Positioning Objects Precisely with Guides


Just as carpenters often use chalk lines to make sure things are straight when putting up the framework of a house, you can use guidelines and grid lines to help achieve precise object placement and alignment when building InDesign documents. InDesign lets you show or hide three kinds of guides: user -created vertical and horizontal guidelines, document grid lines, and baseline grid lines. You can tell InDesign to automatically snap object edges to guidelines and grid lines when you create, resize, or move an object within a user-specified distance.

Cross-Reference ‚  

For more about creating and using guidelines and grids, see Chapter 7.

You can create horizontal and vertical guidelines whenever you want by clicking on either the horizontal or vertical ruler and dragging the pointer onto the page or pasteboard . Choosing View Show Guides or z +; (semicolon) or Ctrl+; (semicolon), turns guides on. The menu option name then changes to Hide Guides, so you can toggle guides on and off using the same shortcut.

When guidelines are displayed and Snap to Guides (View Snap to Guides, or Shift+ z +; [semicolon] or Ctrl+Shift+; [semicolon]) is checked, an object edge will snap to a guideline when you create, resize, or move the object within the number of pixels specified in the Snap to Zone preference (choose InDesign Preferences on the Mac or Edit Preferences in Windows, or press z +K or Ctrl+K, then go to the Guides & Pasteboard pane).

Note ‚  

When Snap to Guides is checked in the View menu, guidelines must be displayed (View Show Guides, or z +; [semicolon] or Ctrl+; [semicolon]) for objects to snap to them. However, when Snap to Document Grid is checked, objects will snap to document grid lines and, when Snap to Guides is checked, objects will snap to baseline grid lines), regardless of whether the document grid or the baseline grid is displayed.

All documents include a document-wide grid of vertical and horizontal lines that you can use for creating, resizing, and positioning objects. The View Show Document Grid and Show Hide Document Grid commands, or z +' (apostrophe) or Ctrl+' (apostrophe), toggle the document grid display on and off. When displayed, the document grid looks much like graph paper. When guidelines are displayed and View Snap to Document Grid, or Shift+ z +' (apostrophe) or Ctrl+Shift+' (apostrophe), is checked, an object edge will snap to a document grid line when you create, resize, or move the object within the number of pixels specified in the Snap to Zone preference in the Preferences dialog box's Guides & Pasteboard pane.

Tip ‚  

If you want to align objects with text baselines and text baselines with the baseline grid, use the Grids pane preferences in the Preferences dialog box to specify the same vertical spacing for the Document Grid as for the Baseline Grid. For example, specify an Increment Every value of 1 pica in the Baseline Grid area, and specify a Subdivisions value of 6 in the Document Grid area.

In addition to the document grid, all documents have a built-in baseline grid that represents the leading increments of body text. The View Show Baseline Grid and View Hide Baseline Grid commands, or Option+ z +' (apostrophe) or Ctrl+Alt+' (apostrophe), toggles baseline grid display on and off. When the baseline grid is displayed and Snap to Guides is checked, an object edge will snap to a baseline grid line when you create, resize, or move the object within the number of pixels specified in the Snap to Zone preference in the Guides & Pasteboard pane of the Preferences dialog box. You can use the Align to Baseline Grid option in a paragraph style or via the Paragraph pane (Type Paragraph) to lock the baselines of text in selected paragraphs to baseline grid lines, and you can modify a document's baseline grid via the Grids pane in the Preferences dialog box.

Tip ‚  

In addition to aligning objects with guides, you can also use the arrow keys to nudge items when precise positioning is required. This method works well when you're positioning an object relative to another object rather than aligning the object with a grid line. Each press of an arrow key moves the selected objects one point. If you hold down the Shift key when nudging, the increment is 10 points. You can set alternative nudge settings via the Cursor Key field in the Units & Increments pane of the Preferences dialog box. Holding the Shift key when nudging will move the selected objects 10 increments of whatever Cursor Key is set to.




Adobe InDesign CS Bible
Adobe InDesign CS3 Bible
ISBN: 0470119381
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 344
Authors: Galen Gruman

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