Text Functions

Text editing and import

New to InDesign CS is the Story Editor (Edit ‚ Edit in Story Editor, or z +Y or Ctrl+Y), a mini word processor that Adobe has long had in its PageMaker product. You set its preferences in the new Story Editor pane in the Preferences dialog box.

InDesign CS now lets you import word processor and spreadsheet text as unformatted; select Remove Text and Table Formatting or Remove Text Formatting (depending on what kind of file is selected) in the Import Options dialog box, accessed from the Place dialog box by checking the Show Import Options option.

Text frame modifications

InDesign CS fixes a flaw in earlier versions. Before, if you changed the size of a text frame via the Transform pane, InDesign adjusted the text size accordingly on-screen but still reported the original text size in the Character pane, Control palette, and other character formatting tools. Now, InDesign changes the reported text size to match its new, actual size after the text frame has been resized.

If you resize a text frame, you can preview the text reflow by holding the mouse button down for a second, then see the text reflow as you resize the frame.

InDesign CS lets you resize text as you resize a text frame (or group of text frames ). Hold the z or Ctrl key when resizing a frame edge to do so.

Double-clicking a text frame with any tool selects the frame and brings up the Text tool.

You can now resize a text frame with the Text tool.

Text wrap

The Suppress Text Wrap When Layer Is Hidden check box is new to InDesign CS's Text Wrap pane. This lets you keep text wrap on hidden layers in case you're hiding the layer to speed screen preview, while also giving you the option to stop wrapping around a hidden object, in case you've hidden it because you don't want it to appear in the final output.

You can now wrap text around frames on hidden layers ‚ as well as remove text wrap for objects on hidden layers. This is handy when you want to hide images or other distracting items but preserve the layout.

Paragraph and character formatting

InDesign CS adds two new options to the Paragraph pane's palette menu and Control palette's palette menu. One is Only Align First Line to Grid. The other is Balance Ragged Lines. The first option helps "reset" text alignment to the baseline grid without overriding the leading on every single line. The second option makes the rag flow more nicely , in an undulating pattern; this effect is typically used for large text, such as multiline headlines, subheads/decks, and pull-quotes.

Nested styles are new to InDesign CS. They let you apply a character style to a specified range of text in the first sentence , or the first three words, or all text until a tab character. You can have multiple nested styles in a paragraph style, applying a sequence of character styles based on different parameters. Nested styles are handy for items such as numbered lists that may have the numeral and its period in one font and the rest of the text in another.

The ability to create custom underlines and strikethroughs is new to InDesign CS. These are applied locally only, and cannot be saved as styles or presets for reuse. You create them via the palette menu in the Character and Character Styles panes, as well as in the Control palette.

The Preserve Text Attributes When Pasting option is new to InDesign CS's Preferences dialog box's General pane. It lets you control whether text formatting is preserved during paste operations.

Tables

InDesign CS adds the ability to specify whether tables' row lines overprint column lines or vice versa.

InDesign CS can now convert regular (body) rows in tables to header and footer rows, or vice versa. Select the row(s) you want to convert, then choose Table ‚ Convert Rows and then choose To Header, To Body, or To Footer as appropriate.

The ability to unmerge table cells is new to InDesign CS.

The ability to apply stroke types, such as dashed and dotted lines, to cell edges is new to InDesign CS. You apply these strokes via the Stroke pane (Window ‚ Stroke, or F10). Use the palette menu to select the Stroke Styles menu option, which provides a list of styles and the ability to create your own.

You can now preview color swatches in the Table Options dialog box, instead of seeing just their names .

You can now preview frame edges in tables whose cell are set at 0 points; this helps identify cell boundaries. To see them, choose View ‚ Show Frame Edges.

Glyphs and fonts

Choosing Type ‚ Glyphs is a revised menu option for what had been Type ‚ Insert Glyphs in previous version of InDesign.

You can create sets of frequently used glyphs (symbols and special characters ) by selecting New Glyph set from the Glyph pane's palette menu.

If you have several active fonts of the same name but based on different fonts standards, all will be available in InDesign. The program will append a code indicating the font format, such as Helvetica (T1) for PostScript Type 1, Helvetica (TT) for TrueType, and Helvetica (OTF) for OpenType.

The Inline Input check box in the Text pane of the Preferences dialog box enables input method editors (IMEs) from Microsoft, Apple, or other companies, if installed on your computer, for entering Asian language characters on a non-Asian operating system. It's meant for the occasional use of Chinese, Japanese, or Korean characters. If you publish regularly in these languages, you should use the appropriate Asian version of InDesign instead.