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Threading text in frames
Now that you’ve formatted the text, you’ll add a travel article to the document. Because it’s long, not all of the article will fit on the page. You’ll thread the text so that it flows correctly throughout the document.
Placing and flowing text
You’ll start by selecting an article describing the trip of travelers Judith and Clyde to Oaxaca that was saved as a Microsoft Word file. You’ll place this file on page 3 and then thread the text throughout your document.
- Make sure that no objects are selected by choosing Edit > Deselect All, and then choose File > Place. In the Place dialog box, make sure that Show Import Options is deselected.
- Navigate to the Lesson_02 folder in the Lessons folder, and double-click the 02_Article.doc file.
- Position the loaded text icon just below the fourth guide from the bottom margin and just to the right of the left margin, and click.
- Select the Selection tool (
), and click the out port in the selected frame. The pointer becomes a loaded text icon. Now you’ll add a column of text to
the lower half of the second column.
- Position the loaded text icon immediately below the fourth guide from the bottom margin and just to the right of the second column guide (be sure not to click the previously created text frame above), and click. Text now fills the lower portion of the right column.
- Choose File > Save.
The pointer changes to a loaded text icon (
). With a loaded text icon, you have several choices. You can drag to create a new text frame, click inside an existing frame,
or click to create a new text frame within a column. You’ll add this text to a column in the lower half of page 3.
The text flows into a new frame in the lower half of the first column on page 3. When a text frame has more text than it can
fit, the frame is said to have overset text. Overset text is indicated by a red plus sign (
) in the out port of the frame, which is the small square just above the lower-right corner of the frame. You can link overset
text to another frame, create a new frame into which the overset text flows, or expand the size of the frame so that the text
is no longer overset.
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Threading text
You’ll continue to thread text to the next page, because the article is long. First you will click the out port and then link to a text frame—a technique called manual threading. You can also thread text using semi-automatic and automatic threading.
- Using the Selection tool (), click the out port in the frame that is in the second column on page 3.
- In the Pages panel, double-click the page 4 icon to center page 4 in the document window.
- Hold down the Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) key and click the loaded text icon in the upper-left corner of the first column.
- Position the loaded text icon in the upper-left corner of the second column on page 4, and click.
- Click the out port in the text frame on the second column of page 4.
- In the Pages panel, double-click the page 7 icon, centering page 7 in the document window.
- Hold down the Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) key, position the loaded text icon in the left column, just below the guide on page 7, and click. Release the Alt or Option key.
- Position the loaded text icon in the second column below the guide, and click. Any remaining text from the story flows into the second column.
- Choose File > Save.
This prepares InDesign CS4 to flow the overset text from this text frame to another frame.
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The text flows into the left column. Since you held down the Alt or Option key, the pointer remains a loaded text icon, and you do not need to click in the out port before flowing text from this frame. This is called semi-automatic threading.
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Now you’ll flow the remaining text into the two columns at the bottom of page 7.
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Depending on where you click to create the frame and the version of the fonts in use, text may fit exactly or be slightly overset. Either way, you will create a frame in the column at right to contain text as it reflows.
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You have finished threading text frames in this document. A threaded set of frames is called a story.