Putting Words on the Page
In This Chapter
ᮣ Creating text frames
ᮣ Putting words on your page
ᮣ Adding pages for new text automatically
ᮣ Threading text from frame to frame
ᮣ Using text columns
ᮣ Making the most of text wrapping
Text is more than words — it’s also a layout element that flows through your pages in the locations that you need. Much of the work you do in InDesign involves controlling that flow and working with the text as blocks that need to have the right arrangement to fit your layout’s goals. This chapter helps you manage that flow and arrangement, showing you how to deftly maneuver the text through your layout, just as you would move your way through the dance floor.
After you have the steps nailed down, you can do the dance: bringing in text from your source files.
Working with Text Frames
When you’re creating a simple layout, such as a single-page flyer or a magazine advertisement, you’ll probably create text frames — the containers for text —
as you need them. But if you’re working on a book or a magazine, you’ll want your text frames placed on master pages so that your text will be consistently framed automatically when it appears on document pages. And you’ll still have individual text frames you create for specific elements like sidebars. Chapter 7 shows you how to create frames (including text frames), whereas Chapter 5 shows you how to create master pages. This chapter brings those two concepts together to show you how to work with text frames, both those in master pages and those you create in your document pages. 192 Part IV: Text Essentials
Creating master text frames
Master pages — predesigned pages that you can apply to other pages to automate layout and ensure consistency — can contain several types of text frames:
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Text frames containing standing text, such as page numbers or page headers.
ߜ
Text frames containing placeholder text for elements such as figure captions or headlines.
ߜ
One master text frame (an automatically placed text frame for flowing text throughout pages), which you create in the New Document dialog box (File➪New➪Document [Ô+N or Ctrl+N]).
Think of a master text frame as an empty text frame on the default master page that lets you automatically flow text through a document. When you create a new document, you can create a master text frame at the same time. Here’s how it works:
1. Choose File➪New➪Document (Ô+N or Ctrl+N).
2. Check the Master Text Frame check box at the top of the New Document dialog box.
3. Specify the size and placement of the master text frame by entering values in the Margins area for Top, Bottom, Inside, and Outside (or Left and Right if Facing Pages is unchecked) fields.
InDesign places guides according to these values and places a text frame within the guides. The text frame fits within the boundaries of these values and those of the guides on the master page.
4. To specify the number of columns in the master text frame, enter a value in the Number field in the Columns area.
You can also specify the amount of space between the columns by entering a value in the Gutter field.
5. Establish any other needed settings, as described in Chapter 3.
Check the Facing Pages check box if your pages will have different inside and outside margins. (For example, a book may have different inside and outside margins for left-hand and right-hand pages.)
6. Click OK to create a new document containing a master text frame. After you create a document with a master text frame, you’ll see guides on the first document page that indicate the placement of the frame.
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Creating individual text frames
Although the master text frame is helpful for containing body text that flows through a document, you’ll probably need additional text frames on both master pages and document pages. Generally, these smaller text frames hold text such as headlines, sidebars, or captions.
To add text frames to a master page for repeating elements such as headers and footers, first display the master page. Choose Window➪Pages (Ô+F12
or Ctrl+F12) to display the Pages panel. Then double-click the A-Master icon in the upper portion of the panel, as shown in Figure 11-1, which displays the A-Master master page. (If you have multiple master pages in your document, you can follow these instructions to add text frames to any of them. Just choose the desired master page.)
Figure 11-1:
To access
a master
page so that
you can add
or modify
text frames
and other
objects,
double-click
its masterpage icon
in the upper
portion of
the Pages
panel.
To add text frames to a document page, first go to the page. You can use any of the techniques described in Chapter 4 to move among pages.
Now draw the desired frame using any of the frame or shape tools, or the Type tool, as described in Chapter 6. Modify them with the Control panel (or Transform panel) or by using the mouse, also as described in that chapter. 194 Part IV: Text Essentials
Text frames you add to a master page will show up on any document pages based on that master page.
If you’re working on a document page and want to type inside a text frame placed on the page by a master page, select the Type tool and then Shift+Ô+click or Ctrl+Shift+click the frame.
Setting up automatic page creation
Often when you import a large text file, such as for a book or report, you don’t know how many pages you need. Chances are that you have a few pages in your document already set up and then add more pages until the text is all placed. InDesign CS4now offers an easier way.
InDesign CS4 has a new feature called autoflow that adds pages to the end of your document until all the text has been placed. For autoflow to work, you must do two things:
1. Enable autoflow in the Type pane of the Preferences dialog box (choose InDesign➪Preferences➪Type [Ô+K] on the Mac or Edit➪Preferences➪Type [Ctrl+K] in Windows).
Be sure that Smart Text Reflow is checked and then choose the appropriate reflow options in the Add Pages To pop-up menu — End of Story, End of Section, and End of Document — to determine where the extra pages are added.
I recommend that you use this feature with the Limit to Master Text Frames and Preserve Facing-Page Spreads options enabled. The first option assumes that you set up master text frames, as described in the
“Creating master text frames” section, earlier in this chapter. If you don’t use such master text frames, don’t check this option. Instead, be sure that if you set up your own text frames in the master page (see the previous section) that you have threaded them to each other, as described in the
“Threading text frames” section, later in this chapter. The second option means that if you have spreads already set up in you document, they won’t get messed up (in other words, be split up) by the added pages.
2. When you place your text, do so in your master text frame or in a text frame defined on your master page.
InDesign uses these (and only these) frames to create the new pages from. Remember that you can place text in a frame that already has text (to replace that text or to add more text), as well as place text in an empty frame. No matter which approach you take, InDesign adds the necessary number of pages for the placed text to flow into.
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The smart text flow feature doesn’t work if you place text into a document text frame; it must be placed in a master text frame or in a text frame that is defined on a master page.
InDesign offers two other methods to autoflow text into master frames, whether or not smart text flow is enabled:
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If you hold the Shift key when placing text, InDesign flows the text into the master frame and keeps going until it runs out of pages with master frames. Then it creates more master frames until the text is all placed. Unlike with the new smart text reflow feature, you can’t control where those pages are added.
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If you hold Option+Shift or Alt+Shift when placing text, InDesign flows the text into the nearest master frame and automatically flows it into the subsequent “open” master frames in your document. Unlike the Shiftonly option, it does not add new pages. The details on placing text are covered in the “Importing text” section, later in this chapter.
Making changes to text frames
You’re not confined to the settings you originally established when you set up a master text frame or an individual text frame; you can change the size, shape, and/or number of columns in the text frame later. Use the Selection tool to click the desired text frame and then modify it with the following options (the first six are covered in detail in Chapter 8):
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Change the placement of a selected master text frame by using the X: and Y: fields in the Control panel.
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Change the size of the master text frame by using the W: and H: fields. ߜ
Change the angle by using the Rotation Angle field.
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Change the skew by using the Shear X Angle field.
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Enter values in the Scale fields to increase or decrease, by percentage amounts, the width and height of the text frame.
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Use the General pane of the Text Frame Options dialog box
(Object➪Text Frame Options [Ô+B or Ctrl+B], shown in Figure 11-2) to make further modifications:
• Change the number of columns and the space between them.
• Specify how far text is inset from each side of the frame.
• Align text vertically within the frame.
• Control the placement of the first baseline.
196 Part IV: Text Essentials
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Use the Baseline Options pane of the Text Frame Options dialog box to set a baseline grid, if desired, for the text to align to. Chapter 10
describes this feature in more detail.
If you don’t want the text inside this text frame to wrap around any items in front of it, check Ignore Text Wrap at the bottom of the dialog box.
If you open the Text Frame Options dialog box with no document open, any changes you make will become the default for all new documents. Figure 11-2:
Change
the properties of a
text frame
using the
Text Frame
Options
dialog box.
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Specify character styles, paragraph styles, object styles, Story panel settings, text-wrap settings, and other text attributes to apply in the text frame to the document text you flow into that frame. (You can always override those attributes by applying other styles or formatting to the text later.) The rest of Part IV covers these other settings.
Additionally, if you select the frame with the Direct Selection tool, you can change its shape by dragging anchor points on the frame to other positions, as described in Chapter 8.
Importing Text
You can import text from a word processor file (Word 97/98 or later, RTF, ASCII [text-only], or InDesign Tagged Text files) into an InDesign text frame using the Place dialog box (File➪Place [Ô+D or Ctrl+D]). You can also import Microsoft Excel spreadsheets (Version 97/98 or later). Many of the text’s original styles will remain intact, although you will want to review the imported text carefully to see whether any adjustments need to be made.
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Follow these steps to place imported text:
1. Choose File➪Place (Ô+D or Ctrl+D) to open the Place dialog box.
2. Locate the text file you want to import.
3. To specify how to handle current formatting in the file, check the Show Import Options check box.
The appropriate Import Options dialog box for the text file’s format opens. (Note that no import options exist for ASCII text.) Then click OK
to return to the Place dialog box.
4. Click the Open button to import the text.
If you selected an empty frame with the Type tool, InDesign will flow the text into that frame. If you selected a text frame with the Type tool, InDesign will flow the text at the text-insertion point in that frame, inserting the new text within the existing text.
If you hadn’t already selected a frame before starting to import the text, specify where to place it by clicking and dragging the loaded-text icon to create a rectangular text frame, clicking in an existing frame, or clicking in any empty frame.
You can select multiple files — text and/or graphics — by Shift+clicking a range or Ô+clicking or Ctrl+clicking multiple files one by one. InDesign lets you place each file in a separate frame. Just click once for each file imported, or Shift+Ô+click or Ctrl+Shift+click to have InDesign place all files on the page in separate frames. The loaded-text icon shows the number of files to be placed, as well as a mini-preview of each file, as shown in Figure 11-3. Figure 11-3:
The loadedtext icon
showing
that multiple files
have been
selected
and show
ing a
preview
of the first
document.
198 Part IV: Text Essentials
When placing files, you can use the keyboard left-and right-arrow keys to move through the thumbnail previews before clicking to place the one whose thumbnail preview is currently displayed. That way, you can place the files in any order you want.
You can’t click on a master text frame — a text frame that is placed on the page by the master page in use — and simply start typing. To select a master text frame and add text to it, Shift+Ô+click or Ctrl+Shift+click it. (For more on master pages, see Chapter 5.)
Import options for Microsoft
Word and RTF files
InDesign offers a comprehensive set of import options for Word and RTF
files. With these options, you can control how these files import into InDesign. To save time on future imports, you can save your import preferences as a preset file for repeat use. Figure 11-4 shows the Microsoft Word Import Options dialog box. The import options for RTF files are identical.
The Preset pop-up menu, at the top of the dialog box, lets you select from saved sets of import options. You can save the current settings by clicking the Save Preset button. And you can set a preset as the default import behavior by clicking the Set as Default button; these settings are used for all Word file imports unless you choose a new default or make changes in this dialog box. This default preset capability lets you avoid using the Import Options dialog box for your routine imports.
The Include section of the Import Options dialog box is where you decide whether to strip out specific types of text (Table of Contents Text, Index Text, Footnotes, and Endnotes) from the Word file. If you check items, their corresponding text will be imported. You probably won’t want to import table-of-contents or index text because you can create much nicer-looking tables of contents and indexes in InDesign.
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Figure 11-4:
The Import
Options
dialog box
for a
Word file.
The third section, Options, has just one option: Use Typographer’s Quotes. If this box is checked, InDesign converts keyboard quotes from your source file (‘ and ") to “curly” typographic quotes (‘, ’, “, and ”). The fourth section, Formatting, is fairly complex, so take it one step at a time. Start with deciding whether to remove or retain the formatting in your imported text.
To remove text formatting during import so that you can do the formatting in InDesign, select the Remove Styles and Formatting from Text and Tables option. You have two additional controls for this option:
ߜ
Preserve Local Overrides, which retains local formatting such as italics and boldface while ignoring the paragraph style attributes. You’d usually want this option checked so that meaning-related formatting is retained.
ߜ
You also can choose how tables are “unformatted” during import via the Convert Tables To pop-up menu. Unformatted Tables retains the table’s cell structure but ignores text and cell formatting, while Unformatted Tabbed Text converts the table to tabbed text (with a tab separating what used to be cells and a paragraph return separating what used to be rows) and strips out any formatting. If you intend to keep tables as tables but format them in InDesign, choose Unformatted Tables. 200 Part IV: Text Essentials
To retain text formatting during import so that the InDesign document at least starts out using the settings used in Word, choose the Preserve Styles and Formatting from Text and Tables option. This option includes several controls and bits of information:
ߜ
The Manual Page Breaks pop-up menu lets you retain any page breaks entered in Word, convert them to column breaks, or strip them out. ߜ
Checking the Import Inline Graphics check box enables the import of any graphics in the Word text.
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Checking the Import Unused Styles check box means that all Word style sheets transfer into InDesign, rather than just the ones you actually applied to text in the file. Unless you want all those extra Word styles, keep this box unchecked.
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Checking the Track Changes check box preserves the revisions tracking information from Word so that you can see it in the companion Adobe InCopy editing program. But InDesign itself doesn’t display or let you use that tracking information. This book doesn’t cover the expert InCopy add-on software.
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Checking Convert Bullets & Numbers to Text removes any automatic bullet and numbering lists in Word, converting the bullets and numbers into the actual characters. If you select this option and insert an item in an imported numbered list, the list doesn’t renumber automatically, as it would if you leave this unchecked. (In previous versions of InDesign, bullets and numbers were converted, eliminating the automatic aspect.) ߜ
If InDesign detects that the Word file has a style with the same name as your InDesign document, it notes how many to the right of the Style Name Conflicts label. You have choices in how to handle these conflicts:
• Use InDesign Style Definition preserves the current InDesign style sheets and applies them to any text in Word that uses a style sheet of the same name. Redefine InDesign Style causes the Word style sheet’s formatting to permanently replace that of InDesign’s style sheet. Auto Rename renames the Word file’s style sheet and adds it to the Paragraph Styles or Character Styles panel. This option preserves your existing InDesign style sheets while also preserving those imported from the Word file.
• Customize Style Import lets you decide which specific InDesign styles override same-name Word styles, which Word styles override same-name InDesign styles, and which Word styles are renamed during import to prevent any overriding.
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Import options for Microsoft Excel files
When importing Excel spreadsheets, you have several options, as Figure 11-5
shows.
In the Options section, you can control the following settings: ߜ
The Sheet pop-up menu lets you choose which sheet in an Excel workbook to import. The default is the first sheet, which is usually named Sheet1
unless you renamed it in Excel. (If you want to import several sheets, you’ll need to import the same spreadsheet several times, choosing a different sheet each time.)
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The View pop-up menu lets you import custom views that are defined in Excel for that spreadsheet. If the spreadsheet has no custom views, this pop-up menu is grayed out. You can also ignore any custom views by choosing [Ignore View] from the pop-up menu.
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In the Cell Range pop-up menu, you specify a range of cells using standard Excel notation Sx: Ey, where S is the first row, x the first column, E the last row, and y the last column, such as A1:G35. You can enter a range directly in the pop-up menu, which also acts as a text-entry field, or choose a previously entered range from the pop-up menu.
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Checking the Import Hidden Cells Not Saved in View check box imports hidden cells. Be careful when doing so, because these cells are usually hidden for a reason. (Typically, they show interim calculations and the like.)
Figure 11-5:
The Import
Options
dialog box
for an Excel
file.
202 Part IV: Text Essentials
In the Formatting section, you can control the following settings: ߜ
In the Table pop-up menu, you choose from Formatted Table, which imports the spreadsheet as a table and retains text and cell formatting; Unformatted Table, which imports the spreadsheet as a table but doesn’t preserve formatting; and Unformatted Tabbed Text, which imports the spreadsheet as tabbed text (tabs separate cells and paragraph returns separate rows) with no formatting retained.
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In the Table Style pop-up menu, you choose an InDesign table style to apply to the imported table or leave it alone (by choosing [No Table Style]).
ߜ
In the Cell Alignment pop-up menu, you tell InDesign how to align the text in cells. You can retain the spreadsheet’s current alignment settings by choosing Current Spreadsheet or override them by choosing Left, Right, or Center.
ߜ
Checking the Include Inline Graphics check box imports any graphics placed in the Excel cells.
ߜ
The Number of Decimal Places to Include field is where you enter how many decimal places to retain for numbers.
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Check the Use Typographer’s Quotes check box to convert keyboard quotes (‘ and ") to the “curly” typographic quotes (‘, ’, “, and ”). Keeping this box checked is a good idea.
Keep characters to a minimum
When you’re working with text in a professional
attributes (Type➪Paragraph [Option+Ô+T
publishing application, such as InDesign, you
or Ctrl+Alt+T]).
need to keep in mind some differences between
ߜ To align text in columns, don’t enter extra
the professional method and traditional way of
tabs; place the same number of tabs
typing:
between each column and then align
ߜ Remember that you don’t need to type
the tabs (Type➪Tabs, or Shift+Ô+T or
two spaces after a period or colon; books,
Ctrl+Shift+T).
newspapers, magazines, and other profesTo see where your InDesign document has tabs, sional documents all use just one space paragraph breaks, spaces, and other such invisafter such punctuation. ible characters, choose Type➪Show Hidden
ߜ Don’t enter extra paragraph returns for Characters (Option+Ô+I or Ctrl+Alt+I). You can space between paragraphs and don’t enter
also view them from the application bar’s View
tabs to indent paragraphs — instead, set up
Options pop-up menu (see Chapter 1).
this formatting using InDesign’s paragraph
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Pasting text into an InDesign document
As you probably already know, you can hold text on the Mac or Windows Clipboard by cutting it or copying it from its original location. After you’ve captured some text on the Clipboard, you can paste it into an InDesign document at the location of the cursor. You can also replace highlighted text with the text that’s on the Clipboard. If no text frame is active when you do the pasting, InDesign creates a new text frame to contain the pasted text. InDesign uses standard menu commands and keyboard commands for cutting/copying text to the Clipboard, and for pasting text. On the Mac, press Ô+X to cut, Ô+C to copy, and Ô+V to paste. In Windows, press Ctrl+X to cut, Ctrl+C to copy, and Ctrl+V to paste.
Text that is cut or copied from InDesign normally retains its formatting, whereas text pasted from other programs loses its formatting. But you can specify whether pasted text from other programs always retains its formatting. Go to the Clipboard Handling pane in the Preferences dialog box (choose InDesign➪Preferences➪Clipboard Handling [Ô+K] on the Mac, or choose Edit➪Preferences➪Clipboard Handling [Ctrl+K] in Windows) and select the All Information option in the When Pasting Text and Tables from Other Applications section. If you select this option, you can still tell InDesign to not preserve the formatting on a case-by-case basis by choosing Edit➪Paste without Formatting (Shift+Ô+V or Ctrl+Shift+V).
Dragging and dropping text
You can drag highlighted text from other programs — or even text files from the desktop or a folder — into an InDesign document. Text that you drag and drop is inserted at the location of the cursor, replaces highlighted text, or is placed in a new rectangular text frame.
When you drag and drop a text selection, its original formatting is usually retained — unless you hold the Shift key when dragging. If you hold the Shift key, the text takes on the attributes of the text you drag it into. When you drag and drop a text file, the process is more like a text import: The text retains its formatting and styles. Unlike the Place command (File➪Place [Ô+D or Ctrl+D]) that imports text, drag and drop doesn’t give you the option to specify how some of the formatting and styles in the imported text file are handled.
204 Part IV: Text Essentials
Threading Text Frames
The text that flows through a series of frames is what InDesign considers a story, and the connections among those frames are called threads. When you edit text in a threaded story, the text reflows throughout the text frames. You can also spell-check and do a find/change operation for an entire story, even though you have just one of the story’s text frames active on-screen. When you have threaded text frames, you’ll see visual indicators on your text frame, assuming that you choose View➪Show Text Threads (Option+Ô+Y or Ctrl+Alt+Y) and have selected the frame with one of the selection tools. At the lower right of the text frame is a small square, called the out port, which indicates the outflow status:
ߜ
If the square is empty, that means you have no text flowing to another frame, and not enough text to flow to another frame.
ߜ
If the square is red and has a plus sign in it, that means you have more text than fits in the selected frame but that it’s not flowing to another frame. This condition is called overset text.
ߜ
If the square has a triangle icon, the text is flowing to another frame. That doesn’t mean that text is flowing, just that if you have more text than the current frame can hold, it will flow.
Similarly, an in port at the upper left of a text frame indicates whether text is flowing from another frame into the current frame:
ߜ
If the square is empty, no text is flowing from another frame, making this frame the first (and perhaps only) frame in a story.
ߜ
If the square has a triangle icon, the text is flowing from another frame. That doesn’t mean that text is flowing, just that if you have more text than the other frame can hold, it will flow into this frame. So how do you thread the frames in the first place? You have four options in InDesign: manual, semi-autoflow, and two types of autoflow. Each of these options has its own icon. The method you choose depends on the amount of text you’re dealing with and the size and number of your text frames: ߜ
To link two empty text frames across several pages (for example, for an article that starts on page 2 and continues on page 24) — for frames where you will later want to text to flow across — you might use the manual method, in which you click the first text frame’s out port and
then click on the second text frame.
ߜ
To link a text frame with text to another text frame, you might also use the manual method, in which you click the first text frame’s out port and then click on the second text frame.
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To link a succession of text frames, you might want to use the semiautoflow method, which allows you to click a series of text frames to flow text from one frame to the next. Hold the Option or Alt key when clicking the mouse during text placement. Remember that, as you’re
threading frames, Option+click or Alt+click each text frame, or you’ll revert to manual threading.
ߜ
To import text that is intended for long documents (such as a book chapter or brochure), you might want to use the autoflow method to add text frames and pages that accommodate the text you’re importing. Hold the Shift key when clicking the mouse during text placement to fill
all open master frames and create new ones as needed. Be sure to Shift+click near the upper-left corner of the master text frame so that InDesign uses that frame rather than create a new one. Note that even if you’ve already placed a text file into a single text frame or a threaded chain of text frames, you can still autoflow text from the last text frame. To do so, click the out port and then Shift+click any page to indicate where to start the autoflow.
ߜ
To import text into a long page where you don’t want new pages added, hold Option+Shift or Alt+Shift. The text autoflows into each open page, but no new pages are added.
ߜ
To place multiple text frames in an array — such as for bios or other snippet-size text — hold Shift+Ô or Ctrl+Shift when dragging the mouse in your document. The files will be placed in an array, each in its own frame within the area defined when dragging the mouse. This new InDesign CS4 feature creates as many frames as it that array, placing the files into them. Any files not placed remain in the load-text icon for placement elsewhere.
For a quick glance at your text threads while you’re threading text across pages, simply change the document view briefly to 20 percent or so.
Text flows in the order in which you select frames. If you move a frame, its order in the text flow remains unchanged. If you’re not careful, you can, for example, accidentally have text flow from a frame at the top of the page to a frame at the bottom of a page and then to one in the middle of a page.
Always switch to a selection tool when you’re threading frames. Oddly, you can’t thread frames while the Type tool is selected. Oh well.
206 Part IV: Text Essentials
Breaking and rerouting threads
After text frames are threaded, you have three options for changing the threads: You can break threads to stop text from flowing, insert a text frame into an existing chain of threaded text frames, and remove text frames from a thread. Here are the techniques in a nutshell:
ߜ
Break the link between two text frames by double-clicking either an out port or an in port. The thread between the two text frames is removed, and all text that had flowed from that point is sucked out of the subsequent text frames and stored as overset text.
ߜ
Insert a text frame after a specific text frame in a chain by clicking its out port. Then, click and drag the loaded-text icon to create a new text frame. That new frame is automatically threaded to both the previous and the next text frames.
ߜ
Reroute text threads — for example, to drop the middle text frame from a chain of three — by clicking the text frame with the Selection tool and then pressing Delete or Backspace. This technique deletes the text frame and reroutes the threads. You can also Shift+click to multipleselect text frames to remove. Note that you can’t reroute text threads without removing the text frames.
Working with Columns
Where you place columns on the page — and the amount of space you allow between columns — has a big impact on readability. Used with a little knowhow, column width works with type size and leading to make text easier to read. Columns help you keep from getting lost from one line to the next, and from getting a headache as you’re trying to read the words on the page.
Generally, as columns get wider, the type size and leading increase. For example, you might see 9-point text and 15-point leading in 21⁄2-inch columns, whereas 15-point text and 13-point leading might work better in 31⁄2-inch columns.
InDesign lets you place columns on the page automatically, create any number of columns within a text frame, and change columns at any time. Chapter 11: Putting Words on the Page
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Specifying columns in master frames
You can specify the number of columns at the same time you create a master text frame — a text frame placed automatically within the margin guides. In the Columns area in the New Document dialog box, use the Number field to specify how many columns, and the Gutter field to specify how much space to place between the columns. (The gutter is the space between columns.) Whether or not you check Master Text Frame (which makes the frame appear on all pages), guides for these columns are still placed on the page and can be used for placing text frames and other objects.
Changing columns in text frames
You can change the number of columns in a text frame (whether an individual text frame or a master text frame), even after you’ve flown text into the frame — and doing so isn’t difficult. First, select the text frame with a selection tool or the Type tool (or Shift+click to select multiple text frames and change all their columns at once). Then choose Object➪Text Frame Options (Ô+B or Ctrl+B) and set the desired Number and Gutter values in the General pane of the Text Frame Options dialog box, shown in Figure 11-2. You can also use the Control panel to quickly change the number of columns, but note that this control doesn’t display on a monitor set below 1152-x-870pixel resolution unless you customize the Control panel interface (to disable other controls to make room for this one) using the Customize command in its flyout menu.
Some designers like to draw each column as a separate frame. I strongly recommend against this practice; it’s too easy to create columns of slightly different widths and slightly different positions, so text doesn’t align properly. Instead, specify columns in your text frames so that you don’t have to worry about sloppy layouts.
Note that the options in the Columns area of the Text Frame Options dialog box work differently depending on whether Fixed Column Width is checked or unchecked:
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If Fixed Column Width is unchecked, InDesign subtracts from the text frame the space specified for the gutters and then divides the remaining width by the number of columns to figure out how wide the columns can be. For example, if you specify a 10-inch-wide text frame with three columns and a gutter of 1⁄2 inch, you end up with three 3-inch columns and two 1⁄2-inch gutters. The math is (10 – (2 × 0.5)) ÷ 3.
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If Fixed Column Width is checked, InDesign resizes the text frame to fit the number of columns you selected at the indicated size, as well as the gutters between them. For example, suppose that you’re using a 10-inchwide text frame with a column width of 5 inches and a gutter of 1⁄2 inch, and you choose three columns: You end up with a 15-inch-wide text frame containing three 5-inch columns and two 1⁄2-inch gutters. The math is (5 × 3) + (2 × 2).
Check Preview to see the effects of your changes before finalizing them. Wrapping Text around Objects
In the days before personal computers and page-layout software, wrapping text around a graphic or other object was a time-consuming and expensive task. Text wraps were rare, found only in the most expensively produced publications. Not any more. Not only do all page-layout programs let you create text runarounds, most programs — including InDesign — provide several options for controlling how text relates to graphics and other objects that obstruct its flow.
When a frame is positioned in front of a text frame, InDesign provides the following options. You can
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Ignore the frame and flow the text behind it.
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Wrap the text around the frame’s rectangular bounding box.
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Wrap the text around the frame itself.
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Jump the text around the frame (that is, jump the text from the top of the frame to the bottom).
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Jump the text to the next column or page when the text reaches the top of frame.
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Specify the amount of distance between the text and the edge of the obstructing shape.
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Flow text within the obstructing shape rather than outside it.
InDesign lets you wrap text around frames on hidden layers — as well as remove text wrap for objects on hidden layers. This technique is handy when you want to hide images or other distracting items but preserve the layout. See Chapter 4 for details on using layers.
If you want to wrap text around only a portion of a graphic — perhaps you need to isolate a face in a crowd — the best solution is to open the graphics file in its original program, create a clipping path around that portion, and then resave the file and import it and its clipping path into an InDesign document. (Chapter 18 explains clipping paths.) Chapter 11: Putting Words on the Page
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The Text Wrap panel
The controls in the Text Wrap panel (see Figure 11-6) let you specify how a selected object will affect the flow of text behind it. Remember, the flow of text around an obstructing object is determined by the text-wrap settings applied to the obstructing object.
You can override the text-wrap settings of objects that are in front of a text frame by telling the text frame to ignore them. To do so, click a text frame and then choose Object➪Text Frame Options (Ô+B or Ctrl+B). In the Text Frame Options dialog box’s General pane, select Ignore Text Wrap and then click OK. Text in the frame now flows behind any obstructing items regardless of the text-wrap settings applied to them.
The Text Wrap panel has three options that may not display when you open it: Wrap Options, Contour Options, and Include Inside Edges. You can more easily hide/show these functions by double-clicking the double-arrow symbol to the left of the Text Wrap label in the panel’s tab or by choosing Hide Options/Show Options from the flyout menu.
Here’s how to apply text-wrap settings to a frame or other object:
1. If the Text Wrap panel isn’t displayed, choose Window➪Text Wrap (Option+Ô+W or Ctrl+Alt+W).
2. Click any of the selection tools.
3. Click the object to which you want to apply text-wrap settings.
The object can be anywhere, but you’ll probably want to position it on top of a text frame that contains text so that you can see the results of the settings you apply.
4. Click one of the five text-wrap iconic buttons at the top of the Text Wrap panel.
The iconic buttons show you what each wrap does conceptually.
5. If you want, adjust the space between the surrounding text and the obstructing shape by typing values in the Top Offset, Bottom Offset, Left Offset, and Right Offset fields.
These fields aren’t available if you click the No Text Wrap button. If the object is a rectangle, all four fields are available if you click the Wrap around Bounding Box button or Wrap around Object Shape. Only the Top Offset field is available if you click the Wrap around Object Shape button for a free-form shape or the Jump to Next Column button. The Top Offset and Bottom Offset fields are available if you click the Jump Object button.
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If the Make All Settings the Same iconic button displays a chain, then changing any of the offset values will cause the other offset values to match. If the icon shows a broken chain, each offset value is independent of the others. Click the button to switch between these two modes.
6. Select Invert if you want to flow the text in the obstructing shape.
7. If you choose the Wrap around Object Shape button and a graphic is in the frame, you can also select from the Contour Options’s Type pop-up menu.
You have six options:
• Bounding Box is the same as clicking the Wrap around Bounding Box button.
• Detect Edges tries to determine the graphic’s outside boundary by ignoring white space — you’d use this option for bitmapped
images that have a transparent or white background.
• Alpha Channel uses the image’s alpha channel, if any, to create a wrapping boundary (see Chapter 18).
• Photoshop Path uses the image’s clipping path, if any, to create a wrapping boundary (see Chapter 18).
• Graphic Frame uses the frame’s boundary rather than the
bounding box.
• Same as Clipping uses the clipping path for the graphic created in InDesign (see Chapter 18).
8. You can control how text wraps around an object that splits a column by choosing an option from the Wrap To pop-up menu.
The options are Right Side, Left Side, Both Right & Left Sides, Side Towards Spine, Side Away from Spine, and Largest Area. You’ll rarely choose Both Left and Right Sides, because unless the object is small, readers’ eyes will stop at the interposed object and not see the rest of the text on the other side of it. Use either of the spine options to have the text stay on the outside or inside of a page, relative to the object, based on whether the page is right-facing or left-facing. You’ll often choose Largest Area because that gives the text the most space next to the interposed object, which tends to be what looks good in many situations.
9. By selecting the Include Inside Edges option, InDesign lets text appear inside any interior “holes” in the graphic.
You’ll rarely use this technique because in most cases it’s hard for the reader to follow text that wraps around an image, flows inside it, and then continues to flow outside it. But if the interior is large enough and not too distant from the text that flows on the outside, this effect may be readable.
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Figure 11-6:
The Text
Wrap panel.
If you specify text-wrap settings when no objects are selected, the settings are automatically applied to all new objects.
To apply text-wrap settings to a master item on a document page, press and hold Shift+Ô or Ctrl+Shift to select the item and then use the controls in the Text Wrap panel as described in the preceding steps. If you don’t want the text wrap applied to existing document items, just to new ones, choose Apply to Master Page Only in the flyout menu.
Setting text-wrap preferences
You should be aware of several global text-wrap options, all of which are accessed via the Composition pane of the Preferences dialog box. (Choose InDesign➪Preferences➪Composition [Ô+K] on the Mac or
Edit➪Preferences➪Composition [Ctrl+K] in Windows.) Here are the options: ߜ
Justify Text Next to an Object: This option is useful when you have leftaligned text that wraps around an object at the right. (It also works if you have right-aligned text that wraps around an object at the left.) This option can lead to an awkward wrap, however, because InDesign won’t try to make the text align precisely to the wrap’s contour (because the text isn’t justified). Use this option to justify the text just around the wrap and then continue using the text’s specified nonjustified alignment. ߜ
Skip by Leading: This option makes text wrap below or above an object based on the text’s leading so that you have at least a full line space between the text and the object, even if the object’s text-wrap settings would allow less space.
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Text Wrap Only Affects Text Beneath: This option, if selected, prevents text frames placed on top of an object from wrapping, while those behind the graphic frame will still be allowed to wrap. This option allows some text to overlap the graphic and other text to wrap around it. Note that this setting is global, affecting all objects. To override wrap settings of individual text frames, choose Object➪Text Frame Options (Ô+B or Ctrl+B) and enable the Ignore Text Wrap option in the General pane. 212 Part IV: Text Essentials