Lesson C: Leverage Object Styles

Earlier we had an “Object Styles Introduction” (page 40) in which we “recorded” the simple appearance attributes of shapes. Now we’ll get a little fancier.

For Text Frame Options

• Open the downloaded document called 5 Frame Options & Object Styles.indd. Go to page 5 and fit that page in the window (⌘-0/Ctrl-0).
• Select the caption frame below the tree image. I’d like you to notice that there is a paragraph style (Caption) applied to the text in that frame, as well as the various text frame options we discussed earlier controlling the container itself.
• Locate the Object Styles panel. If it’s not on-screen, open it by choosing Window > Styles > Object Styles. Go to its panel menu (in its upper-right corner) and choose New Object Style…. This will yield that intimidatingly large dialog box again.
• Give the style a sensible name like caption frame, but avoid hitting the return/enter key, please. We are not done yet!
• Be sure to enable the important checkboxes: Apply Style to Selection and Preview. Now the style we’ve created is applied to the frame and the changes we make will be visible to us.

• Along the left-hand side of the New Object Style dialog, locate and highlight Text Frame General Options.

You should notice that the object style recorded the top inset that was applied.

• Go to each of the next several sections, as they all contribute to text frame options. Each of the things we discussed earlier, like the First Baseline Offset and Auto-Size, are present.
• Above Text Frame General Options is Paragraph Styles, currently unchecked and therefore ignored. Highlight it (which also checks its box) and you can see that this object style can record and later apply the correct paragraph style along with all the text frame options.

I typically uncheck any attributes that I would prefer an object style to ignore. In this case, that is probably optional.

• Select the text frame below the caption frame. Click just once on the name of the new caption frame object style to apply it.

The frame should shorten, the text should change to the correct formatting, there should be 10 points of inset at the top of the frame, and the tops of capital letters should touch that inset.

For Image Frames

Frame Fitting & Size and Position Options

• Open the downloaded document called 5 Frame Options & Object Styles.indd. Go to pages 6 and 7 and fit that spread in the window (⌘-option-0/Ctrl-Alt-0).
• Select the image of the window on page 6.

We will create and edit an object style for this image frame, and then apply it to the frames on page 7. This will change those frames to squares that are the same size as this image, and it will crop only the left or bottom parts of the image (and no more than necessary) to fit the square format.

• Locate the Object Styles panel. If it’s not on-screen, open it by choosing Window > Styles > Object Styles. Go to its panel menu (in its upper-right corner) and choose New Object Style…. Name the style square image.
• Be sure to enable the important checkboxes: Apply Style to Selection and Preview.
• On the left side of the dialog, locate and highlight Size and Position Options. The default is to control neither size nor position.
• In the Size section click on the Adjust drop-down menu and choose Height & Width. The current dimensions are shown and they should be just fine. I left the ruler units set to picas to taunt those who dislike them. At 6 picas per inch, this image is just under 3 inches square.
• For Position, choose Y Only from the Adjust menu. The Reference Point refers to parts of the image frame: its top, vertical center, or bottom. Designate the top. Finally, set the Y Offset to 10p0 From the Page Edge.

Note: Size and Position Options can be used for any object, including text frames.

Frame Fitting Options

• On the left side of the Object Style Options dialog, scroll down the Basic Attributes to Frame Fitting Options.

• In the Content Fitting section be sure that Fitting is set to Fill Frame Proportionally. Choose the upper-right corner to Align From.
• Click OK.

Now we have a style that can be applied to other image frames. Actually, it can be applied to any frame, but Frame Fitting Options won’t apply to anything but image frames. A text frame, for example, would resize and reposition.

• Select the three images on page 7. I’d use the Selection tool to draw a box (referred to in this case as a marquee), starting on an empty part of the page but touching all three frames before you release the mouse button. You may also click on one image, then shift-click the other two.
• Click just once on the name of the square image object style to apply it. All three frames should now be the same size as the one on page 6, with their top edges 10 picas from the top of the page.

Note: In InDesign CC 2018, there was a bug that required us to toggle the Auto-Fit checkbox in the Control panel to remind the images to fill their frames. This seems to have been fixed in later releases.

• As a final flourish, open the Align panel (Window > Object & Layout > Align), and set Align To to Align to Margins, then click the Distribute horizontal space button.

Text Wrap

Another feature that benefits from the consistency that object styles provide is Text Wrap. This “force field” applied to a frame pushes text away from that frame. Though usually applied to image frames, Text Wrap can also be applied to text frames that appear in the midst of others: picture pull quotes. In this exercise, we’ll apply several kinds of text wrap to an image.

• In the document called 5 Frame Options & Object Styles.indd, go to pages 8 and 9 and fit that spread in the window (⌘-option-0/Ctrl-Alt-0).
• Read the notes and refer to the diagram on the left side of page 8.

One form of Text Wrap, Wrap around object shape, has some quirks, so we’ll save it for last.

• With the Selection tool, select the image in the middle of page 9. As you can see, it obscures the biography of its subject.
• Open the Text Wrap panel (Window > Text Wrap). For some of this exercise, you can use the Text Wrap section of the Properties panel, in which case you will need to click the More Options button () below the five text wrap buttons. Sadly, there are options we need in the Text Wrap panel that are not in the Properties panel.

Note that for this image, the first button in the Text Wrap panel is active. This is the “off switch.”

• Click the second button, which is the first form of text wrap called Wrap around bounding box. This is the kind you will use for the vast majority of cases. You can see that the text around the image is no longer obscured—but only just barely.
• Increase the values in the offset fields. If the chain-link in their midst is selected, all four values change together.

There is now plenty of room on either side of the image for the text to flow around it. Let’s arrange a situation where that may not be the case.

• Move the image to the left or right so that it occupies just one column rather than straddling the two columns as it was. Don’t place the image in the exact center of the column.

Note how the text flows along both sides of the image. A sentence (or even a word) may start on one side and continue on the other—terrible!

• In the lower half of the Text Wrap panel, notice the Wrap To menu is set to Both Right & Left Sides. Change it to Largest Area so that InDesign will send the text down the side with more room.

If you create an object style, the many options include Text Wrap & Other. This makes it easier to achieve the same settings repeatedly without a lot of struggle.

Tip: When creating object styles for a specific function like text wrap, it is often useful to uncheck the boxes next to most (if not all) the other Basic Attributes in the dialog. By doing so, those unchecked attributes will be ignored when you apply the style, so you will not accidentally lose a desired fill color or stroke type when all you wanted was text wrap.

To explore the other options, and for tips on how to use the tricky Wrap around object shape, see “Text Wrap & Anchored Objects” (page 229). The situation will look familiar!

Object Styles and Groups: Beware

Object styles can be applied to any object, including groups. But there is a hazard: the style applied to the group will be applied to each and every object in it. Let’s find out why this is almost always bad.

• In the document called 5 Frame Options & Object Styles.indd, go to pages 10 and 11 and fit that spread in the window (⌘-option-0/Ctrl-Alt-0).
• Using the Selection tool, select the image on page 10. Look in the Object Styles panel and note that there is a style applied to this image called, eh, image. Select the red line with the arrowhead. The style applied to that is called pointing line. Finally, the small text frame is decorated with a style called callout.

One of the reasons to use object styles is for the consistency they provide. Another, perhaps more important reason is that when a style is redefined, all the objects that use it change immediately and automatically. However, if the style that had been applied to an object is no longer applied to it, the object won’t change and consistency will be lost. Can you guess where this may be going?

The objects here form a likely ensemble. Many documents have figures composed of several or many parts. And perhaps those figures should have text wrap applied to them so they can accompany text without obscuring it.

Object Styles Applied to Groups

• Select all three objects on page 10 (the image, the line, and the callout) and group them: Object > Group or the shortcut ⌘-G/Ctrl-G. The telltale dashed line now surrounds the group.
• Apply to the group the object style called Text Wrap Maybe.

Something bad happens! Before we undo this action, let’s see what transpired. The stroke on the arrow was removed, as was the fill on the callout. The text wrap has caused the callout’s content to overset. Dreadful!

The tip on the previous page wasn’t followed when the Text Wrap Maybe style was made. The object from which the style was made apparently had neither stroke nor fill. Thus, when the style was made, it recorded that state as part of its definition. So one way to treat these symptoms would be to undo the application of the style to this group, redefine the style so that it applies only to text wrap and ignores all else, and then reapply it.

But that would not be a cure because the style would still be applied to the objects in the group, severing their connection to the other styles that had been applied. If those styles are redefined (for example, if the stroke color for the arrow was made yellow rather than red), the objects in this group would not change. So what’s the cure? We’ll place the objects into a single frame to which we can apply the object style.

• Use the shortcut ⌘-Z/Ctrl-Z to undo the application of the Text Wrap Maybe style to the group. Don’t undo the grouping, though; the dashed line around the objects should remain when they’re selected.
• With the group selected, copy it with the shortcut ⌘-C/Ctrl-C. Look at page 11.
• Select the small frame in the upper-left corner of page 11.

Paste Into

• With that small frame selected, right-click and choose Paste Into, the shortcut for which (⌘-option-V/Ctrl-Alt-V) is similar to that for an ordinary paste. Yes, I know that the group is drastically cropped at the moment. Thus…
• Right-click on that frame again and choose Fitting > Fit Frame to Content (or its shortcut: ⌘-option-C/Ctrl-Alt-C).

I do this so often that once I select the destination frame, I hold down the two modifier keys in the shortcuts just mentioned (⌘-option/Ctrl-Alt) and tap V then C.

• Apply the Text Wrap Maybe object style to that frame. This time, it doesn’t contaminate the objects within. Redefining those styles affects the objects, too.
• Fine-tune the position of that frame.

Just as with any nested arrangement, double-clicking with the Selection tool allows you to get to the objects within. The first double-click selects the group inside the frame. A second double-click, on the callout for example, selects that frame. Yet another double-click on the callout inserts the text cursor within it. Repeatedly tapping the esc key selects in the other direction.

The first few times I used this method, it felt cumbersome. But as with so many other things, it gets easier with use. And I’ve had practice! In fact, every figure in this book uses this method.