Chapter 2. Getting Type on Your Page

TYPOGRAPHY BEGINS with a single character, and putting type on your page is about as fundamental as InDesign skills get. There are several different approaches to getting type on the page. You’ll use all of them at one time or another. Let’s begin with the most elemental.

Creating Text Frames

In InDesign, text frames hold your type. Each independent section of text is referred to as a story. A story can contain a single character or hundreds of pages of connected, or “threaded,” text. An InDesign document typically contains multiple stories, as would a newspaper or magazine. You can create a text frame in any of the following ways:

• Draw one using either a Frame Tool or a Shape Tool. Select the Type Tool and click within the object to activate it as a text frame.

• Create one on the fly by clicking and dragging on the page or pasteboard with the Type Tool to define the width and height of the frame. When you release the mouse button, a flashing type cursor appears in the top left of the frame and you’re ready to start typing.

• Choose File > Place or press Cmd/Ctrl+D to import a text document. You will see a loaded text cursor. Click on the page to flow the text and you automatically create a text frame that is the width of the column.

Unless you’ve redefined the [Basic Paragraph] Paragraph Style, the default font will be Minion Pro Regular 12 point. Since you’ll be applying formats to the type, it doesn’t really matter how it starts out. But if you want to change the default font, here’s how: Open the Paragraph Styles panel, right-click [Basic Paragraph], and choose Edit. From the list of options on the left choose Basic Character Formats and change the font, point size, and so on. While you’re in Paragraph Style Options you can also change any other attributes, like the alignment, indents, or hyphenation. Realistically, though, nothing ends up as [Basic Paragraph]. It is just the point from which you start your text formatting.

Figure 2.1 The Text Cursor: A dotted square around the cursor indicates you can drag to create a text frame (A). The cursor bulges (B) you are over an empty frame. When you import—or “place”—text, the cursor appears “loaded.” (C)

Figure 2.2 The Smart Cursor indicates the dimensions of the frame you are drawing.

Figure 2.3 To change the default font, edit the [Basic Paragraph] definition.

Figure 2.4 Aligning the Type cursor to a guide.

Text Flow

While it’s possible to compose your text in InDesign, most of the time the writing is done in a dedicated word processing application like Microsoft Word, or possibly in InDesign’s editorial cousin, Adobe InCopy. For example, I’m writing this book in Word (it’s not my choice, but my editors insisted). Arguably, when documents need to go back and forth in a review cycle it’s easier to use Word for its editorial features like Comments and Track Changes. (A moot point, you might argue, now that InDesign also has a Track Changes feature.)

It’s our job as designers to import the prepared text into InDesign, where—juxtaposed with imagery and flowed from column to column and from page to page—we make it look beautiful.

To import—or “place”—a text file, choose File > Place or Cmd-D/Ctrl-D, navigate to the file you’re after, and click Open. Your loaded type cursor displays the first few words of the text file in a thumbnail.

You can either click the loaded cursor inside a frame or create a frame by clicking on a blank area of your page. The point at which you click becomes the top of the text frame; the width of the frame is determined by the page’s column and margin settings. To align the top of the text frame with the top margin (or a ruler guide you have drawn), hover over the guide until the arrow that is part of the loaded cursor icon changes from black to white, indicating that the text frame will “snap” to that guide.

Figure 2.5 The Place selection on the File menu.

Figure 2.6 Aligning the loaded Text Cursor to the top margin. The white arrow indicates that the top of the text frame will “snap” to the guide.

Figure 2.7 The anatomy of a text frame.

Each text frame contains an In port and an Out port, which are used to make connections to other text frames. An empty In port or Out port indicates the beginning or end of a story, respectively. A blue arrow in either indicates that the frame is linked to another frame. A red plus sign (+) in an Out port indicates that there is overset text—more text than will fit in the current text frame(s). To flow the overset text, select the frame with the Selection Tool, click the red plus sign to “reload” your cursor, move to where you want to continue the text flow, and click at the top of a new column or page, or inside a text frame.

Alternatively, click and drag the loaded type cursor to the size you want. When you release the mouse button, text will flow into the area defined.

If you have the Selection Tool selected and want to edit type within a text frame, double-click in the frame to switch to the Type Tool. You can toggle between the Type Tool and the Selection Tool by holding down Cmd (Ctrl). When you let up the Cmd (Ctrl) key, you’re back in the Type Tool.

To move a text frame, select it with the Selection Tool and click and drag from within the frame. To resize a text frame, select it with the Selection Tool and pull from one of its handles.

Figure 2.8 The Text flow cursors.

Figure 2.9 The Preflight notification area (top) and the Preflight Panel showing overset text.

Dragging and Dropping Text Files

In addition to placing text files using the File > Place command, it’s possible to drag and drop text files into InDesign from the Mac OS X Finder, from Windows Explorer, or from Bridge, the all-around Swiss Army knife–type application that comes with InDesign. Depending on the size of your monitor (this approach works best when you have a lot of screen real estate), this may be a faster, more fluid way of working. If you’re lucky enough to have a dual monitor setup, you can park your Bridge window on the second display and drag content to your InDesign page as needed, speeding workflow massively. If you don’t have a second monitor, you can set the Bridge view to Compact mode so that its Content window remains in front of InDesign—or, with CS5, use the Mini Bridge panel, which functions as an integral file browser within InDesign itself. Either option lets you drag text and pictures into your layout with such ease that your pages take form almost instantaneously.

For documents like newsletters, magazines, and newspapers that are made up of multiple stories, the ability to simultaneously place multiple text and/ or image files is a huge time saver. In earlier versions of InDesign, this meant dragging and dropping multiple files from Bridge, and in CS5 you can continue to do this, but it’s slightly more convenient to use Mini Bridge, which is now incorporated into the InDesign interface.

The Mini Bridge panel is found under the Window menu. Once it’s open, you can use Mini Bridge to browse folders and adjust the size of the thumbnails using the slider at the bottom left of the panel. For multiple files, hold down the Shift key to make a continuous selection, or use the Cmd/Ctrl key to make a noncontinuous selection of the files. When you drag from the thumbnail of any one of the selected files into your InDesign document, a loaded text cursor (or picture cursor, if you’re dragging pictures) displays in parentheses the number of files that are queued. To cycle through queued files on your cursor, press the Left/Right or Up/Down arrows.

If you use pencil sketches to plan the text flow, or pre-establish the text threads for a range of empty text frames, a multiple place can transform a document from foundation to near-complete dwelling with just a few mouse clicks. As when creating new text on the page, pay attention to the shape of your loaded cursor—if the document cursor is surrounded by parentheses the text will go into an existing frame; if it’s surrounded by a square you’ll create a new text frame.

Figure 2.10 Browsing a folder of text files in Mini Bridge.

Threading Text Frames

Continuing the text flow from one frame to another is called threading. Here are some typical threading techniques:

Creating a thread. Select a frame containing overset text with the Selection Tool, then reload your Type cursor by clicking its In port or Out port—it’s more likely you’d click the Out port since you usually want to continue from where the text stopped. Move to the next column or page and click or drag to create a new text frame, or click inside an empty frame. The text will flow from one frame to the next.

Deleting a frame from a text thread. Select the frame, then press the Delete key. Don’t worry about losing the text—you are deleting the container, not the content.

Breaking a thread. Double-click the In port of the frame you want to remove from the thread. The frame remains, but the text is removed from it—though not deleted from the document.

Figure 2.11 The Text Cursor loaded with multiple files.

Figure 2.12 Text threads indicate how one text frame is connected to another.

Threading frames that are not part of the same story. If a story occupies multiple text frames, it’s usually preferable to keep those frames threaded, rather than chop the text up into unthreaded text frames. Threaded text frames can be selected, spell checked, and viewed in the Story Editor as one story. You can also, if necessary, export the story as one file to be repurposed, perhaps for the Web, rather than having to piece it together from separate text frames. There may be times when you want to put back together parts of a story that have become unthreaded, or perhaps join two stories together. To do this, click the Out port on the last frame of the first story, then click inside the frame of the second story. This may cause the text to reflow as the type from what had been the second story moves into any available space in the previous text frame.

Making a headline span multiple columns. The Span Columns feature (see more on this feature on page 31), new to CS5, saves you from needing to manually span a headline across multiple columns. However, it’s still a useful technique if you wish to span text over multiple columns, where one of those columns is used as a white space or caption column.

To make a headline span multiple columns (without using Span Columns), click the In port to load text from the beginning of the story, then follow these steps:

1. Pull down a guide from the Horizontal Ruler to where the first paragraph will begin.
2. Resize the top of each text frame to this guide.
3. Load your Text cursor from the In port at the top left of the text frame.
4. Click and drag to create a text frame that spans the width of the columns and is at the estimated height of the headline. The headline of the story (or as much of it as will fit) will flow into this text frame. If necessary, adjust the height of this frame afterwards.

Figure 2.13 Threading a headline across columns. Despite the new Span Columns feature, this is still a useful technique when working with an irregular number of columns and multiple threaded text frames. Top, before threading the headline across columns; bottom, a threaded headline.

Figure 2.14 The example on the left shows two text frames threaded together; on the right a single text frame is divided into two columns.

Threading empty text frames. Some people prefer to draw text frames and thread them before the text content is ready, to create a “wire frame” of the document. To create a series of linked empty text frames, draw your frames with the Rectangle Frame Tool, and then click the first frame with your Type Tool to designate it a text frame. Click the text frame’s Out port to “load” the text cursor (even though there is no actual text) and then click inside the next frame to thread it to the first frame. Repeat as necessary, threading frame 2 to 3, frame 3 to 4, and so on. Holding down Option (Alt) as you do so “reloads” the Type cursor, allowing you to continue threading without reselecting each new frame To mock up your layout you can fill the text frames with placeholder text.

Figure 2.15 Adding columns (CS5 only). Create additional text frames as you drag the cursor by pressing the right arrow. To remove frames as you drag, press the left arrow.

Figure 2.16 The SplitStory script used to unthread a story.

Now, with CS5, you can create multiple threaded text frames on the fly with the Type Tool. As you click and drag out a text frame, press the Right Arrow to create additional columns or the Left Arrow to remove columns. When you release the mouse the multiple columns are threaded.

Splitting a threaded story into separate text frames. You can “unthread” a story with the SplitStory script. Select the frames of the story you wish to unthread and choose Windows > Utilities > Scripts to access the Scripts Panel. Expand the Application folder, then the Samples folder, then the JavaScript folder. Double-click the SplitStory.jsx script to convert your story to a series of unconnected text frames.

Spanning and Splitting Columns

When working with a multicolumn text frame it’s easy to have a headline span or straddle two or more columns. You can choose Span Columns from the Paragraph panel menu or the Control Panel menu, or use the widget on the Control Panel (though this has fewer options).

If you want to break two or more paragraphs into subcolumns, you can split them, which is perfect for lists in a wide text column.

The instructions to span and split columns can both be incorporated into a paragraph style definition; see Chapter 12, “Global Formatting with Styles.”

Figure 2.17 Spanning and splitting columns. The example shows two work styles: using the Control Panel widget (A) and using the Span Columns dialog box (B).

Using Placeholder Text

Using placeholder or dummy text when mocking up a layout is a time-honored tradition. Traditionally designers have used a piece of Latin text called Lorem Ipsum. This text is based on Cicero’s “The Extremes of Good and Evil,” written in 45 BC, but its word and sentence lengths have been tweaked to approximate those of an “average” article. Dummy text is used so that clients, when approving design concepts, don’t get hung up on the meaning of the text content but rather concentrate on the overall visual impression. Ironically, using Lorem Ipsum sometimes requires designers to explain to their clients why the text is written in Latin.

InDesign has its own random text generator, which creates placeholder text similar to, but different from, Lorem Ipsum. To use placeholder text, insert your Type Tool into a text frame, or click and drag with the Type Tool to create one, then select Type > Fill with Placeholder Text. The frame (or threaded frames) is filled with dummy text. If you make your font smaller and need more placeholder text, you can return to the Fill with Placeholder Text menu to fill the frame.

Working with Thumbnails

Before you start working in InDesign, it’s often desirable to make thumbnail sketches of your layout, rather than getting stuck immediately on the computer. No matter how quick on the draw you are with keyboard shortcuts, you’re faster (and more free to explore) with pencil and paper. Thumbnails help to instantly eliminate those daft ideas that we all have from time to time—and often need to work through before we can get to the good ideas. Based upon your sketches you can construct a “wire frame” of text and picture frames, threading the text frames together and filling them with placeholder text until the real copy is available. To help organize your content, put the text frames and picture frames on separate layers (see Chapter 14, “Pages, Margins, Columns, and Baseline Grids.”)—that way you’ll be able to tell which are which at a glance, based on the color of the frame.

Figure 2.18 Choose Fill with Placeholder Text to fill your text frame(s) with dummy text.

Figure 2.19 A two-page spread “mocked up” with placeholder text and placeholder picture frames.

Pasting Text

Another method for getting text into an InDesign document is to copy and paste it from another application. Using the regular Paste keyboard shortcut of Cmd+V (Ctrl+V) brings in the text; whether the formats come with it depends on how you have your Clipboard Handling Preferences set up. Choose All Information to include the styles and formatting of the incoming text. You can override this preference on a case-by-case basis by choosing Edit > Paste Without Formatting or pressing Cmd+Shift+V (Ctrl+Shift+V). The pasted text will be added seamlessly to the text already in your document, at the location of your text cursor.

While copying and pasting—with or without formatting—usually works fine, it sometimes causes strange things to happen to special characters. It’s preferable to place text rather than use copy and paste. Pasting is only necessary if you’re copying small chunks from a larger whole, possibly from the body of an email message or a PDF document.

Figure 2.20 Thumbnail spreads for an 8-page document showing column guides and baseline grid.

Figure 2.21 Paste Without Formatting strips out formats from the incoming text.

Figure 2.22 Unchecking Type Tool Converts Frames prevents graphic frames from being inadvertently converted to text frames.

Figure 2.23 Use Convert Shape to change the shape of a text frame.

Importing Word Text

When placing a Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format (RTF) file, you can control how the text is imported into InDesign. Choose File > Place (Cmd+D or Ctrl+D). A dialog box appears asking for file location. At the bottom of this window are several check boxes. Select the file to import, check Show Import Options, and click Open, and you are taken to the Microsoft Word Import Options dialog box. Here, you can choose whether or not to import Word-created footnotes, endnotes, table of contents text, and index text. If you choose Preserve Styles and Formatting from Text and Tables, any paragraph and character styles in the Word document will be imported. Depending on how those Word styles were set up and implemented, this could be a blessing or a curse. In the best-case scenario, if the names of the Word styles are identical to the InDesign style names, the InDesign styles will take precedence, your text formatting is done, and you get to go home early. For information on how to map specific Word paragraph and character styles to their chosen equivalents in InDesign, see Chapter 12, “Global Formatting with Styles.”

Figure 2.24 You can use the Word Import Options dialog box to control what formats from the Word document are imported into InDesign.

Using the Story Editor

InDesign offers an alternative to viewing the type on the page. In the Story Editor, text is displayed in one continuous column, all in the same font and all at the same size. To view text in the Story Editor, select a text frame with your Type Tool or Selection Tool and choose Edit > Edit in Story Editor, or press Cmd+Y (Ctrl+Y).

There are several reasons for using the Story Editor, chief among them the fact that editing text, especially long blocks of text, is quicker without the visual distractions of graphics, column breaks, and formatting. You don’t have to worry about zooming in and out or navigating from column to column or from page to page. It’s pure content. Any changes made in the Story Editor are automatically reflected in the layout and vice versa. You can not only edit text but also quickly apply paragraph and character styles.

If you don’t see the left column with the style names as shown in the figure on the next page, choose View > Story Editor > Show Style Name Column. The Depth Ruler (View > Story Editor > Show Depth Ruler) is a vertical ruler on the left side of the Story Editor that displays the length of the story in column inches (or whatever measurement system you’re using). When you’re ready to return to Layout view, press Cmd+W (Ctrl+W).

Figure 2.25 A story viewed in the Story Editor (left); the same story in Layout view with guides turned on (right).

Figure 2.26 The Story Editor Preferences determine the appearance of your text in the Story Editor; they have no effect on how the text appears in Layout View, or on how it prints.

To change the appearance of your text in the Story Editor, choose Preferences > Story Editor Display.

Using the Story Editor is like getting under the hood to view the engine. You can see and more easily access things here that are hidden or hard to see in Layout View: markers for inline graphics and anchored objects, text variables, hyperlinks, nonprinting Notes, cross references, index markers, and XML tags. You can also edit overset text, including overset text in table cells. The Overset Text Indicator “redlines” the overset text, making it easier to write to fit the available space. And because the Story Editor reveals things Layout View does not, it’s also useful for troubleshooting text composition problems, like mysterious line breaks or spacing gaps. Want to get to the text that mysteriously keeps falling out of the text frame (probably due to some inappropriate Keep Options setting)? Use the Story Editor.

Cleaning Up Text

Having placed a text file, the first thing to do—before you start formatting the text—is clean it up. Designers commonly work with text files that have been created by someone else. In a perfect world, these files would be as lean as a cheetah and as minimalist as a piece of Bauhaus furniture. This is rarely, if ever, the case. People clutter up their text files with all kinds of junk, often in the misguided notion that they’re helping you out by doing the formatting. Extra carriage returns, multiple tabs, multiple spaces (in some cases used to justify lines of type) will all need to be removed. Of course, communication with your client can go a long way: Tell them what you want and you might even get it. But even with stellar communication and the best of intentions, you’re still going to need to clean your text files—even if you created them in the first place. Thankfully, it’s fast and easy to whip your stories into shape. A good place to start is with the predefined GREP Queries.

Figure 2.27 Using a predefined GREP Query to purge any unnecessary spaces from a document.

The simplest way to clean up text is the FindChangeByList script. An InDesign Script is a defined sequence of steps that you can play back with a single click. You can write your own with JavaScript (or AppleScript or Visual Basic) but thankfully, you don’t need to know scripting languages to use the InDesign sample scripts.

Once you’ve located the Scripts panel (Window > Automation > Scripts), expand the Application folder, then the Samples folder, then the JavaScript folder. Scroll down to FindChangeByList and double-click that entry. In a blink of an eye, this little gem performs a sequence of Find/Change routines on your selection, your story, or your document. If you want to see exactly what it’s doing—and customize how it performs—open the FindChangeSupport folder beneath the script on the Scripts panel, right-click the FindChangeList.txt file, and choose Show in Finder/Show in Explorer. You can open the text file in a text editor and edit its list of Find/Change routines. The easiest way to do this is to copy and paste an existing routine and then adjust the find and change criteria as necessary.

Figure 2.28 The FindChangeByList script—the quickest way to purge unwanted spacing from your story or document.

Even if you’re not feeling intrepid enough to customize this script, just using it off the shelf to banish egregious spacing will save loads of precious time. A word of caution that applies to using any script: If you try using Undo after running a script you’ll find yourself needing to press Cmd+Z (Ctrl+Z) numerous times to restore things to the way they were. This is because a script is a sequence of steps, and Undo undoes only a single step in that sequence at a time. To play it safe, save your work before you run the script. You can then use Revert to get your document to the previously saved version if you don’t like the results.

Figure 2.29 The find and change queries that the FindChangeByList script runs on your story or document. You can add your own queries or remove queries from the list.

Figure 2.30 Some common hidden characters.