Working with objects
The building blocks of InDesign pages are objects—text frames, graphics frames, rules (lines), tables, and more. In general, you move and resize objects with the Selection tool. Objects can have a fill color (background color), stroke weight (outline or frame thickness), and stroke color. You can move objects around freely, snap them to other objects, or place them with precision according to guides or values you enter. In addition, you can resize and scale objects and specify how text wraps around them. You will learn more about objects in Lesson 4, “Working with Objects.” Here, you will experiment with a few object features.
Wrapping text around an object
To see text wrap in action, you will flow text around the apple shape in the lower-right quadrant of the postcard.
- Using the Zoom tool (
), zoom in on the lower-right quadrant of the postcard. - Using the Selection tool (
), click the apple shape, which is actually an InDesign object. - Choose Window > Text Wrap.
- In the Text Wrap panel, click the Wrap Around Object Shape button (
). - Close the Text Wrap panel.
- Choose File > Save.
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Moving an object and changing the stroke
When an object is selected with the Selection tool, you can drag it around to move it and you can change its formatting. Here, you will move the speech bubble at the bottom of the page so the words appear to be coming out of the worm’s mouth. You will then change the stroke weight and color.
- Using the Selection tool (), select the speech bubble text frame.
- Point at the text frame to display the mover pointer (
), and then drag the frame up to the worm’s mouth as shown. The precise placement doesn’t matter. - With the text frame still selected, click the Stroke panel icon at the right. In the Stroke panel, choose 1 pt from the Weight menu.
- With the text frame still selected, click the Swatches panel icon at the right.
- Click the Stroke box (
) at the top of the panel to indicate that you want to apply color to the text frame’s border. - Select Berry Red.
- Click the pasteboard to deselect all objects.
- Choose File > Save.
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