Now you can adjust how close the text will appear around the sides of your image by adjusting the Offset measurements (as shown). With the image still selected, click the second icon, Wrap around Bounding Box, and your text should automatically wrap around your photo. Of course, the image is now covering part of your text and this is where Text Wrap comes in (Window>Text Wrap). Using this method, place an image over the right side of the first paragraph of body text. InDesign will constrain the proportions of the frame to the image you’re placing. In InDesign CS4, there’s a wonderful new feature I call “Proportional Place.” This means you can use the File>Place command, choose your image, and click-and-drag the image onto the page in the exact size you want. Now it’s time to place an image to dress things up a bit. Instead of tabbing in the first line of each paragraph, just set a First Line Left Indent in the Control panel. If you use Indents especially in your Paragraph Styles, this becomes a very unnecessary step. Many times when I receive Word documents that I need to place into InDesign, the sender has taken the time to tab in the first line of each paragraph. Set both the Left Indent and Right Indent to 0.25″. You can close the tab ruler at this point.Ĩ įor the second paragraph of text, let’s indent it on both sides using the Indent controls (circled) in the Paragraph Formatting section of the Control panel. First, let’s create a standard paragraph of text and then we’ll add a second paragraph that we’re going to indent in the next step. Now that you’ve created your list, it’s time to create some paragraph text with indents below the list. Just press Return (PC: Enter) to create the next paragraph and your tab stop will be carried down automatically. Now when you key in your price/time/place, etc., it will be right justified at the tab stop and there will be leader dots from the item name to the item description that you just keyed in. On the left side, which is where your cursor should be, key in the item name, then press the Tab key on your keyboard, and your cursor should jump over to the right tab that we set. While the tab stop is still selected, go ahead and key in a period in the Leader field. But here’s the easy way: Click the Right-Justified Tab (third one from the left) and then click on the ruler near the right indent to add a tab stop. When most people do this, they usually go about it the hard way. We’re going to create a list with leader dots. Now put your cursor on the last new blank paragraph that you created after your headline and bring up the Tabs ruler from the Type menu. Once your headline is centered, adjust the font and size aspects to your taste. Now select the headline and click the Align Center icon in the Paragraph Formatting controls in the Control panel. So before we go any further, go ahead and insert a couple of new paragraphs (press the Return key twice) after the headline. When you keyed in your headline in Step 3, chances are it was left aligned. Now that you’re back to your text frame, double-click on it with the Selection tool to switch to the Type tool and key in your headline.Ĥ
If the little chain icon is enabled, setting one measurement makes all measurements the same. Set the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right Inset Spacing to. We’re going to add a border to our frame a little later and I don’t want that border to actually touch the text in our frame, so before we get started putting text in the frame, let’s set an inset.Ĭhoose Text Frame Options from the Object menu. Of course it’s difficult to be precise when you’re dragging, so switch to the Selection tool, which should automatically select your frame as an object, and then key in the exact 5×7″ measurements in the Width and Height fields in the Control panel.ģ Make it as close to 5×7″ as you can when you’re dragging it out. Select the Type tool (T) from the Toolbox and use it to drag out a new text frame on the page. Uncheck Facing Pages and make your margins. So that we’re all on the same page, literally, create a new blank 8.5×11″ page in InDesign by choosing New>Document from the File menu or by pressing Command-N (PC: Ctrl-N) on the keyboard. But I know they exist because when I’m presenting in front of an audience and I start formatting text, I can see the look of amazement on some folks’ faces as if they’re thinking, “Hey, I didn’t know you could do that!”
The most frequently asked questions I get from people who are new to InDesign revolves around Text Wrap however, there are also questions about text formatting that don’t get asked.