Lesson B: The Text Frame Options Dialog Box

• Open the downloaded document called 5 Frame Options & Object Styles.indd. Go to page 4 and fit that page in the window (⌘-0/Ctrl-0). You’ll see some familiar text.
• Insert your text cursor into the second paragraph, “Like curly paper.”

This document’s text preferences have been set to have leading affect an entire paragraph to make adjusting the leading easier.

• Hold down option/Alt as you press the up and down arrow keys, and notice how adjusting the leading affects the distance of this line from the one above it.
• Do the same with the first line (“Pretty Bark”) and enjoy the frustration you feel when you realize that leading has no effect on its position—yet.

Baseline Options

• Set the leading of the first line to approximately 50 points.
• Next, right-click on that text and choose Text Frame Options…, or use the shortcut ⌘-B/Ctrl-B.
• Use the tabs along the top of the dialog to navigate to the Baseline Options section. Be sure that Preview is enabled.
• Choose Leading from the First Baseline Offset menu. You’ll see the first line push itself away from the top of the frame, as if the frame edge were the baseline of text.
• Try the other settings, but please do not leave this setting on Fixed.

Inset

• Go to page 5 and fit that page in the window (⌘-0/Ctrl-0).
• With the Selection tool, select the pink text frame on the right. Access its Text Frame Options… with the shortcut ⌘-B/Ctrl-B.

In that dialog box, note some things about the frame that are obvious—it’s a one-column frame, for example—and something more subtle: it has Inset Spacing set to 10 points on all sides.

Without that inset, the text would be flush to the top and to one side of the frame. Since there’s a fill color, that would look odd, so the inset is a useful setting for sidebars like this.

• Click OK to dismiss the dialog box.
• With the Selection tool, select the text frame on the left (below the image). Access its Text Frame Options… with the shortcut ⌘-B/Ctrl-B.

In that dialog box, notice it has Inset Spacing set to 10 points only at its top. Since it’s easy to abut two frames, like this caption and the image above it, we can use a precise inset value to keep the text a predictable and precise distance from the image.

• Go to the Baseline Options and notice that Cap Height is chosen as the First Baseline Offset. Thus, the caps are touching the edge of the inset. Keep this dialog box open—there’s more to see.

Auto-Size

• Go to the third option in the Text Frame Options dialog, Auto-Size.

It appears that this caption frame is set to resize itself if the amount of content is altered. Only the height should change and the top edge should remain fixed. This is a handy setting for frames that hold shorter stories like captions or callouts.

• Click OK to dismiss the dialog.

Balancing Columns

• Select the text frame at top center. Access its Text Frame Options… with the shortcut ⌘-B/Ctrl-B.
• Notice that the frame is set to contain three columns. Below that setting, check the box to Balance Columns. All three columns will now attempt to have the same depth or height.

Apparently, the number of lines in this frame is evenly divisible by 3, or one of the columns would have been different from the others. Frames like this are useful in layouts for newspapers and similar documents.

• Click OK to accept the change and dismiss the dialog.

Vertical Justification

• Select the text frame at lower center. Adjust its height with the Selection tool and notice how the text remains in the vertical center.
• Access the frame’s Text Frame Options… with the shortcut ⌘-B/Ctrl-B.

In the lower part of the dialog’s General section, you’ll see under Vertical Justification that Align is set to Center. It is possible to position text in the vertical center of a frame by changing the First Baseline Offset to Leading, and then increasing the leading of the first line until the text appears centered. However, if that frame is resized, the leading would have to be adjusted again to compensate. Not so with this setting.

As you can tell from the example, this setting can be useful for title pages.

The left-to-right alignment, also centered, is controlled by the paragraph styling on each of those three paragraphs. Since vertical justification seems similar, many users are dismayed not to find it with typographic settings. But the following rule of thumb can help: if a setting affects multiple paragraphs, it’s likely to be a frame option and not a typographic one.