InDesign: Working with Text
InDesign is a very intuitive application when handling text. I'll show you some useful text manipulation techniques, which will help you get results faster and more efficiently.
Today, I'll show you how to manipulate text in InDesign. You'll perform the tasks explained on this page. At the end of the class, you'll hand in the files, which will count for 5% of your final mark.
Placing (or importing) Text
Placing text in InDesign is equivalent to the "Get Text" command in Quark XPress, but better. When placing text, you have the option of preserving a link between the InDesign document and the original text file. When the original text file is changed, then the InDesign document can automatically be updated. To do so, go Preferences >Type and check "Create links when placing text and spreadsheet files". This lets us avoid typing changes into the document, which can lead to errors.
You have options when importing text. InDesign helps you create new pages if too few exist. It can also offer various options for threading text while importing.
Threading Text
InDesign offers sophisticated text threading options. Each text frame has an "In Port" and an "Out Port". These are used to connect, or "Thread" text frames. You can also change the order of text frames, add frames in between existing ones, or delete existing ones without losing any content. We'll try this out in class.
Story Editor
InDesign document often include images, text columns, various type sizes & colours and multiple pages. The Story Editor helps you sort through a document to quickly find text and edit it. It presents text in a simple "Note Pad" type environment. The changes made in the Story Editor are reflected in the actual document. These changes take place on the fly, so you can see how they affect your layout. The Story Editor indicates overset text, tables, inline objects, hyperlinks, footnotes and index markers. It's a more responsive environment for editing text which may be sluggish in its actual layout.
Text Frame Options
To change text frame options, go Choose Object >Text Frame Options, or hold down Option and then double-click the text frame. You can set the number of columns and rows as well as their widths and gutters.
When you select "Fixed Column Width", resizing the frame creates more or fewer columns of the same width.
The "Text inset" setting does what you would expect. Padding is inserted aroung the perimeter of the box.
For Vertical Justification, choose an option to determine how text is aligned within the frame.
Select "Ignore Text Wrap" to make the text in the text frame ignore any text wraps.
The Baseline settings are used to determine where the text sits relative to the baseline in the text frame.
Finding and Changing Text
InDesign can find complex text patterns as well as text attributes.
Pasting Text
If you set Preferences properly, you can get InDesign to insert spaces at the right places when pasting text. Go InDesign >Preferences >Type. Select "Adjust Spacing Automatically When Cutting And Pasting Words". Voilà. When you paste a word with no space before or after it, InDesign will put it in for you. If you paste text before a period, it's smart enough to not add a space there.
Object Styles
This is just too cool! You are aware of Character Styles and Paragraph Styles. Object Styles are like these, but they can be applied to any object. You can set the appearance of almost any object, then save its appearance to a style. When you want to apply the style to an object, you use the Object Styles palette to attribute it.
Footnotes
InDesign handles footnotes really elegantly. You simply need to place the cursor where you want the superscript number to appear. Control-click and select "Insert Footnote". Easy. There are also options for your footnotes under "Type >Document Footnote Options".