Preferences➪Guides & Pasteboard (Ô+K) on the Mac or Edit➪Preferences➪Guides & Pasteboard (Ctrl+K) in Windows and enter a value in the Snap to Zone field in the Guide Options section of the dialog box.
Working with column guides
You can also adjust column guides if your document has them, though you don’t get the same flexibility in adjusting column guides as you do ruler guides. Column guides are created when you create a new document and set it up as having multiple columns (see Chapter 3).
By default, column guides are locked. To unlock them (or relock them) choose View➪Grids & Guides➪Lock Column Guides. (If the menu option has a check mark to its left, the column guides are locked.)
To move a column guide, click and drag it. Note that the color of a selected column guide doesn’t change as the color of a selected ruler guide does. Also note that you can’t select multiple column guides or move them to other pages. The only way to add or delete column guides is to change the number of guides in the Margins and Columns dialog box (choose Layout➪Margins and Columns); adjusting the number of columns undoes any custom moves applied to column guides.
Chapter 10: Aligning and Arranging Objects
173
Working with smart guides
Using the new smart guides feature is easy. First, make sure that smart guides are enabled. You do so in the Guides & Pasteboard pane of the Preferences dialog box by enabling the Align to Object Center and/or the Align to Object Edges options. Aligning to object center tells InDesign to look for the centerpoint of other objects as you move or resize objects and use those as alignment targets. Aligning to object frame edges has it look for other objects’
edges and use those as alignment targets. Turning on both produces more smart guides as you work on objects.
Figure 10-3 shows the smart guide feature in action in three sequences (in each sequence, at left is an existing object):
ߜ
The top sequence shows me adding a second frame. The mouse pointer is near neither the nearby object’s centerpoint nor its edge, so no smart guide appears.
ߜ
The middle sequence shows what happens as the mouse pointer moves near the edge of the nearby object: InDesign displays a smart guide to let me know that if I want the bottom edge of the new frame to align with the bottom of the nearby object, all I have to do is let go.
ߜ
The third sequence shows me moving a circular frame from the bottom to the upper right of the page. You can see the smart guide that indicates the mouse is aligned to the centerpoint of the second object, and if I let go here, the circular frame’s centerpoint will align to that other object’s centerpoint.
You probably noticed additional visual indicators in the third sequence: the spacing indicators between each set of objects. This visual indication is called smart spacing, which you also enable in the Guides & Pasteboard pane of the Preferences dialog box. When smart spacing is on, InDesign looks at the relative spacing of nearby objects as you work with one and highlights when the spacing is the same, or close to being the same (in which case it moves them for you).
A fourth “smart” feature comes with smart guides (it, too, must be enabled in the Guides & Pasteboard pane): smart measurements. In this case, as you resize or rotate objects, InDesign shows a smart guide when the object being transformed matches the specs — such as dimensions or rotation angle — of other nearby angles, under the assumption that maybe you want them to be the same. As with the other smart-guides functions, let go of the mouse when the guides appear so that you can get those matching settings.
174 Part III: Object Essentials
Figure 10-3:
Smart
guides in
action.
The middle
sequence
shows a
smart guide
indicating
an edge
alignment,
while
the third
sequence
shows a
smart guide
indicating a
centerpoint
alignment.
Using document grids
A document grid is like the grid paper you used in school, a visual crutch to help ensure that the objects you draw and reposition are placed at desired increments. Using a grid can help ensure that objects align and are sized consistently.
If you plan to use a grid, set it up before you start working in the document. Because documents tend to have different grid settings based on individual contents, you probably want to set Grids preferences with a specific document open so that the grid will apply only to that document. Figure 10-4 shows the Grids pane of the Preferences dialog box (InDesign➪Preferences➪Grids [Ô+K] on the Mac, or Edit➪Preferences➪Grids
[Ctrl+K] in Windows).
You have the following options:
ߜ
Color: The default color of the document grid is Light Gray. You can choose a different color from the Color pop-up menu or choose Other to create your own.
Chapter 10: Aligning and Arranging Objects
175
ߜ
Gridline Every: The major gridlines, which are slightly darker, are positioned according to this value. The default value is 6p0; in general, you want to specify a value within the measurement system you’re using. For example, if you work in inches, you might enter 1 inch in the Gridline Every field. You set the horizontal and vertical settings separately. ߜ
Subdivisions: The major gridlines established in the Gridline Every field are subdivided according to the value you enter here. For example, if you enter 1 inch in the Gridline Every field and 4 in the Subdivisions field, you get a gridline at each quarter-inch. The default number of subdivisions is 8. You set the horizontal and vertical settings separately. Figure 10-4:
The Grids
pane of the
Preferences
dialog box.
By default, the document grid appears on every spread behind all objects. You can have grids display in front by deselecting the Grids in Back check box. To make object edges snap (align) to the grid when you drag them into the snap zone, select the Snap to Document Grid option (View➪Grids & Guides➪Snap to Document Grid [Shift+Ô+’ or Ctrl+Shift+’ — note that these are apostrophes]). To specify the snap zone (the distance — in pixels — at which an object will snap to a gridline), InDesign uses whatever settings you specified for guidelines, as explained in the “Using ruler guides” section earlier in this chapter. To display the document grid, choose View➪Grids & Guides➪Show Document Grid (Ô+’ or Ctrl+’).
176 Part III: Object Essentials
Using baseline grids
You may not already realize that each and every new document you create includes a baseline grid. A baseline grid can be helpful for aligning text baselines across columns and for ensuring that object edges align with text baselines. But chances are that the default settings for the baseline grid won’t match the baselines (leading) for the majority of your text. The default baseline grid begins 1⁄2 inch from the top of a document page; the default gridlines are light blue, are spaced 1 pica apart, and appear at view percentages above 75 percent. If you change any of these settings when no documents are open, the changes are applied to all subsequently created documents; if a document is open, changes apply only to that document.
So here’s how to modify the baseline grid:
1.
Choose
InDesign➪Preferences➪Grids (Ô+K) on the Mac or Edit➪Preferences➪Grids (Ctrl+K) in Windows.
The Grids pane (refer to Figure 10-4) appears. (If you used a shortcut, then select the Grids pane from the list at left.)
2. Pick a color for the baseline from the Color pop-up menu in the Baseline Grid area.
3. In the Start field, enter the distance between the top of the page and the first gridline.
If you enter 0, the Increment Every value determines the distance between the top of the page and the first gridline.
4. In the Increment Every field, enter the distance between gridlines.
If you’re not sure what value to use, enter the leading value for the publication’s body text.
5. Choose a View Threshold percentage from the pop-up menu or enter a value in the field.
You probably don’t want to display the baseline grid at reduced view percentages because gridlines become tightly spaced.
6. Click OK to close the dialog box and return to the document. The Show/Hide Baseline Grid command (View➪Grids & Guides➪Show/Hide Baseline Grid [Option+Ô+’ or Ctrl+Alt+’]) lets you display and hide a document’s baseline grid.
When you set a baseline grid, it applies to the entire document. Gridlines are displayed behind all objects, layers, and ruler guides. To get text to line up to the baseline grid, you need to ensure that the Align to Grid pop-up menu is set to either First Line Only or All Lines in your paragraph style or that the Chapter 10: Aligning and Arranging Objects
177
Align to Baseline Grid check box is selected in the Paragraph panel or Control panel. Chapter 12 covers such paragraph formatting in detail.
A document-wide baseline grid is all fine and dandy, but often it’s not enough. The document-wide baseline grid is basically useful for your body text and often your headline text, assuming that the baseline grid’s increments match the leading for that text. But what if you have other elements, like sidebars, that have different leading?
The answer is to use text frame–specific baseline grids. You set the grid as part of the text frame options by choosing Object➪Text Frame Options (Ô+B
or Ctrl+B) and then going to the Baseline Options pane. Its options are almost identical to those in the Grids pane of the Preferences dialog box. A baseline grid established for a text frame affects only the text in that frame. Aligning Objects to Each Other
InDesign lets you align and distribute objects, saving you the hassle of manually moving and placing each element, or figuring out the correct locations in the Control panel or Transform panel to do so.
In the section “Working with smart guides,” earlier in this chapter, I explain how the new smart guides feature helps you align objects and adjust their spacing (as well as dimensions and even rotation angle) as you work with them. That’s great for alignment as you work with individual objects. But what if you want to align multiple objects at the same time? That’s where the Align panel comes in.
The Align panel (Window➪Object & Layout➪Align [Shift+F7]), shown in Figure 10-5, has several iconic buttons that let you manipulate the relative position of multiple objects in two ways. (The buttons show the alignments they provide.) You can
ߜ
Line up objects along a horizontal or vertical axis. For example, if you’ve randomly placed several small graphic frames onto a page, you can use the alignment buttons in the Align panel to align them neatly —
either horizontally or vertically.
ߜ
Distribute space evenly among objects along a horizontal or vertical axis. Here’s a typical problem that’s easily solved by using this feature: You’ve carefully placed five small pictures on a page so that the top edges are aligned across the page and you have equal space between each picture. Then you find out that one of the pictures needs to be cut. After deleting the unneeded picture, you can use the Align panel to redistribute the space among the remaining pictures so that they’re again equally spaced.
178 Part III: Object Essentials
Figure 10-5:
The Align
panel
contains
14 iconic
buttons
that let you
control the
alignment
and space
among
selected
objects.
The Align buttons don’t work with objects that have been locked with the Lock Position command (Object➪Lock Position [Ô+L or Ctrl+L]). If you need to align a locked object, you must first unlock it (Object➪Unlock Position
[Option+Ô+L or Ctrl+Alt+L]). If the objects are on a locked layer, you need to unlock the layer.
When you click an iconic button in the Align panel, selected objects are repositioned in the most logical manner. For example, if you click the Horizontal Align Left button, the selected objects are moved horizontally (to the left, in this case) so that the left edge of each object is aligned with the left edge of the leftmost object. Along the same lines, if you click the Vertical Distribute Center button, the selected objects are moved vertically so that an equal amount of space appears between the vertical center of each object. Spacing can appear uneven if you click the Horizontal or Vertical Distribute buttons when objects of various sizes are selected. For objects of different sizes, you’ll usually want to use the Distribute Spacing buttons (which make the space between objects even) rather than space objects based on their centers or sides (which is how the Distribute Object buttons work).
If the two Distribute Spacing icons don’t appear at the bottom of the panel and you want to distribute objects, choose Show Options from the flyout menu. Stacking Objects
Arranging your objects is as key to having neat and tidy layouts as using grids and so on to align objects. (For more on this topic, see the section
“Lining Up Objects with Guidelines and Grids,” earlier in this chapter.) Chapter 10: Aligning and Arranging Objects
179
Each time you begin work on a new page, you start with a clean slate (unless the page is based on a master page, in which case the master objects act as the page’s background; see Chapter 5 for more on master pages). Every time you add an object to a page — either by using any of InDesign’s object-creation tools or with the Place command (File➪Place [Ô+D or Ctrl+D]) — the new object occupies a unique place in the page’s object hierarchy, or stacking order. The first object you place on a page is automatically positioned at the bottom of the stacking order; the next object is positioned one level higher than the first object (that is, in front of the backmost object); the next object is stacked one level higher; and so on for every object you add to the page. (It’s not uncommon for a page to have several dozen, or even several hundred, stacks.) Although each object occupies its own stack level, if the objects on a page don’t overlap, the stacking order isn’t an issue. But some of the most interesting graphic effects you can achieve with InDesign involve arranging several overlapping objects, so you need to be aware of the three-dimensional nature of a page’s stacking order.
You may change your mind about what you want to achieve in your layout after you’ve already placed objects in it. To change an object’s position in a page’s stacking order, use the Arrange command (Object➪Arrange), which offers four choices (note the use of brackets in the shortcuts): ߜ
Bring to Front (Shift+Ô+] or Ctrl+Shift+])
ߜ
Bring Forward (Ô+] or Ctrl+])
ߜ
Send Backward (Ô+[ or Ctrl+[)
ߜ
Send to Back (Shift+Ô+[ or Ctrl+Shift+[)
To select an object that’s hidden behind one or more other objects, press and hold Ô or Ctrl and then click anywhere within the area of the hidden object. The first click selects the topmost object; each successive click selects the next lowest object in the stacking order. When the bottom object is selected, the next click selects the top object. If you don’t know where a hidden object is, you can simply click the object or objects in front of it and then send the object(s) to the back. (See Chapter 8 for more on selecting stacked objects.) Creating Inline and Anchored Frames
In most cases, you want the frames you place on your pages to remain precisely where you put them. But sometimes, you want to place frames relative to related text in such a way that the frames move when the text is edited.
180 Part III: Object Essentials
The simplest way is to use inline graphics. For example, if you’re creating a product catalog that’s essentially a continuous list of product descriptions and you want to include a graphic with each description, you can paste graphics within the text to create inline graphics frames.
A close cousin to the inline frame is the anchored frame, in which a frame follows a point in the text, but that frame isn’t actually in the text. For example, you might have a “For More Information” sidebar that you want to appear to the left of the text that first mentions a term. By using an anchored frame, you can have that sidebar move with the text so that it always appears to its left, perhaps in an adjacent column or in the page margins.
Figure 10-6 shows examples of both an inline frame and an anchored frame. Figure 10-6:
An inline
frame (at
bottom) and
an anchored
frame (the
two monitors that pop
out from
the column’s right
edge, as
well as the
Anchored
Object
Options
dialog box.
Note that the process of creating inline and anchored frames — especially anchored frames — can appear overwhelming. It does require thinking through the frame’s placement and visualizing that placement so that you pick the right options in the various dialog boxes. But relax: You can experiment until you get the hang of it. That’s why InDesign lets you undo your work.
Chapter 10: Aligning and Arranging Objects
181
Working with inline frames
An inline frame is treated like a single character (even if it does go deeper than a single line). If you insert or delete text that precedes an inline frame, the frame moves forward or backward along with the rest of the text that follows the inserted or deleted text. Although inline frames usually contain graphics, they can just as easily contain text or nothing at all.
Inline frames may interfere with line spacing in paragraphs that have automatic leading. If the inline frame is larger than the point size in use, the automatic leading value for that line is calculated from the inline frame, which leads to inconsistent line spacing in the paragraph. To work around this issue, you can apply a fixed amount of leading to all characters in the paragraph, adjust the size of inline frames, place inline frames at the beginning of a paragraph, or place inline frames in their own paragraphs. You can create inline frames in three ways:
ߜ
By pasting the frame into text
ߜ
By placing the frame into text
ߜ
By using the new Anchored Object menu option
The first two methods are the simplest, but the third gives you more control over the inline frame when you create it. The third way also lets you create anchored frames, which are covered later in this chapter in the section
“Working with anchored frames.”
Using the Paste command
If you want to create an inline frame from an object you already created, all you have to do is copy or cut the object and then paste it into text as you would a piece of highlighted text. Here’s how:
1. Use the Selection tool to select the object you want to paste within text.
You can use any type of object: a line, an empty shape, a text or picture frame, or even a group of objects.
2. Choose Edit➪Copy (Ô+C or Ctrl+C).
If you don’t need the original item, you can use the Cut command (Edit➪Cut [Ô+X or Ctrl+X]) instead of the Copy command.
3. Select the Type tool and then click within the text where you want to place the copied object.
Make sure that the cursor is flashing where you intend to place the inline frame.
4.
Choose
Edit➪Paste (Ô+V or Ctrl+V).
182 Part III: Object Essentials
Inline frames often work best when placed at the beginning of a paragraph. If you place an inline frame within text to which automatic leading has been applied, the resulting line spacing can be inconsistent. To fix this problem, you can resize the inline frame.
Using the Place command
You can also use the Place command to create an inline graphics frame from an external picture file. (You can’t use this technique for inline text frames because InDesign thinks you’re just inserting the new text at the current location, not trying to insert a new text frame there.) Here’s how:
1. Select the Type tool and then click within a text frame to establish the insertion point.
2. Choose File➪Place (Ô+D or Ctrl+D).
3. Locate and select the graphics file you want to place within the text; choose Open.
To delete an inline frame, you can select it and then choose Edit➪Clear or Edit➪Cut (Ô+X or Ctrl+X), or you can position the text cursor next to it and press Delete or Backspace — just like any other “character.”
Adjusting inline frames
After you create an inline frame, you can adjust its position vertically or horizontally. Again, you have your choice of several methods.
Two quick-and-dirty methods to move an inline frame vertically are as follows:
ߜ
Use the Type tool to highlight the inline frame as you would highlight an individual text character. In the Character panel or Control panel’s Character pane (the A icon), type a positive value in the Baseline Shift field to move the inline frame up; type a negative value to move the frame down.
ߜ
Use the Selection tool or Direct Selection tool to select the inline frame; drag the frame up or down.
A quick way to move an inline frame horizontally is to follow these steps:
1. With the Type tool selected, click between the inline frame and the character that precedes it.
2. Use the kerning controls in the Character panel or Control panel to enlarge or reduce the space between the inline frame and the preceding character.
Chapter 10: Aligning and Arranging Objects
183
You can more precisely control the position of inline frames by using the Anchored Object Options dialog box, covered in the next section.
Of course, you can also adjust the inline frame’s other attributes as needed, such as strokes, fills, dimensions, rotation, and skew, by using the Tools panel, Control panel, and other panels.
Working with anchored frames
Anchored frames give you a whole new way of organizing objects. Essentially, they follow the relevant text within the parameters you specify, such as staying to the left of the text or staying at the top of the page that contains the text. Note that an inline frame is a type of anchored frame, one where the frame stays within the text it is linked to. For simplicity, I’m using the term anchored frame to mean only those frames that are at least partially outside the text frame but remain linked to a specific point in the text.
In addition to preserving anchored frames in imported Microsoft Word files, InDesign lets you create anchors in your layout. To create anchored frames, do the following:
1. Select the Type tool and then click within a text frame to establish the insertion point.
2.
Choose
Object➪Anchored Object➪Insert.
The Insert Anchored Object dialog box appears.
3. In the Object Options section of the dialog box, specify the anchored frame’s settings.
You can choose the type of content (text, graphics, or unassigned) with the Content pop-up menu, apply an object style by using the Object Style pop-up menu, apply a paragraph style via the Paragraph Style pop-up menu (if Content is set to Text), and set the anchored frame’s dimensions in the Height and Width fields. Note that the paragraph style you choose, if any, applies to the anchored frame, not to the paragraph in which the anchored frame is linked.
4. In the Position pop-up menu, choose what kind of frame you’re creating: Inline or Above Line (both are inline frames) or Custom (an anchored frame).
The dialog box displays different options based on that choice, as Figure 10-7 shows.
184 Part III: Object Essentials
Figure 10-7:
The Insert
Anchored
Object
dialog box
for inline
frames
(left) and
anchored
frames
(right).
Anchored frames that you add by choosing Object➪Anchored
Object➪Insert don’t have text automatically wrapped around them. Use the Text Wrap panel (Window➪Text Wrap [Option+Ô+W or Ctrl+Alt+W]) to open this panel and set text wrap. But anchored frames created by pasting a graphic into text do automatically have text wrap around them.
Selecting the Prevent Manual Positioning option ensures that the positions of individual anchored frames can’t be adjusted by using InDesign’s other text and frame controls (such as Baseline Shift). This option forces users to use this dialog box to change the anchored frame’s position, reducing the chances of accidental change.
5. Decide whether to select the Relative to Spine option.
If this option is not selected, the anchored frame is placed on the same side of the text frame on all pages, whether those pages are left-facing or right-facing. If the Relative to Spine option is selected, InDesign places the text frame on the outside of both pages or inside of both pages, depending on how the anchored position is set.
6. In the Anchored Object section of the dialog box, click one of the positioning squares to set up the text frame’s relative position.
Note that you need to think about both the horizontal and vertical position you desire. For example, if you want the anchored frame to appear to the right of the text reference, click one of the right-hand squares. (Remember that selecting the Relative to Spine option overrides this setting, making the right-hand pages’ positions mirror that of the lefthand pages, rather than be identical to them.) If you choose the topmost Chapter 10: Aligning and Arranging Objects
185
right-hand square, the anchored frame is placed to the right of the text reference and vertically appears at or below that text reference. But if you choose the bottommost right-hand square, you’re telling InDesign you want the anchored frame to appear vertically above the text reference. Experiment with your layout to see what works best in each case.
7. In the Anchored Position section of the dialog box, click one of the positioning squares to set up the text reference’s relative position.
Although nine squares appear, the only three that matter are those in the middle row. Typically, you place the text reference on the opposite side of the anchored frame — if you want the anchored frame to be to the left, you’d indicate that the text reference is to the right. (If you set the text reference on the same side as the anchored frame, InDesign places the anchored frame over the text.) The reason three squares (left, middle, and right) appear is to accommodate layouts in which you want some anchored frames to appear to the left of the text and some to the right; in that case, choose the middle position here and select the right-or left-hand position in the Anchored Object section as appropriate to that object.
8. In necessary, use the options in the Anchored Position section to give InDesign more precise instructions on how to place the anchored frames.
You have the following options:
•
The X Relative To pop-up menu tells InDesign from where the horizontal location is calculated, using the following options: Anchor Marker, Column Edge, Text Frame, Page Margin, and Page
Edge. The right option depends both on where you want the
anchored frames placed and whether you have multicolumn text
boxes (in which case Text Frame and Column Edge result in different placement, while in a single-column text frame they do not). You can also specify a specific amount of space to place between the chosen X Relative To point and the anchored frame by typing a value in the X Offset field.
•
The Y Relative To pop-up menu tells InDesign from where the vertical location is calculated, using the following options: Line (Baseline), Line (Cap-height), Line (Top of Leading), Column Edge, Text Frame, Page Margin, and Page Edge. As you expect, you can also indicate a specific amount of space to place between the
chosen Y Relative To point and the anchored frame by typing a
value in the Y Offset field.
• The Keep Within Top/Bottom Column boundaries check box
does exactly what it says.
9. Click OK to insert the anchored frame.
186 Part III: Object Essentials
Anchoring caveats
Consider these caveats when creating
stay in specific locations on the page for
anchored frames:
good visual appearance. The InDesign
ߜ
anchored-frame function can accomBecause an anchored frame follows its modate that need for specific positioning
text as it flows throughout a document,
on a page, but you need to be careful as
you need to ensure that your layout retains
you add or delete text. You don’t want to
clear paths for those anchored objects to
end up with some pages that have no pullfollow. Otherwise, anchored frames may quotes at all because you have so much
overlap other frames as they move.
text between the pull-quotes’ anchor
ߜ Anchored frames should generally be small
points. Conversely, you need to make sure
items and/or used sparingly. The more items
that you don’t have too many pull-quotes
you have anchored to text, the greater the
anchored close to each other, which can
chance that they’ll interfere with each
result in overlapping.
other’s placement. Likewise, you can move
Typically, you use anchored frames for small
large items only so far within a page, so
graphics or icons that you want to keep next
the benefit of keeping them close to their
to a specific paragraph (such as the Tip and
related text disappears.
Warning icons used in this book). Another
ߜ Items such as pull-quotes are obvious can-good use is for cross-reference (“For More didates for use as anchored frames. But in
Information”) text frames.
many layouts, you want the pull-quotes to
You can create inline frames using this same basic process, choosing Inline or Above Line in Step 4 in the preceding steps. You get most of the same controls as for anchored objects, such as the frame size and type, but, of course, you don’t see controls for the relative position because an inline frame goes at the text-insertion point. If you want to create an inline frame, use the techniques described in the previous section for copying or placing a frame into text. Converting existing frames to anchored frames
After you get the hang of when and how to use anchored frames, you’ll likely want to convert some frames in existing documents into anchored frames. InDesign doesn’t offer a direct way to do that task, but you can take a somewhat circuitous path:
1. Use the Selection or Direct Selection tool to cut the existing frame that you want to make into an anchored frame by choosing Edit➪Cut (Ô+X
or Ctrl+X).
You can also copy an existing frame by choosing Edit➪Copy (Ô+C or Ctrl+C).
Chapter 10: Aligning and Arranging Objects
187
2. Switch to the Type tool and click in a text frame at the desired location to insert the text reference to the anchored frame.
3. Paste the cut or copied frame into that insertion point by choosing Edit➪Paste (Ô+V or Ctrl+V).
You now have an inline frame.
4. Select the frame with the Selection tool and then choose Object➪Anchored Object➪Options to display the Anchored Object Options dialog box.
This dialog box looks like the Insert Anchored Options dialog box, shown in Figure 10-7, except that it doesn’t include the top Object Options section; you can see that section in Figure 10-6.
5. Choose Custom from the Position pop-up menu.
This step converts the frame from an inline frame to an anchored frame.
6. Adjust the position for the newly minted anchored frame as described in the previous section.
7. Click OK when you’re done.
Adjusting anchored frames
After you create an anchored frame, you can adjust its position. A quick-and-dirty method is simply to click and drag anchored frames or use the Control panel to adjust their position. If the text the frame is anchored to moves, however, InDesign overrides those changes. (You can’t manually move an anchored frame if the Prevent Manual Positioning option is selected in the Insert Anchored Object dialog box or Anchored Object Options dialog box. This option is deselected by default.)
For the most control of an anchored frame’s position, choose
Object➪Anchored Object➪Options. The resulting Anchored Object Options dialog box is identical to the Insert Anchored Object dialog box but without the Object Options section.
And, of course, you can adjust the frame’s other attributes as needed, such as strokes, fills, dimensions, rotation, and skew.
The Select Next Object and Select Previous Object functions now work for anchored objects in text. If you select an anchored object and use these functions, InDesign CS4 moves to the next (or previous) anchored object in the current story. (Chapter 8 covers object selection.)
16_388488-ch10.indd 187
9/23/08 7:03:40 PM
188 Part III: Object Essentials
Releasing and deleting anchored frames
If you no longer want an anchored frame to be anchored to a text location, you can release the anchor. To do so, select the anchored frame with the Selection or Direct Selection tool and then choose Object➪Anchored Object➪Release. It’s also easy to delete an anchored frame: Select the frame with the Selection or Direct Selection tool and then choose Edit➪Clear or press Delete or Backspace. If you want to remove the object but keep it on the Clipboard for pasting elsewhere, choose Edit➪Cut (Ô+X or Ctrl+X).