Chapter 9. Adding Frames, Shapes, and Lines

IN THIS CHAPTER

  • Knowing how and when to create frames for text and graphics

  • Creating text frames

  • Creating graphics frames

  • Converting frames for specific content

  • Drawing straight lines

When you create a new InDesign document, you make several important decisions, including the page size, number of columns, and gutter width, that determine the basic structure of your publication. After you click OK in the New Document dialog box (choose File

Adding Frames, Shapes, and Lines

InDesign uses objects as the building blocks you manipulate to create finished pages. An object is a container that can (but doesn't have to) hold text or graphics, as well as attributes such as color, strokes, and gradients. When an object contains an imported graphic or text, or if an object is created as a placeholder for a graphic or text, it's referred to as a frame. An object that doesn't contain a graphic or text is referred to as a shape. Objects can be paths (including straight lines and curved paths), rectangles, ellipses, and polygons.

A frame looks and behaves much the same as a shape but has some additional properties:

  • If you change the size or shape of a frame that contains text, you affect the flow of text in the frame and in any subsequent frames of a multiframe story.

  • If you change the size or shape of a frame that contains an imported graphic, you also change the portion of the graphic that's ...

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