ADOBE TRAINING, CS6 INDESIGN BASICS: WORKING WITH TEXT Adobe InDesign is a powerful program for professional design and layout of documents. It is used by professional graphic designers and marketing professionals to create flyers, brochures, magazines and more. In this tutorial you will learn to: • Work with text frames • Type/Edit text • Import text from MS Word or RTF files • Move and resize a text frame • Format text by using basic font choice, styles, color and more • Thread text between frames • Add columns to text frames • Type text on a path
Adding Text Frames All text in an InDesign document is entereted into a Text Frame. There are two main tools you can use to create text frames in InDesign. Option 1: Draw a Text Frame Using the Type Tool Select the (1) Type Tool from the Toolbar and (2) left-click drag and draw a text frame in the desired location on your document. As you drag the (3) measurements of the frame will appear. When you let go of the mouse the cursor will flash in the frame and you can enter text.
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Option 2: Use the Frame Tool Select the (1) Frame Tool (also known as a Placeholder) from the Toolbar and (2) left-click and draw a frame in the desired location on your document. As you drag the measurements of the frame will appear (not pictured). To add text to the frame select the (3) Type Tool from the Toolbar and click on the (4) X in the Frame. The cursor will flash in the frame and you can enter text. Note: If you click and hold on the Frame Tool you will be given three different frames (rectangle, ellipse or polygon) to select from.
Edit Text in a Frame To edit text in a frame, activate the (1) Selection Tool from the Toolbar and (2) double-click in the text frame you want to edit. This will activate the cursor in the text frame. Note: Wherever you click in the frame is where the cursor will be activated. You can use the arrow keys to move the cursor to another location in the text frame.
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Text Edit Shortcuts: • left-click and drag over text to select it • double-left click to select a single word • triple-left click to select the entire line • quadrupal-left click to select the entire paragraph Press the Esc key to return to the Selection Tool to exit the text edit mode.
Insert Special Text/Bullets: You can insert special text, symbols and bullets by going to InDesign Menu > Type > (1) Insert Special Character OR (2) Bulleted & Numbered Lists. Insert Glyphs: Insert an ornament or other special "glyphs" by choosing (3) InDesign Menu > Type > Glyphs. Select the Glyph from the (4) dialog box. Note: You can change the glyph options by picking a different font from the (5) Show drop-down menu. For example: Wingdings includes many ornaments and symbols.
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Import Text with the Place Command InDesign has a special feature, known as the Place Command, to make it easy to import text from MS Word and RTF documents. Although you can easily copy and paste text from documents into text frames into InDesign, it is recommended that you use the import text option for anything more than a paragraph, text with special formatting, OR text in foreign languages. To Place Text: Select InDesign Menu > File > Place. In the dialog box navigate to and (2) select the file you want to import or place in your document. Click (3) Open.
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The cursor will be loaded with text. To place the text choose from the following: • either click in an existing text frame to place the text in that frame OR • left-click and drag/draw a text box for the text OR • click once (near the gridline indicated by a white arrow cursor) in the document and a frame filling the space will be created to accommodate the text. Note: In this mode only, hold the Shift key while placing the text and the imported text will be threaded from page to page in the document. Placed text will take on the styles of the InDesign template if styles are set. Tip: If you place your text wrong, use the keyboard shortcut Mac Cmd + Z OR PC Ctrl + Z to reload the cursor with the placed text.
Moving & Resizing Text Frames Move a Frame: To move a text frame to another location in your document use the (1) Selection Tool and left-click hold drag and drop the text frame to another location in the document. Resize a Frame: To resize a text frame select any one of the handles around the outside of the frame, left-click hold and pull/push to resize. Note: The text will move inside the frame to accommodate the new size. A (2) red + tab (also known as the outport) will appear if text is being cut-off (overset) in the frame. Resize the frame to reveal the hidden text. Fit Frame to Content: To quickly fit your frame to your content select (3) InDesign Menu > Object > Fitting > Fit Frame to Content
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(Shortcut: double-click on any corner handle). Tip: Adjust the corners of a text frame by using the (4) yellow tab corner edits option. The style of the corner can be selected from the InDesign Menu > Object > Corner Options (not pictured).
Text Formatting Options All of the features for formatting text are available in the InDesign Control Panel. Select the text you want to format in the frame and then pick from the many format options in the Control Panel. The options are grouped by format function. Tip: Many of these menus are combo boxes where you can either select or type in a choice in the menu directly. Hover over a tool to see a description or tooltip for each option. Format options can also be found in InDesign Menu > Type.
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Basic Text Format Options: (1) Font type and style (bold, italics, etc.) (2) Font size and vertical spacing (3) Text style (Caps, strikethrough, subscript, underline, etc.) (4) Font space, height, skew, width and related adjustments (5) Color and outline (stroke) options (6) Text alignment (left, right, center, etc.)
Thread Text Between Frames Threading text in InDesign makes it easy to deal with text overset (when there is too much text in a particular frame). To thread text overset in one text frame to another use the (1) Selection Tool to load the overset text in the cursor by (2) clicking on the red + tab (outport) on the outside of the text frame. The overset text will be loaded into the cursor.
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Next, either (3) click into another empty text frame OR left-click hold and draw a new frame to accommodate the overset text. Text in (4) threaded frames will flow from one to another as you add or remove text. Tip: To see the link between frames (as pictured) select (5) InDesign Menu > View > Extras > Show Threaded Text. (6) double-click on either port (blue tab with triangle) to break the link between the frames and place all the text in a single frame again.
Add Columns to Text Frames When setting-up the document you had the option to add columns, however these are only guides. This column settings do not actually make your text format into columns. To format text into columns you need to adjust the options of the text frame. With the (1) Selection Tool choose a text frame to add columns to and then select (2) InDesign Menu > Object > Text Frame Options. In the (3) dialog box choose the number of columns. Note: In ADOBE TRAINING, CS6 INDESIGN BASICS: WORKING WITH TEXT - 8
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the dialog box there are a variety of settings to arrange the column spacing, etc. Once you have made your selections, choose (4) Ok. Text will flow from column to column making it easy to control changes. Tip: Check the (5) Preview option to preview the column options in the text frame. Learn More About Text Frame Properties: http://tinyurl.com/InDesignFrameProperties.
Type Text on a Path To create a special text effect you may want to type text on a path instead of inside a frame. To do this, after drawing the frame select the (1) Type on a Path Tool from the Toolbar. Note: To reveal this tool in the Toolbar left-click and hold on the Type Tool.
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(2) Place the cursor on the outside of the path until the cursor indicates the + sign (this is when text will be properly placed on the outside of the path). Click and then type like normal. Note: Once an object has been changed to a Type on a Path object you can use the type tool to edit the text.
Type on a Path Options Type on a Path text formatting works similar to other text, but it also includes some additional options. Select the path with the (1) Selection Tool and choose (2) InDesign Menu > Type > Type on a Path > Options. In the dialog box, choose from a variety of options to adjust your Type on a Path. Note: Select the (3) Preview option to see the changes in the document before selecting (4) Ok. Learn More About Type on a Path Options: http://tinyurl.com/InDesignTypePath.
Additional Resources Adobe TV: http://tv.adobe.com/ Adobe InDesign Help Documents: http://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/topics.html ADOBE TRAINING, CS6 INDESIGN BASICS: WORKING WITH TEXT - 10
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