InDesign Articles

Article / Updated 04-03-2017

Many of the tools you find in the InDesign Tools panel are used for drawing lines and shapes on a page, so you have several different ways of creating interesting drawings for your publications. You can create anything from basic shapes to intricate drawings inside InDesign, instead of having to use a drawing program such as Illustrator. Even though InDesign doesn’t replace Illustrator, which has many more versatile drawing tools and options for creating intricate drawings, InDesign is adequate for many drawing tasks. Here, discover how to use the most popular InDesign drawing tools. Creating a shape with exact dimensions Dragging on the page to create a shape is easy, but making a shape with precise dimensions using this method requires a few more steps. If you want to make a shape that’s a specific size, follow these steps: Select the Rectangle tool or the Ellipse tool. The tool is highlighted in the Tools panel. Click anywhere on the page, but don’t drag the cursor. This point becomes the upper-left corner of the Rectangle or Ellipse bounding box (the rectangle that defines the object’s vertical and horizontal dimensions). After you click to place a corner, the Rectangle or Ellipse dialog box appears. In the Width and Height text fields, enter the dimensions for creating the shape. Click OK. The shape is created on the page, with the upper-left corner at the place where you initially clicked the page. Using the Polygon tool A polygon is a shape that has many sides. For example, a square is a polygon with four sides, but the Polygon tool enables you to choose the number of sides you want for the polygon you create. When you’re using the Polygon tool, you may not want to create a shape with the default number of sides. You can change these settings before you start drawing the shape. To customize the shape of a polygon, follow these steps: Select the Polygon tool in the Tools panel by selecting the Rectangle tool and holding down the mouse button until the menu pops up. Double-click the Polygon tool in the Tools panel. The Polygon dialog box opens, as shown at the bottom of this figure. In the Number of Sides text field, enter the number of sides you want the new polygon to have. To create a star instead of a polygon, enter a number in the Star Inset text field for the percentage of the star inset you want the new shape to have. A higher percentage means that the sides are inset farther toward the center of the polygon, creating a star. If you want a regular polygon and not a star, enter 0 in the Star Inset text field. If you want a star, enter 50%; for a starburst, enter 25%. Click OK. Move the cursor to the page and click and drag to create a new polygon or star. Your new polygon or star appears on the page. The figure shows what a few different polygons and stars with different settings look like.

Article / Updated 04-03-2017

You can edit basic shapes using several panels in InDesign and therefore create original shapes and craft exactly the kind of design you require in a page layout. You aren’t stuck with predetermined shapes, such as a square or an oval. You can make these forms take on much more complicated or original shapes. You can edit basic shapes in InDesign in only a few ways. You can edit shapes and manipulate their appearance in other ways. Change the size with the Transform panel You can change the size of a shape by using the Transform panel. Here’s how: With the Selection tool (the solid black arrow tool that’s used to select objects), select the shape you want to resize. When the shape is selected, a bounding box appears around it. You can see a selected shape in this figure. Open the Transform panel by choosing Window→Object and Layout→Transform. In the Transform panel that appears, enter different number values in the W and H fields to change the size of the shape. The shape automatically changes size on the page to the new size dimensions you specify in the Transform panel. Changing the size with the Free Transform tool Easily resize objects in InDesign by using the Free Transform tool. To resize a selected object with the Free Transform tool, follow these steps: Make sure that only the object you want to resize is selected. Group multiple objects if you want to resize several objects simultaneously. To group objects, select one object and Shift-click to add it to the selection, and then press Ctrl+G (Windows) or Cmd+G (Mac). Select the Free Transform tool. Click any corner point and drag to resize the object. Hold down the Shift key while dragging to keep the objects constrained proportionally as you resize. Changing the stroke of a shape You can change the stroke of shapes you’ve created. The stroke is the outline that appears around the edge of the shape. The stroke can range from no stroke to a very thick stroke, and it’s measured in point sizes. Even if a shape has a stroke set to 0 points, it still has a stroke — you just can’t see it. Follow these steps to edit the stroke of your shapes: Select a shape on the page. A bounding box appears around the selected shape. Select a new width for the Stroke by using the Stroke Weight drop-down list in the Control panel. As soon as a value is selected, the stroke automatically changes on the page. This number is measured in points. You use some of the other options in the following step list. You can click in the Stroke text field and manually enter a numerical value for the stroke width. The higher the number you enter, the thicker the stroke. You can also change the style of the stroke from the Control panel by following these steps: With a basic shape selected, select the stroke type from the drop-down list in the Control panel and select a new line. As soon as a value is selected, the stroke automatically changes. Choose a new line weight from the Stroke Weight drop-down list. For example, we chose 10 points. The shape updates automatically on the page. If you want to create custom dashes, you can see more options by choosing Window→Stroke. Choose the panel menu in the upper-right corner of the panel and select Stroke Styles, and then create a new style. You can define the dash and gap size. Enter one value for an even dash or several numbers for custom dashes for maps, diagrams, fold marks, and more! Your custom stroke appears in the Stroke panel after you create it. Add special ends to the lines with the Start and End drop-down lists. For example, you can add an arrowhead or a large circle to the beginning or end of the stroke. The Cap and Join buttons allow you to choose the shape of the line ends and how they join with other paths when you’re working with complex paths or shapes.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Adobe Creative Cloud's InDesign allows you to create basic shapes in a document. You can easily create a basic shape by following these steps: Create a new document by choosing File→New. When the New Document dialog box appears, click OK. A new document opens. Select the Rectangle tool in the Tools panel. Click anywhere on the page and drag the mouse diagonally. When the rectangle is the dimension you want, release the mouse button. You’ve created a rectangle. That’s all you need to do to create a basic shape. You can also use these steps with the other basic shape tools (the Line, Ellipse, and Polygon tools) to create other basic shapes. To access the other basic shapes from the Tools panel, follow these steps: Click the Rectangle tool and hold down the mouse button. A menu that contains all the basic shapes opens. Release the mouse button. The menu remains open, and you can mouse over the menu items. Each menu item becomes highlighted when the mouse pointer is placed over it. Select a basic shape tool by clicking a highlighted menu item. The new basic shape tool is now active. Follow the preceding set of steps to create basic shapes by using any of these tools. To draw a square shape, use the Rectangle tool and press the Shift key while you drag the mouse on the page. The sides of the shape are all drawn at the same length, so you create a perfect square. You can also use the Shift key with the Ellipse tool if you want a perfect circle — just hold down Shift while you’re using the Ellipse tool. Release the mouse before the Shift key to ensure that this constrain shape trick works!

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Exporting an InDesign document to HTML allows you to share the document on the web so that it can be viewed on a variety of devices. The HTML file created by InDesign can also easily be edited. Just open the file using Dreamweaver. To export an InDesign document to HTML, follow these steps: With an InDesign document open, choose File→Export. The Export dialog box appears. From the Save as Type (Windows) or Format (Mac) drop-down list, select HTML. Then find a location on your hard drive or network for the document to be saved. Enter a name for the HTML file in the File Name portion of the Export dialog box. Click the Save button. The HTML Export Options dialog box appears with the General options available for editing. In this dialog box, you can determine whether you’re exporting only the selection (if you had something selected) or the entire document. You can also map how to handle bullets and numbers. Select Image in the left column to see options for saving optimized images. Leave the Image Conversion drop-down list set to Automatic to let InDesign decide whether an image is best saved as a GIF or JPEG file or you can specify the format you prefer for all images. This conversion is needed because the file formats used within InDesign may not work within many web browsers. Select Advanced in the left column to determine how Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are handled — whether you want to use them, or whether you want them to reference (link to) an external CSS style. Return to the General tab along the left side and select View HTML after Exporting if you want the file to open in your default web browser. Then click the Export button. The file is exported. If you selected View HTML after Exporting, the file opens in your browser. Otherwise, you can now open and edit the HTML file directly in Dreamweaver.