Lesson B: Text Frame Basics

On page 2 of our exercise file, 2 Frames & Shapes, we can see a few items: a large, beige text frame with some reminder notes in it; a few shapes; an image; and a smaller text frame. That last item is the one we’ll focus on for a few minutes.

From Frame to Text and Back Again

• Using the Selection tool, click once on that small text frame. It’s now selected and its various attributes can be examined in the Control panel and the Properties panel. We can see the frame’s width and height, whether it has a fill or stroke applied (it doesn’t), and, since it’s a text frame, we can note how many columns it has (just one):
• Now double-click somewhere in that text frame. The cursor now blinks and the Type tool is highlighted in the Tools panel. Double-click on a word in that frame. You’ve selected that word, just as you might in any application. Triple-click and a line of text is now selected. Quadruple-click to select an entire paragraph. And, finally, quintuple-click to select that entire story.

While some of the text is selected, even just one word, look up at the Control panel or at the Properties panel. Both have completely changed for this new context and show that the font used is Minion Pro Regular, set at 12 points, and that it’s left-aligned, as well as many other text attributes. At the bottom of the Properties panel there are also a few actions that can be performed on the selected text, like changing its case.

• To return quickly to editing the frame, simply tap the esc key! You’ll see that the Selection tool is active and the frame is selected. The rule is to double-click to edit a frame’s content, then hit esc to edit the container once again. For the next part, let’s be sure we have the Selection tool active, as we may choose to use a letter-based shortcut. Also, to have room to practice, be sure to fit the entire spread in the Document Window: View > Fit Spread in Window.

Placeholder Text

• Create a text frame. Choose the Type tool (select it in the Tools panel or tap the T key) then in the empty right-hand page of that spread, drag diagonally to create a box. When you release the mouse, the text cursor will be blinking in that frame’s upper-left corner. Of course, you may type something or paste text copied from elsewhere. Instead, right-click on the frame and choose Fill with Placeholder Text. You’ll now be looking at randomized Latin words and phrases. And they are truly random: undo (⌘-Z/Ctrl-Z) and repeat filling with placeholder text; it is different every time. If you hold down the ⌘/Ctrl key while you right-click and choose the placeholder text command, you will get a dialog box that allows you to choose whether the text is Roman, as before, or perhaps Cyrillic or Arabic. This can help you as you design multilingual documents.

We’ll use the default Roman alphabet. If the frame you made was rather small, tap esc then use the resulting Selection tool to resize the frame. Even then, you can right-click in the frame and choose Fill with Placeholder Text to fill in the rest.

Text Formatting Basics

• Select a paragraph in your new text frame (double-click to get into the text, then quadruple-click to highlight a paragraph). Choose a font and style from the Font menu at the left of the Control panel. When you expose the Font menu, you’ll see the font name on the left and a bit of sample text in that font on the right. With InDesign CC 2019, several new features help you make those choices. In the upper right, you can change the size of the sample and what text composes it. One of those choices is Selected Text, so you can see the text you’re decorating using the fonts in your system! As you hover over a font, the highlighted text provisionally changes, too. If you don’t choose a new font, the text reverts to what it was. Click a font to choose it.

If you have many fonts, you can then use the Filter to show only fonts with certain properties. Or, if you don’t have many fonts, you can choose from Adobe Fonts, too, by clicking on Find More at the top of that menu. If a font there fits your needs, click the Activate button to its right (it resembles a cloud with an arrow pointing down) and approve its activation, if necessary.

You can accomplish the same tasks from the Character section of the Properties panel. There are dedicated panels, too. If you go to Window > Type & Tables, you’ll find the Character panel and the Paragraph panel. The hope is that you, the user, will stumble on one or more ways to accomplish any task. Currently, you have access to the greatest number of options with the fewest number of clicks if you use the Properties panel (especially if you use the More Options icons: ) or the Control panel.

Quick Resizing Tricks

• With the Selection tool, drag the edge handles of the text frame inward so it’s too small to hold all its text. In general, double-clicking one of those handles will resize a frame to fit its content. But with text frames, you have to carefully decide which handle to use to do that. Try double-clicking a corner handle. You now have a fairly randomly resized frame. This is rarely desired, so undo that step (⌘-Z/Ctrl-Z).

Double-clicking a side handle resizes only one dimension. The handles on the left or right resize only the width, and the ones at top and bottom resize only the height. By far, the handle I double-click most often to quickly make a frame fit its content is the bottom center one. Try it! Beware, you should do this only with frames that have a limited amount of text in them, not pages of it. You could end up with a frame taller than your page! However, for captions and other short bits of text, double-clicking the bottom handle will enlarge or reduce the height of the frame so the text fits exactly.

For more, see “Frame to Content & Content to Frame” (page 198).