Adding text
With InDesign, most text is contained by a text frame. (Text can also be contained in table cells and flow along paths.) You can type text directly into a text frame or import text files from word-processing programs. When importing text files, you can add the text to existing frames or create frames to contain the text. If text doesn’t fit within the same frame, you can “thread,” or link, the text frames.
Typing and styling text
You’re ready to start working on the incomplete postcard. First, you’ll type text in a text frame shaped like a “speech balloon.” Then, you will format the text and adjust its placement within the frame.
- Select the Type tool (
), and click in the speech balloon at the right. - Type Berries are not born in a box. in the text frame.
- With the insertion point still in the text, choose Edit > Select All.
- If necessary, click the Character Formatting Controls icon (
) in the Control panel. Using the controls at the far left, do the following: - From the Font Family menu, select Myriad Pro.
- From the Font Style menu, select Regular (if necessary).
- Type 7 in the Font Size box to the right of the Font Family menu.
- Type 6 in the Leading box under the Font Size box.
- Toward the middle of the Control panel, click the Center button (
). - With the insertion point still in the text, choose Object > Text Frame Options. Select the General tab (if necessary).
- In the Vertical Justification section, select Center from the Align menu.
- Select the Preview box in the lower-left corner to see the change, and then click OK.
- Choose File > Save to save your work.
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You will now set an option for the text frame to control how the text is positioned vertically within the frame.
Note the location of the Columns and Inset Spacing features, which are helpful for positioning text within a frame as well. You will use these in later lessons.
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Importing and flowing text
In most publishing workflows, writers and editors use word processors. When the text is almost final, they send the files to graphic designers. To complete the postcard, you will import a Microsoft Word file into a text frame at the bottom of the page using the Place command. You will then link the first text frame to the other two frames using a process called “threading.”
- Make sure that no objects are selected by clicking a blank area of the pasteboard.
- Choose File > Place. At the bottom of the Place dialog box, make sure that Show Import Options is not selected.
- Navigate to the Lesson02 folder, in the Lessons folder, and double-click the BerryFarms.docx file.
- Position the loaded text icon in the upper-left corner of the text frame, then click.
- Using the Selection tool (
), select the text frame that now contains the text. - Click the out port in the lower-right corner of the selected frame. The pointer becomes a loaded text icon. Click in the text frame immediately to the right.
- Once the text flows into the middle text frame, click that frame’s out port. The pointer again becomes a loaded text icon. Click in the remaining text frame to finish threading the frames.
- Choose File > Save.
The pointer changes to a loaded text icon (
). You’ll add this text to the text frame in the lower-left quadrant of the postcard. (The text frames are outlined by light blue nonprinting lines.)
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The text in the Word file fills the frame, but it doesn’t all fit. A red plus sign (+) in the out port of the frame indicates overset text. You will thread these text frames so the text flows through them.
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At this point, text is still overset and the apple-shaped object is overlapping the text. You will resolve these problems by formatting the text with styles and wrapping the text around the apple shape later in this lesson.
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