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Working With Objects in Adobe InDesign CS5

Sep 8, 2010

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Although InDesign is not a full-fledged drawing program such as Adobe Illustrator, you can use InDesign’s tools to create a wide variety of effects by distorting, moving, resizing, duplicating, and aligning objects. Sandee Cohen shows you how.

This chapter is from the book 

InDesign CS5 for Macintosh and Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide

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In This Chapter:

Types of Frames 88
Creating Basic Shapes 89
Selecting Objects 91
Moving Objects 92
Replicating Objects 94
Resizing Objects 96
Using the Transform Tools 97
Using the Transform Panel 102
Using the Transform Commands 106
Using the Arrange Commands 108
Aligning Objects 109
Smart Dimensions; Smart Spacing 112
Using the Gap Tool 113
Grouping and Pasting Into Objects 114
Using the Control Panel for Objects 117
Using the Measure Tool 118
Using the Info Panel with Objects 120
Locking Objects 121
Selecting Frames 122

Back in the old days of board mechanicals, advertising agencies and design studios had a production area called the bullpen. It was the people in the bullpen—called bullpen artists —who actually created the mechanical. Most of them were kids just out of design school; the bullpen was usually their first step up the ladder in advertising or design.

The kids in the bullpen were amazing. Although not professional illustrators, they could create all sorts of artwork for the layout.

The same is true when working with InDesign. Although InDesign is not a full-fledged drawing program such as Adobe Illustrator, you can use InDesign’s tools to create a wide variety of effects by distorting, moving, resizing, duplicating, and aligning objects. It’s your electronic bullpen.

Types of Frames

Frames are the containers in which you place graphics or text. Frames can also be used as graphic shapes. There are three types of frames you can create: unassigned, graphic, and text.

Unassigned frames

Unassigned frames are created with the Rectangle, Ellipse, and Polygon tools . These frames are useful for adding color to your layout or a stroke around an area without inserting a graphic or text.

The three different types of frames: unassigned, graphic, and text.

Graphic frames

Graphic frames are created with the Rectangle Frame, Ellipse Frame, and Polygon Frame tools. When you create a graphic frame, diagonal lines inside the frame indicate that you can insert a graphic inside the frame .

Text frames

Text frames are created using the Text tool or by converting frames. When you create a text frame, two link boxes appear on the sides of the frame in addition to the bounding box handles. Text frames also display a blinking insertion point when they are selected .

Diagonal Lines in Graphic Frames?

The diagonal lines inside a graphic frame come from a convention that was used in traditional pasteboard mechanicals.

When pasteboard artists drew the lines on mechanicals, they would often block off an area with diagonal lines to indicate that a picture or graphic was to go there.

Electronic page-layout programs such as Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress use the same convention. The diagonal lines indicate where photos or graphics need to be inserted.

However, there is absolutely no rule that says you can only place images in graphic frames. You can place text in graphic frames or images in unassigned frames. The choice is yours.

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