InDesign® CS4 Bible

Chapter 9. Manipulating Objects

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Selecting objects and understanding tool differences

• Moving, copying, and deleting objects

• Working with snippets

• Preventing objects from printing

• Aligning and distributing multiple objects

• Using gridlines and guidelines when positioning objects

• Aligning and spacing objects via smart guides

The primary purpose of the text frames and graphics frames that you add to the pages of your InDesign documents is to hold text and graphics, and much of the time you spend using InDesign involves modifying the appearance of the text and graphics you put in your frames. However, as with real-world containers — bags, boxes, cartons, and cans — text frames and graphics frames exist independently of their contents (they don't even have to have any contents), and you can modify the position, shape, and appearance of frames without affecting the text and graphics within.

In this chapter, you learn how to do perform basic manipulations on the objects that you add to your pages: select, move, copy, delete, and position. If you've ever worked with a page-layout or illustration program, many of the basic techniques for manipulating objects should seem very familiar.

Note

For information on resizing, rotating, and applying other transformations to objects, see Chapter 10. For information on applying strokes and other effects to objects, see Chapter 11. For information on working with the text within a frame, see Part IV; for information on working with imported graphics, ...