Text Wrap & Anchored Objects

These are features used throughout this book. Wherever you see an image, figure, or illustration, it has been anchored to nearby text that refers to it. Wherever you see text offset by an image, figure, or illustration, the offset is created by Text Wrap, a kind of force field applied to the graphic that pushes text a specified distance away from that graphic. Text Wrap and Anchored Objects are powerful and useful features, but they have quirks, too.

Text Wrap: Force Fields on Objects

Text Wrap is applied to objects that should move text out of their way, not to the text that is moved. Although there are a few text wrap buttons in the Control panel, the best place to control this feature is with the Text Wrap panel.

There are several forms of wrap for different circumstances and different kinds of objects that are being wrapped. Let’s look at each kind, but not in order: we’ll save the trickiest one for last.

Wrap Around Bounding Box

This is the simplest form of Text Wrap. By keeping the offsets locked with one another, you can specify, in one place, the distance between the text and the image. If you disable the lock, each side can be specified independently.

If the object with text wrap doesn’t straddle two text columns, you will have to specify which side to Wrap To. For ease, I usually choose Largest Area (where there’s more room):

Jump Object & Jump to Next Column

In some situations, there may not be a comfortable amount of room on either side of the image, so it’s best if the text just skips right over the image.

Wrap Around Object Shape—It’s Tricky!

When we place either nonrectangular graphics or images with a subject surrounded by white or transparency, we can reach for this form of text wrap. It can be made to wrap text around the image frame (Contour Options > Type > Graphic Frame), or around the image’s bounding box, whether it corresponds to the frame or not (Contour Options > Type > Bounding Box). The latter is the actual image perimeter.

More intriguing are the options that create a text wrap path that follows the contours of the subject. If the subject of an image is surrounded by white or transparency, choose Detect Edges, and then choose an offset. To keep text from creeping into nooks or crannies, you should also choose Wrap To: Largest Area.

Warning: When you first choose Wrap around object shape text wrap, InDesign selects the image or graphic within its frame (as if you had clicked on the Content Grabber). If you attempt to drag the image, it will move without its frame! So be sure to hit the esc key (so the frame is selected once again), and then you can safely move the image and its frame to a new location.

Anchored Objects

When I write phrases like “The image below demonstrates…” or “This figure…,” I’m depending on that image or figure being near to what I’m writing. To ensure that is the case, I anchor my figure or illustration to a paragraph, so that if the paragraph is shifted up or down, the illustration moves with it. When working with anchored objects, I recommend viewing hidden characters (Type > Show Hidden Characters) and ensuring that text threads are shown (View > Extras > Show Text Threads). If either of these say Hide instead of Show, don’t choose them!

Inline Objects—In the Flow

Small frames can be pasted right into the flow of text as if they were just another character. Near the beginning of this book, a sentence ended with, “...or small up/down arrows next to the size field: .” That small figure is an Inline Object, the simplest kind of anchored object.

Above Line & Custom

Both Above Line and Custom anchored objects are often started in the same way: by dragging an ornament near the upper-right corner of the frame (or group) you’d like to anchor to somewhere in a text frame. Note: The color of that square ornament will match the frame edges and is determined by the options for the layer on which the object resides.

At that point, the anchored frame is custom anchored with incomplete settings. You can option-click/Alt-click on the anchor symbol ()to see and fine-tune those settings or to make this an Above Line object. The settings displayed here are for the figure above. I anchored the figure to an empty paragraph above this one. I wanted that figure to center in my margins and have a little space between it and the preceding paragraph.

The Yen sign (¥), is the anchor marker. It is a proxy for the object: cutting, copying, or pasting it is cutting, copying, or pasting the anchored object itself. That can be tricky because it has no width.

Custom Anchored Objects—Keeping Anchored Frames
on a Short Leash

Custom anchored objects are much more difficult to manage.

1 If objects should use the same options, but on facing pages, you’ll want to make the object “spine-aware.” That is, keep the object on the inside or outside of facing pages, not always to the left or right of the marker. Check the box that sets the object Relative to Spine.

2 Prevent the object from dangling too low (possibly off the page!) if its marker is low on the page. Check the box to Keep within Top/Bottom Column Boundaries. Done!

3 Fine-tune the position if you wish to. Of the many available options, I usually attempt to keep the top of the object even with the cap height of the line in which it’s anchored (Y Relative To:), and a set distance from the edge of the text frame to which it’s anchored (X Relative To:).

You have to note which part of the Anchored Object and of the text frame (Anchored Position) you’re talking about, and how those points are related.

In my example, I chose to refer to the upper corner of the object that is closest to the spine (A), and related it to the edge of the text frame opposite the spine (B). Then I set X Offset (horizontal) to half an inch from the edge of that Text Frame, and Y offset to exactly the Line (Cap Height). See dialog box above. Whew!

Anchored Objects and Text Wrap Together

An anchored object is part of the paragraph that it’s anchored to. Rule: if that object has text wrap applied to it, it will only push text in paragraphs that come after the one to which it is anchored. After all, if it was able to push the text to which it was anchored, it would push itself, which would push the text again, pushing itself again…. Thus, the rule.

The reference point figure at the bottom of the previous page, for example, is anchored to a paragraph just below the image of the Anchored Object Options dialog!