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1. The Fifth Text Wrap Option
InDesign CS3 added tons of controls for all sorts of commands to the Control panel. This
makes it easy to add text wraps to objects without going to the regular Text Wrap panel.
Watch out, though. There’s an extra text wrap option that is only available in the regular
Text Wrap panel, and not in text wrap options in the Control panel. The fifth text wrap
option is Jump to Next Column (or frame or page). This command ensures that the text
wrap object is the final object in the column.
But you’ll never know the option is there if you look only at the Control panel for your text
wrap commands.
14. How Spaces at the Start or End of a Line of Text Affect Centering
Let’s say you have a single line of text that you need to center in the frame. It’s no problem
to click the center alignment icon in the Paragraph panel. But what if that line of text has an
extra space at the end of the paragraph? Do you have to delete the extra space at the end
of the line? Does the extra space affect the position of the text?
Fortunately, the answer is “No.” InDesign ignores an extra space at the end of a line when
centering text. However, the opposite is not true. An extra space at the start of a paragraph
will affect the position of a line when centering text.
• Use the Type on a Path tool on the text frame outline and type the headline.
• Position the text brackets so that the text begins and ends above the text frame.
• Thread the text frames by selecting the headline out-port and connecting it to the
text frame.
• To vertically distance the headline from the body text, apply a baseline shift to
the headline.
Why bother with all these steps? Because you can use Object Styles and Apply Next Style
to format this type of frame and its content with one click. Also, both the headline and the
body appear together in the Story Editor.
• Hover your Text tool cursor over the bottom or right edge of the table so that the cursor
changes to a double arrow.
• Now, press and hold down the mouse button – but still don’t move the mouse.
• Now move the mouse down (for extra rows) or to the right (for extra columns). The more
you drag, the more rows or columns InDesign adds.
Colour
1. Apply Only Color Attributes with the Eyedropper
If you load the attributes of an object with the Eyedropper tool while holding down the
Shift key, the Eyedropper loads only the colour of the object (ignoring all other object
attributes). If you load attributes of an object with the Eyedropper and hold down Shift
while applying the attributes to another object, InDesign applies only the colour to the
object.
2. Switch Swatches
The New Swatch button on the Swatches palette duplicates any selected swatch. To
duplicate the swatch and open the New Color Swatch dialog, hold down Option/Alt while
clicking it. To create a spot colour version of a swatch, select the swatch and hold down
Command/Ctrl while clicking the new swatch icon. You can also switch among RGB, CMYK,
and Lab modes inside the Color Swatch dialog box by holding down Shift while clicking on
the colour proxy.
5. Make Tints
You can easily create a named, tinted colour from any colour in your Swatches palette
in InDesign (including CMYK builds). Open your Swatches palette (Window > Swatches),
choose the colour you want to start with, type a percentage in the Tint box, then
immediately click the New Swatch icon at the bottom of the palette. The new colour is
named the same as the original with the percentage indicated to the right of the name.
Changes to the original colour are reflected in the tint based on that colour.
Modifications
1. Reverse the Direction of an Arrow
When you add an arrowhead to an open path, the arrowhead appears at either the start of
the path or the end. However, you might want to change the placement of the arrowhead
from one end of the path to the other. The quickest way to do so is to choose Object >
Paths > Reverse Path. That will change the start of the path to the end and the end to the
start. You can also click the Reverse Path icon in the Pathfinder panel.
7. Quick Duplications
You probably already know you can hold down the Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) key to
drag and duplicate objects. The Option/Alt key can perform the same duplication function
during other operations, too. For example, you can hold down the Option/Alt key as you
choose Flip Horizontal from the Control palette menu. InDesign will duplicate and then
flip the selected frame. Or place the cursor in the X field of the Control palette and change
the value. Then press Option/Alt-Enter and InDesign moves a duplicate of the object to the
new location.