Tài liệu InDesign CS5 Bible- P7 docx

l If you have selected an object in a group of objects, using the Direct Selection tool, choose Object ➪ Select ➪ Previous Object in Group to navigate to the previous object in the grou

The first four options let you select another object relative to the currently selected object:

l First Object Above selects the topmost object.

l Next Object Above selects the object immediately on top of the current object.

l Next Object Below selects the object immediately under the current object.

l Last Object Below selects the bottommost object.

If no objects are selected, InDesign bases its selection on the creation order

Tip

You can also access these four selection options by Control+clicking or right-clicking an object and choosing Select from the contextual menu n

The Select submenu has four other options:

l If an object has content (text or graphic) and you’ve selected that content, choose Object ➪ Select ➪ Container to choose the frame (the container) This is the same as selecting it with the Selection tool

l If an object has content (text or graphic) and you’ve selected its frame (the container), choose Object ➪ Select ➪ Content to choose the content within the object This is basically the same as selecting it with the Direct Selection tool

l If you have selected an object in a group of objects, using the Direct Selection tool, choose Object ➪ Select ➪ Previous Object in Group to navigate to the previous object in the group

l Similarly, if you have selected an object in a group of objects, using the Direct Selection tool, choose Object ➪ Select ➪ Next Object in Group to navigate to the previous object in the group

memoriz-l Option+Shift+Ô+] or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+] selects the topmost object

l Option+Ô+] or Ctrl+Alt+] selects the object immediately on top of the current object

l Option+Ô+[ or Ctrl+Alt+[ selects the object immediately under the current object

l Option+Shift+Ô+[ or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+[ selects the bottommost object

Control panel selection buttons

The Control panel also provides iconic buttons — Select Previous Object and Select Next Object —

to select the next or previous object, as well as the Select Contents and Select Container iconic tons to select the content or container (frame) Figure 10.3 shows the buttons

but-If you Shift+click either selection button, InDesign jumps past four objects and selects the fifth one If you Ô+click or Ctrl+click either button, InDesign selects the bottommost or topmost object, respectively

Note

If you use the Select Previous Object or Select Next Object buttons and reach the top or bottom of the object stack, InDesign loops back from the top to the bottom object or from the bottom to the top object n

Selecting multiple objects

When an object is selected, you can move or modify it When several objects are selected, you can move or modify all the objects at one time, saving you the time and drudgery of selecting and per-forming the same modification to several objects one at a time You have several options for select-ing multiple objects You can:

l Choose the Selection tool and press and hold Shift while clicking in succession the objects you want to select

l Choose any of the selection tools and then click in an empty portion of the page and drag

a rectangle (called a marquee) around any portion of each object you want to select Make

sure you don’t click an item (which selects it) or you’ll move it when you drag

l If you use the Selection tool, the bounding box of each item is selected You can resize any of the bounding boxes, but the anchor points and direction lines of the shapes within are not selected and cannot be moved

l If you use the Direct Selection tool, the anchor points and direction handles of the shapes in the bounding boxes are selected You can change the shape of any of the objects by dragging an anchor point or a direction handle

l If you want to select all items on a page or spread, choose Edit ➪ Select All or press Ô+A

or Ctrl+A (If the Type tool is selected and a text frame is active when you choose Select All, you highlight all the text, if any, in the frame.) If the Direct Selection tool is selected when you choose Select All, the anchor points and direction handles of the shapes in the selected objects’ bounding boxes are selected If any other tool is selected when you choose Select All, the bounding boxes of the objects are selected

Deselecting objects

A selected object remains selected until you cause it to become deselected, and there are many sons you might want to deselect an item For example, you might want to deselect a text frame if

rea-you want to see how it looks when displayed without the frame’s in and out ports visible, or rea-you might want to simply let go of an object you just finished working on You can deselect a selected object in several ways:

l Click in an empty portion of the page with any of the selection tools selected

l Press and hold Shift with any of the selection tools selected and click the object you want

Moving Objects

Before you can move an object, you must first select it When an object is selected, InDesign vides several methods for moving or copying it

pro-You can move a selected object by:

l Clicking and dragging it to a different location: When you drag an object, you can

move it anywhere within the current page or spread, into an open library (see Chapter 7 for more information about libraries), or into another document (if another document is open and its window is visible) If you drag an object from one document to another, a copy of the object is placed in the target document and the original object remains unchanged in the source document

Tip

Press and hold Shift as you drag to restrict the angle of movement to the nearest 45-degree angle based on the direction in which you’re moving your mouse n

l Pressing any of the arrow keys: Each time you press an arrow key, the object is nudged

by the distance specified in the Cursor Key field in the Units & Increments pane of the Preferences dialog box (choose File ➪ Preferences ➪ Units & Increments or press Ô+K on the Mac, or choose Edit ➪ Preferences ➪ Units & Increments or press Ctrl+K in Windows)

The default nudge value is 1 point If you press and hold Shift when using arrow keys, the nudge increment is 10 points

l Selecting it with the Selection or Direct Selection tool and then double-clicking the tool to open the Move dialog box: You enter the desired horizontal (X) and vertical (Y)

coordinates, or the distance from the current location and the angle of the new location from the existing one

l Selecting it with any of the selection tools, then choosing Object ➪ Transform ➪ Move or pressing Shift+Ô+M or Ctrl+Shift+M: You enter the desired horizontal (X)

and vertical (Y) coordinates, or the distance from the current location and the angle of the new location from the existing one

l Changing the X and Y values in the Control panel or in the Transform panel: These

values determine the distance between an object’s control point and the ruler’s zero point, where the horizontal and vertical rulers intersect (usually the upper-left corner of a page

or spread) (If the Control panel is not open, activate it by choosing Window ➪ Control or pressing Option+Ô+6 or Ctrl+Alt+6 If you want to use the Transform panel, activate it by choosing Window ➪ Object & Layout ➪ Transform.) Figure 10.4 shows the Control panel and Transform panel and their controls If you want, change the object’s control point — where the X and Y coordinates refer to

Each of the preceding methods for moving objects has its merits The method you choose depends

on how you prefer to work

Cross-Reference

Chapter 1 explains how to set the control point InDesign lets you move and copy entire pages between ments, as described in Chapter 5 n

FIGURE 10.4

The Control panel (top) and Transform panel (bottom)

Creating Copies of Objects

After you create something — a simple, rectangular frame or a complicated graphic made up of several dozen objects — InDesign makes it easy to reuse the original InDesign provides many options for copying objects within documents as well as across them

Copying objects within documents

Here are your options for copying objects within a document:

l Copy and Paste commands (choose Edit ➪ Copy or press Ô+C or Ctrl+C; choose Edit ➪ Paste or press Ô+V or Ctrl+V): Using these commands is a good choice if you

have to copy something from one page to another A great option is Paste in Place (choose Edit ➪ Paste in Place or press Option+Shift+Ô+V or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+V), which pastes an object in the same place as the original object It’s very handy when copying an element from one page to another because it places the copy in the same location on the new page, saving you the effort of moving it (When copying among documents, Paste in Place uses the same X and Y coordinates as the original.)

Note

When you paste an object in InDesign, it is pasted into the current spread displayed on screen However, if you have even a few pixels of another spread showing at the top of your screen, the pasted object will be placed on that spread, not the one that takes up the bulk of your screen area Thus, you may think the object didn’t actu- ally get pasted when in fact it was pasted in the spread above the one you’re focused on n

l Duplicate command (choose Edit ➪ Duplicate or press Option+Shift+Ô+D or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+D): The Duplicate command is quicker than using copy and paste When

you duplicate an object, the copy is placed one pica below and to the right of the original

Note

InDesign offsets a duplicate by whatever settings are in the Step and Repeat dialog box or by the distance and direction of the last Option+drag or Alt+drag copying of an object — whichever was done last n

l Manual cloning: When you drag and drop an object while pressing and holding Option

or Alt, a copy of the selected object is created If you’re a drag-and-dropper, you may fer this manual method to the Duplicate command

pre-l Cloning with the transform tools: If you press and hold Option or Alt while using any

of the transform tools (Rotate, Shear, Scale, and Free Transform), a copy of the selected object is transformed The selected item remains unchanged

l Control panel and Transform panel cloning: If you press and hold Option or Alt when

you exit the Control or Transform panels (by pressing Return or Enter or releasing the mouse after choosing an option from a menu), the transformation is applied to a copy of the selected item

l Step and Repeat command (choose Edit ➪ Step and Repeat or press Shift+Ô+U or Ctrl+Shift+U): Think of the Step and Repeat dialog box (shown in Figure 10.5) as the

Duplicate command on steroids It lets you create multiple duplicates of selected objects and specify the horizontal and vertical offset of the duplicates Note that if the horizontal offset is 0, the copies have the same X coordinate as the original; if the Y offset is 0, the copies have the same Y coordinate To avoid the copies overlapping the original object

and each other, the horizontal offset needs to be at least as wide as the original object’s width, and the vertical offset needs to be at least as high as the original object’s height

Select Preview to see what the Step and Repeat dialog box’s settings do, to verify they’re set as you want, before clicking OK to make the copies

FIGURE 10.5

The Step and Repeat dialog box Left: The standard version lets you specify how many copies to make and

what horizontal and vertical distance each copy should be placed from the previous copy Right: The

grid-ify version of the dialog box, which lets you create a grid of copies of the original object all at once.

This command is handy if you have to create, for example, a vertical and/or horizontal grid of lines on a page Simply draw a horizontal line at the top of the page or a vertical line along the left edge of the page With the line selected, use the Step and Repeat com-mand to place and evenly space as many additional lines as you need

Tip

If you need to use an object or a group of objects repeatedly, storing them in a library is a good idea After you place something in a library, you can drag-copy as many clones as you want into any document (Chapter 7 covers libraries.) n

The Step and Repeat dialog box adds a new capability: gridified step-and-repeat If you select the Create as a Grid option, the dialog box lets you specify the number of rows and columns to contain the copies, as shown on the right in Figure 10.5 Imagine you are creating business cards, for which a letter-size sheet of paper holds ten cards, organized five deep and two wide You would thus create one busi-ness card at the top left of the page, then use the Step and Repeat dialog box’s gridify capability to set two columns and five rows, with the horizontal spacing and vertical spacing both equaling the card’s width (that is, with no margin between the copies)

You can also do a gridified step-and-repeat when copying an object with the mouse Press and hold Option or Alt when dragging the original to make a copy, then release Option or Alt and press → to add

columns of copies and/or ↑ to add rows of copies (press ← to remove columns and ↓ to remove rows)

When you release the mouse, a grid of copies appears (This works like the gridified frame-creation capability explained in Chapter 9.)

New: Gridified Step-and-Repeat

Copying objects between documents

Occasionally, you’ll want to use something you’ve created in one InDesign document in another document For example, maybe you need an ad that ran in last month’s newsletter again for this month’s edition; or perhaps you created a small illustration for an ad that you want to use in a companion brochure InDesign offers several options for moving objects between documents

l If you need to use the objects in more than one document, you can copy them into a library, which lets you place as many copies as you want in any document (Libraries are covered in Chapter 7.)

l You can open the source document (the one that contains the objects) and the target ument and drag-copy the objects from the source document to the target document

doc-(Choose Window ➪ Arrange ➪ Float All in Windows and then choose Window ➪ Arrange ➪ Tile to display both document windows side by side; Chapter 2 covers working with multiple document windows in detail.)

l A very easy way to share parts of your document is to select the desired objects and drag them out of your document window and onto the Mac or Windows desktop or into a folder You can also choose File ➪ Export or press Ô+E or Crl+E and then choose InDesign Snippet from the Format pop-up menu (Mac) or Save as Type pop-up menu (Windows) in the Export dialog box to create snippets from selected objects InDesign creates a file called a snippet file (with the file name extension idms) that contains all the objects, formatting, and position information You or another person can drag the file onto an InDesign document to place the objects, with all formatting intact

Working with snippets is easy: Just drag objects from InDesign to the desktop or a folder to create the snippet file, and drag the snippet file onto a layout to place the objects on it (You can also place the snippets the same as you can any other file by choosing File ➪ Place or pressing Ô+D

or Ctrl+D.) However, don’t let that simplicity blind you to a couple of cool attributes of snippets:

l You can send snippets to other users on storage drives, via e-mail, or over the network —

as with any other file

l You can control where a snippet’s objects are placed in your document Choose Original Location or Cursor Location in the Position pop-up menu in the Preferences dialog box’s File Handling pane (choose InDesign ➪ Preferences ➪ File Handling or press Ô+K on the Mac, or choose Edit ➪ Preferences ➪ File Handling or press Ctrl+K in Windows) The Cursor Location option means the objects are placed wherever you release the mouse when dragging the snippet

l Choose Edit ➪ Cut or press Ô+X or Ctrl+X to cut objects; or choose the Cut command in the contextual menu you get when Control+clicking or right-clicking an object.

l Choose Edit ➪ Clear or press Ô+Delete or Backspace to delete (clear) the object

l Drag the object to the Mac’s Trash or the Windows Recycle Bin; this clears the object

Note

If you use the Direct Selection tool instead of the Selection tool for these deletion actions for a frame ing a graphic, the graphic is removed from the frame but the frame itself remains (By contrast, if you use the Selection tool, both the graphic and the frame are deleted.) n

contain-Note

Cut objects can then be pasted elsewhere, at least until the time an object is cut or copied Cleared objects cannot be pasted back n

Preventing Objects from Printing

InDesign lets you prevent an object from printing To do so, select the object, open the Attributes panel (choose Window ➪ Output ➪ Attributes), and then select the Nonprinting option (The other settings in this panel control stroke settings, which Chapter 12 covers.)

You would use this feature for comments and other elements that should not print but that you need to have visible on-screen Another approach to nonprinting objects is to place them all on a layer and make the entire layer nonprinting

Cross-Reference

Chapter 6 covers layers Chapter 31 covers printing n

Hiding Objects

InDesign lets you hide objects in your layout, which also prevents them from printing To hide an object, select it and choose Object ➪ Hide or press Ô+3 or Ctrl+3 To show hidden objects, choose Object ➪ Show All on Spread or press Option+Ô+3 or Ctrl+Alt+3

Caution

You can show hidden objects only on the spread you are currently working on There is no way to show all the hidden objects throughout your layout How do you know the current spread has hidden objects? The Show All

on Spread menu option is black (available) on spreads that have hidden objects, and grayed out (unavailable)

on spreads that do not have hidden objects n

New Feature

The ability to hide and show objects is new to InDesign CS5 n

Aligning and Distributing Objects

A key task in any layout is to make sure that objects are correctly aligned and spaced However, that can be difficult to do precisely, given that designers tend to use the mouse to create and posi-tion objects; your hand-eye coordination is rarely exact for each and every object

InDesign provides four ways to make sure that objects are precisely aligned and spaced:

l You can use the X, Y, W, and H coordinates in the Control panel or the Transform panel

to specify the exact coordinates for every object Just select an object and specify its dinates in the panel However, this often requires figuring out the math for the proper coordinates, which can be difficult, especially for visually oriented designers

coor-l To take the math out of your hands, InDesign has the Align panel, which lets you align and distribute objects The Align panel saves you the hassle of manually moving and plac-ing each element, or it figures out the correct coordinates for elements’ locations in the Control panel or Transform panel so that you can do so The Align panel is where InDesign offers these timesaving capabilities

l You can use InDesign’s guides and the snap to capability to help ensure that manually

placed items at least align to your desired X or Y coordinates, as Chapter 7 explains

l The smart-guides feature is particularly suited to visually oriented designers: It shows you on-screen — as you size, move, and rotate objects with the mouse — when the object you’re working with aligns to nearby objects and when it is spaced equidistantly to other nearby objects This feature provides the precision you want while you are doing actual work, saving you from having to fix alignment and spacing after the fact, which is what you have to do when you use the Control, Transform, or Align panels

Working with the Align panel

The Align panel (choose Window ➪ Object & Layout ➪ Align or press Shift+F7), shown in Figure 10.6, has several iconic buttons that let you manipulate the relative position of multiple objects in two ways (The buttons show the alignments they provide.)

With the Align panel, you can:

l Line up objects along a horizontal or vertical axis For example, if you’ve randomly

placed several small graphic frames onto a page, you can use the iconic alignment buttons

in the Align panel to align them neatly — either horizontally or vertically

l Distribute space evenly among objects along a horizontal or vertical axis Here’s a

typical problem easily solved by using this feature: You’ve carefully placed five small graphics on a page so that the top edges are aligned across the page, and there is equal space between each picture Then you find out one of the graphics needs to be cut After deleting the unneeded graphic, you could use the Align panel to redistribute the space among the remaining graphics so they’re again equally spaced

Note

The Align iconic buttons don’t work with objects that have been locked with the Lock command Also, if the objects are on a locked layer, you need to unlock the layer (Chapter 13 covers locking Chapter 6 covers layers.) n

When you click a button in the Align panel, selected objects are repositioned in the most logical manner For example, if you click the Align Left Edges iconic button, the selected objects are typi-cally moved horizontally (to the left, in this case) so that the left edge of each object is aligned with the left edge of the leftmost object Along the same lines, if you click the Distribute Vertical Centers iconic button, the selected objects are moved vertically so that an equal amount of space exists between the vertical center of each object.

Spacing can appear uneven if you click the Distribute Horizontal Space or Distribute Vertical Space iconic buttons when objects of various sizes are selected For objects of different sizes, you usually want to use the Distribute Spacing buttons (which make the space between objects even) rather than space objects based on their centers or sides (which is how the Distribute Object buttons work)

Note that the unnamed pop-up menu in the Align panel lets you choose where selected objects align: Align to Selection (the default behavior), Align to Margins, Align to Page, and Align to Spread

distrib-Working with live distribution

InDesign CS5 lets you redistribute the spaces among objects as you drag the mouse using its distribution capability Normally when you select multiple objects and begin moving one of the control points for the selected objects’ marquee, each object is resized based on the direction and length you move the mouse However, if you press and hold the spacebar shortly after beginning that mouse movement, InDesign instead redistributes the object within the area defined by the marquee (Release the spacebar and the mouse button to apply the new spacing.) The new mar-quee shape determines the space within which the objects are equally redistributed

live-Figure 10.7 shows the live-distribution capability in action (the rightmost portion), and compares

it to the normal resizing behavior (the middle portion)

New Feature

The live-distribution capability is new to InDesign CS5 n

InDesign has two little-known methods to get dimension information about objects: the Measure tool and the Info panel Because so much information about object size and position resides in the Control panel, these methods are little used They’re more vestiges of InDesign’s pre-Control panel era, but they can be useful on occasion.

Available through the Eyedropper tool’s pop-out menu or via the shortcut K, the Measure tool opens the Info panel and lets you draw a line whose dimensions appear in that panel (look for D1 in the upper left) so you can measure an arbitrary distance You can measure the distance of two segments if you press and hold Option or Alt when dragging the tool for the second segment Note that the second measurement must start where the first measurement left off — the two measurement lines must share

a corner That second measurement appears in the D2 area, as shown in the figure

Although you can see objects’ dimensions in the Control, Transform, and Info panels, the value of the Measure tool is that it enables you to determine the distance between objects rather than the dimen-sions of objects It can also come in handy when you’re measuring the distance across multiple objects

The figure shows the tool and Info panel

When you select an object, the Info panel also shows its width and height, as well as any rotation angle, gradient, or stroke applied Although these are all bits of information you can get from the Control panel

or Transform panel, the Info panel does show one bit of unique information: In its upper-left quadrant, the panel shows the current position of the mouse, providing a handy way to ensure that your starting and ending points when drawing something are exactly where you want them, especially when used with the transformation-values indicator that appears next to the mouse pointer (see Chapter 11)

Using the Measure Tool and Info Panel

Working with smart guides

Using the smart guides feature is easy First, make sure that smart guides are enabled You do so in the Smart Guide Options section of the Guides & Pasteboard pane of the Preferences dialog box by selecting the Align to Object Center and/or the Align to Object Edges options (Choose InDesign ➪ Preferences ➪ Guides & Pasteboard or press Ô+K on the Mac, or choose Edit ➪ Preferences ➪ Guides & Pasteboard or press Ctrl+K in Windows.)

Aligning to an object’s center tells InDesign to look for the centerpoint of other objects as you move or resize objects and use those as alignment targets Aligning to object frame edges has InDesign look for other objects’ edges and use those as alignment targets Turning on both pro-duces more smart guides as you work on objects

Figure 10.8 shows the smart guide feature in action in three sequences (in each sequence, at left is

is let go

l The third sequence shows me moving a circular frame from the bottom to the upper right

of the page You can see the smart guide that indicates the mouse is aligned to the point of the second object, and if I let go here, the circular frame’s centerpoint aligns to that other object’s centerpoint

FIGURE 10.8

Smart guides in action At top is a new frame being added (at right) The middle sequence shows a smart guide that automatically appears indicating an edge alignment, and the third sequence shows a smart guide indicating a centerpoint alignment, as well as two smart-spacing indicators that show the spacing between the three objects is now equidistant

Working with smart spacing and measurements

You probably noticed additional visual indicators in the third sequence of Figure 10.8: the spacing

indicators between each set of objects This visual indication is called smart spacing, which you also

turn on in the Smart Guide Options section of the Guides & Pasteboard pane of the Preferences dialog box, following the two alignment options When smart spacing is on, InDesign looks at the relative spacing of nearby objects as you work with one and highlights when the spacing is the same, or close to being the same (in which case it moves them for you)

A fourth smart feature option in the Smart Guides Options section of the Guides & Pasteboard pane: smart measurements In this case, as you resize or rotate objects, InDesign shows a smart guide when the object being transformed matches the specs — such as dimensions or rotation angle — of other nearby angles, under the assumption that maybe you want them to be the same

As with the other smart guide functions, let go of the mouse when the guides appear so that you can get those matching settings

Using the Gap Tool

When you are working with several objects close together, you often end up adjusting their relative size and margins to fit within a set space on the page That means adjusting each object one by one The Gap tool lets you adjust them together, saving effort and making it easier to try out differ-ent adjustments

New Feature

The Gap tool is new to InDesign CS5 n

When you select the Gap tool and position the mouse between objects, you see a gray highlight for the gap between the objects — that gap might be horizontal or vertical, depending on where the mouse pointer happens to be and what objects are near it When the desired gap is highlighted, there are four adjustments you can make, as Figure 10.9 shows:

l If you press and hold the mouse button and drag the mouse, the objects are resized The gap between them remains the same size So, for a vertical gap, as in the upper-left corner

of Figure 10.9, moving the gap to the right widens the objects on the left side of the gap and narrows the objects on the right side of the gap

l If you press and hold Shift, only the objects nearest the mouse pointer are adjusted when you drag the mouse, as shown in the upper-right corner of Figure 10.9

l If you press and hold Ô or Ctrl, dragging the mouse changes the gap’s width Dragging

to the right on a vertical gap widens the gap (and narrows the objects on either side to make room); dragging to the left on a vertical gap narrows the gap (widening the objects

on either side to take up the extra space) Dragging up on a horizontal gap widens the gap, and dragging down on a horizontal gap narrows the gap The lower-left corner of Figure 10.9 shows the vertical gap being narrowed

l If you press and hold Option or Alt, dragging the mouse moves all the items on either side

of the gap in the direction you move the mouse, as the lower-right corner of Figure 10.9 shows

Tip

You can combine the keyboard shortcuts when using the Gap tool Thus, Shift+Ô+dragging or Shift+Alt+dragging

a gap moves just the gap’s immediately adjacent objects, not all the objects that border the gap n

Note

The Gap tool ignores locked items and master page items n

FIGURE 10.9

The Gap tool in action Top left: Dragging the mouse repositions the selected gap, resizing the adjacent objects accordingly Top right: Shift+dragging the gap repositions the selected gap for just the nearest objects, resizing just those objects Bottom left: Ô+dragging or Ctrl+dragging the gap resizes the gap, resizing the adjacent objects to make room or take up the freed space Bottom right: Option+dragging or Alt+dragging the gap moves all the adjacent objects

After you create an object, you can move, modify, or delete it If the object is a frame, you also have the option of modifying the text or graphic within it Before you can modify an object, you must select it When an object is selected, commands and controls for changing its position and appearance become available To select an object, you must first choose either the Selection or Direct Selection tool The Selection tool selects the entire object, whereas the Direct Selection tool selects its graphic (if a graphics frame) and its edges and points (for all objects) The new content grabber makes it easier to select partially obscured objects

There are several techniques to select objects partially or fully obscured by other objects that lap them, including the selection tools in the Object menu and Control panel The new content indicator also makes it easy to select graphics frames, as well as reposition their contents

over-You can create a single copy of any object by using the Copy and Paste commands, by using the Duplicate command, or by Option+dragging or Alt+dragging a clone of the original The new grid-ify capability lets you create multiple copies when Option+dragging or Alt+dragging The Step and Repeat command lets you create multiple copies of objects and position the copies relative to the originals — a new capability for this tool lets you set up a grid of copies The Paste in Place com-mand pastes an object on a new page at the same X and Y coordinates as the original object

You can prevent selected objects from printing using the Attributes panel, as well as by hiding the objects using the new Hide command

The Align panel lets you align multiple objects and control the amount of space between them, whereas vertical and horizontal ruler guides and snap-to-grid features help you accurately position and align items You can also distribute objects precisely using this panel, as well as with the new live-distribute capability The smart guides capability lets you more easily align and size objects accurately; InDesign displays guides when your mouse location would make the object you’re now working with have the same alignment, size, or spacing as nearby objects do; so if your intent is to create a similarly positioned, sized, or spaced object, you know when you have done so and thus can release the mouse button at the correct location

The new Gap tool lets you adjust the space (gap) between adjacent objects, resizing the objects automatically as needed to achieve the desired gap width

Transforming Objects

IN THIS CHAPTER

Resizing and scaling objects Rotating, shearing, and flipping objects Controlling how InDesign displays transformation values

Repeating transformations Undoing transformations Replacing object attributes

One of the wonders of desktop publishing is how you can make

fun-damental changes to objects You can make them smaller, bigger, and wider You can rotate them, flip them, and skew them Try that with a printed photograph or strip of type

The most common transformations include resizing frames and resizing (scaling) their contents The other basic transformations — rotating, shearing, and flipping — are used less often, with rotation being the most widely use-ful and the other two usually limited to special effects

For all of these controls, InDesign offers multiple ways to achieve the desired transformation: menu options, tools, panels, and dialog boxes When you have a choice, pick whatever is most convenient at the moment

Cross-Reference

Chapter 10 covers how to select objects, as well as how to move, copy, delete, and align them Chapter 12 covers special effects such as adding strokes and lighting effects n

The Control panel contains all sorts of transformation controls Figure 11.1 identifies them

FIGURE 11.1

The Control panel’s transformation controls

Control points Rotation Angle

Scale X Percentage and Scale Y Percentage

Shear X AngleRotate 90° Clockwise

Flip Horizontal

Rotate 90° CounterclockwiseFlip and Rotation Status

Flip VertcialWidth and Height Selection controls (see Chapter 10)

Resizing and Scaling Objects

Two closely related transformation features are resizing and scaling The difference is that resizing affects just the container — the frame or path — whereas scaling affects both the container and its contents (For straight lines and for curved lines with no graphics or text, there is no difference between resizing and scaling because there are no contents.)

Resizing methods

After you create a shape, frame, path, or line, you may find that it’s too big or too small for your design No problem Resizing objects is as easy as moving them, and as is the case with reposition-ing objects, you have two basic options for resizing: the mouse or your choice of the Control or Transform panel

Using the mouse

Click and drag the control handles on an object’s bounding box using the Selection tool To change the width and height, drag a corner handle To change only the width or height, drag a midpoint handle If you press and hold Shift as you drag, the object’s original proportions are retained

l If you resize a graphics or text frame with the Selection tool, InDesign resizes just the frame Press and hold Ô or Ctrl to also scale the contents For lines and paths, resizing

the bounding box (the invisible “frame” that enclosed them) resizes the object but does not affect the thickness (weight) of any strokes unless you also press and hold Ô or Ctrl while dragging

Using the Control or Transform panel

As with using the mouse, how you select an object determines what is resized (see the previous tion) After selecting an object in the desired way, modify the horizontal and/or vertical dimensions

sec-by changing the W (width) and/or H (height) values in the Control panel or Transform panel For a frame or path containing graphics, if the contents are selected rather than the bounding box or path outline, the new size values apply to the contents rather than to the container Otherwise, the con-tainer is resized

When you are attempting to resize an object, you may end up reshaping it instead Chapter 16 explains

in detail how to reshape objects using the Direct Selection tool, but because you can accidentally reshape an object when selecting it with the Direct Selection tool, here’s what you need to know about the basics of reshaping with that tool:

l If you select an object (as opposed to its contents) with the Direct Selection tool, dragging one of its anchor points or nodes will usually reshape the object rather than resize it

l Likewise, if you select a path with the Direct Selection tool, its nodes appear so that you can reshape the path (see Chapter 16)

l If you select a line, dragging its nodes will simply move the line, not resize it

Sometimes, when you select an object with the Direct Selection tool, you can’t reshape it — just move

it Notice how the anchor points, or nodes, are filled in when this occurs (They must be hollow to let

you edit the object’s shape.) This solid node mode usually occurs if you select the tool with the Selection

tool and then switch to the Direct Selection tool To get the editable (hollow) nodes, just click the board to deselect the object and then select it again with the Direct Selection tool

paste-Finally, if you meant to resize an object’s contents, not its frame or shape, using the Direct Selection tool, choose Edit ➪ Undo or press Ô+Z or Ctrl+Z to undo that accidental reshaping — just be sure to do

so before performing other actions

The Basics of Reshaping Objects

If you want to have the X and Y values change by the same amounts when you enter a new value for either, be sure that the Constrain Proportions for Width & Height iconic button shows a solid chain in the Control panel If the button shows a broken chain, each dimension is changed inde-pendently Toggle between the solid chain and broken chain by clicking the button Note that the Transform panel does not have this button.

Resizing lines works a little differently: When a line is selected with any selection tool, the W and

H fields are replaced by the L field, in which you can enter the line’s new length Doing so ensures that the line’s angle is not changed by the resize

Scaling methods

There are similar ways to change the scale of an object’s contents:

l Select the Scale tool If it’s not already selected, click the object you want to scale and

then drag the mouse in the direction you want to scale the object, as shown in Figure 11.2

(You don’t need to drag on any handles.) If you select the object with the Selection tool, both the frame and its contents are scaled If you select the object with the Direct Selection tool, only its contents scale, not its frame

If you want, you can click and drag the reference point from its default location in the upper-left corner of the bounding box to a different location When the object grows or shrinks, the reference point doesn’t move, but it does affect how InDesign interprets the direction and degree of scale desired as you move the mouse Press and hold Shift and drag horizontally to apply only horizontal scale, vertically to apply only vertical scale, and diagonally to apply both horizontal and vertical scale and keep the object’s original pro-portions Release the mouse button when the object is the size you want

l Choose the Free Transform tool, select an object handle, and drag in the direction you want to scale the object Selecting a corner handle scales the contents and frame in

both dimensions, whereas selecting a side handle scales the contents and frame only in that side’s dimension, as Figure 11.2 shows

l Using the Selection tool, click and drag a handle to resize a graphics or text frame

Note that the contents are not scaled, just the frame To change the content’s scale as well

as the frame size while doing this, press and hold Ô or Ctrl

l Select the object and then change the values in the Scale X Percentage and Scale Y Percentage fields in the Control panel or Transform panel If you used the Selection

tool to select the object, both the frame and contents are scaled; if you used the Direct Selection tool, just the frame is scaled

Note

If you want to have the X and Y percentage values change by the same amounts when you enter a new value for either, be sure the Constrain Proportions for Scaling iconic button shows a solid chain in the Control or Transform panel If the button shows a broken chain, each dimension is changed independently n

FIGURE 11.2

Two methods to scale an object’s frame and contents (in this example, to widen the object) Left: Clicking and dragging with the Scale tool Right: Selecting an object, switching to the Free Transform tool, and then dragging an edge or corner

Note

When you select a scaled object with the Selection tool, the Control or Transform panel may still show scale values of 100 percent InDesign has a control in the Preferences dialog box’s General pane to change that odd behavior, as Chapter 3 explains n

Performing Other Transformations

In addition to the essential mundane capabilities to move, copy, delete, resize, and scale objects, InDesign provides tools and several controls in the Control panel and Transform panel that let you

perform more dramatic effects on objects, such as rotation, mirroring, shearing (which distorts a

shape by applying a combination of rotation and slant), and flipping

For all these tools, keep these tips in mind:

l If you press Option or Alt as you drag, you work on a copy of the object.

l To get finer control as you drag, click farther from the active object’s reference point.

l If you drag immediately after clicking an object, the object appears in its original location and the object’s bounding box moves as you drag If you click and then pause

until the cross hair changes to an arrowhead, the object appears as you drag

l A key consideration is what you use to select an object before applying a tion If you use the Selection tool, the transformation will apply to the entire object If you

transforma-l The Rotate and Shear tools rely on the object’s control point — the black square in the matrix of nine reference points shown at the left of the Control and Transform panels —

to determine where rotation and shearing are done from You can also simply click

any-where in the document window with these tools to choose your own control point for the current operation (This control point choice method also applies to the Scale tool.)

l You can access all these functions by choosing Object ➪ Transform and then ing the desired option from the submenu These functions are also available from the

choos-contextual menu you get when Control+clicking or right-clicking an object You can also double-click the tools themselves to get the same dialog boxes that these menus provide

How you use these transformations is up to you and is limited only by your imagination As always, discretion is advised Just because InDesign has some pretty cool features doesn’t mean that you should use them in every publication you create

Note

The changes in how the Selection tool works in InDesign CS5 (see Chapter 10) mean you won’t need to use the Free Transform, Rotate, or Scale tools very often, because you can do all of their actions with the Selection tool Where these tools still have a unique use is when you want to apply your transformation not from the object’s centerpoint but from another control point The Selection tool acts as if the centerpoint is selected (whether or not it is) in the Control panel or Transform panel; the Free Transform, Rotate, and Scale tools all work based on the active control point.

You can make these other tools work from the centerpoint no matter what control point is selected by pressing and holding Option or Alt as you drag the mouse n

New Feature

If you’re working with multiple objects and want to apply the same transformations to them (with the Selection, Free Transform, Rotate, Shear, or Scale tools), you no longer must first group them InDesign CS5 simply applies the transformations to all the currently selected objects n

As you resize, rotate, or otherwise transform an object using the mouse, InDesign typically displays a gray rectangle below and to the right of the mouse called the transformation-values indicator This indi-cator shows the specific values for the change you are making, so you can see exactly what the result will be when you release the mouse

For example, if you resize a frame, the transformation-values indicator shows its new size live as you move the mouse If you rotate an object, the indicator shows the rotation angle live as well, as you can see in Figure 11.3

You can turn the transformation-values indicator on or off in the Interface face of the Preferences dialog box (choose InDesign ➪ Preferences ➪ Interface or press Ô+K on the Mac, or choose Edit ➪ Preferences ➪ Interface or press Ctrl+K in Windows) Select the Transformation Values check box

to see the indicator; deselect the check box to not see the indicator

The Transformation-Values Indicator

Using the Selection tool

You don’t need to switch to another tool to rotate an object or its contents If you hover the Selection tool just outside a corner, you see a curved double-arrow pointer; you can then drag-rotate the object with the mouse

If you want to rotate a frame’s graphic but not the frame itself, select the graphic with the Direct Selection tool and switch to the Selection tool — or, even easier, just select the object’s content grabber (the doughnut shape) with the Selection tool — then hover the Selection tool just outside

a corner of the graphic’s bounding box so the curved double-arrow pointer appears; you can then drag-rotate the object with the mouse

Figure 11.3 shows an object being rotated