InDesign Refresher · Page 2 of 8
Place & thread text
Get text into your layout, flow it from frame to frame and clean it up before you style it.
Place a text file
- (Cmd+D). Check Show Import Options to choose whether to keep or remove the Word formatting. Removing it gives you a clean start for your own styles.
- Your cursor is now “loaded.” Click inside a frame or drag to draw a new one.
- Hold Shift as you click to autoflow: InDesign adds pages and frames until all the text fits. Great for a first storyboard.
Thread frames and fix overset text
- A red + in the bottom-right port of a frame means overset text (text that doesn’t fit). Click the red +, then click or drag in another frame to continue the story there.
- draws lines between linked frames.
- Edit long text in the Story Editor (Cmd+Y). It shows the whole story, overset text included, without the layout getting in the way.
Clean up the text
- Use > Query menu > Multiple Space to Single Space and Multiple Return to Single Return.
- Replace double hyphens with real dashes: em dash (—) Shift+Opt+-, en dash (–) Opt+-.
- Find any special character in .
- Use space before/after in your styles instead of empty returns between paragraphs.
© Created by Sara Rosenstock, Marietta College Graphic Design.