Editing Text
When working in a layout, InDesign gives you the basic editing capabilities found in a word processor: cutting and pasting, deleting and inserting text, searching and replacing of text and text attributes, as well as help in spell-checking.
But before you begin to edit text, you need to see it. In many layout views, the text is too small to work with. Generally, you'll zoom in around the block of text using the Zoom tool. For quick access to the tool, press Z (except when the cursor is in a block of text! ‚ in that case, you'll need to click the Zoom tool). Then click to zoom in. (To zoom out, hold the Option or Alt key when clicking.)
Another way to zoom in is to use the keyboard shortcut z += or Ctrl+=. Each time you use it, the magnification increases . (Zoom out via z +- [hyphen] or Ctrl+- [hyphen].)
| Tip ‚ | Choose the z += or Ctrl+= method when your text pointer is already on or near the text you want to zoom into ‚ the pointer location is the centerpoint for the zoom. Use the Zoom tool when your pointer is not near the text you want to magnify; then move the Zoom pointer to the area you want to magnify, and click once for each level of desired magnification. |
In addition to seeing the text larger, it also helps to see the spaces, tabs, and paragraph returns that exist in the text. Choose Type ‚ Show Hidden Characters or press Option+ z +I or Ctrl+Alt+I (refer to Figure 15-1). In addition to seeing the text, you have to be able to access it, so choose the Type tool.
Navigating text
To work at a different text location, click in a different text frame or another location in the current text frame. You can also use the four arrow (cursor) keys on the keyboard to move one character to the right, one character to the left, one line up, or one line down. Add z or Ctrl to the arrow keys to jump one word to the right or left, or one paragraph up or down. The Home and End keys let you jump to the beginning or end of a line; add z or Ctrl to jump to the beginning or end of a story. (A story is text within a text frame or that is linked across several text frames , as described in Chapter 16.) Note that if your story begins or ends in a text frame on another page, InDesign will bring you to that page.
| Tip ‚ | As with most text editors, you can't enter text below the existing text in a frame. You'll need to click directly after the last character in the frame to start typing again. |
| New Feature ‚ | If you double-click a text frame with any tool other than a drawing or frame tool, InDesign will automatically switch to the Text tool and place the insertion point where you double-clicked. (This also works for text paths and table cells .) |
| New Feature ‚ | You can now resize text frames using the text tool. To do so, hold z or Ctrl, select a text frame handle, and resize the frame by dragging the mouse. Likewise, you can move a text frame by holding z or Ctrl, clicking in the frame, and dragging the mouse. When you release the mouse, you'll revert to the Text tool and your cursor will still be at the text-insertion point you last were at. So you can continue editing where you left off. If you want to see how your text looks when you resize a text frame (whether you use the Text tool or not), hold the mouse button down for a second after selecting a handle; then when you resize the frame, you will see the text recompose as you move the mouse. |
Highlighting text
To highlight text, you can always rely on the old click-and-drag method. Or, you can add the Shift key to the navigation commands in the previous section. For example, while z +right arrow or Ctrl+right arrow moves the cursor one word to the right, Shift+ z +right arrow or Ctrl+Shift+right arrow highlights the next word to the right. Likewise, Shift+ z +End or Ctrl+Shift+End highlights all the text to the end of the story.
For precise text selections, double-click to select a word and its trailing space (this will not select its punctuation) and triple-click to select a paragraph. If you need the punctuation trailing a word, double-click, then press Shift+ z +right arrow or Ctrl+Shift+right arrow to extend the selection. To select an entire story, choose Edit ‚ Select All, or press z +A or Ctrl+A.
To deselect text, choose Edit ‚ Deselect All or press Shift+ z +A or Ctrl+Shift+A. More simply, you can select another tool or click another area of the page.
Cutting, copying, and pasting text
After you've highlighted text, you can press z +X or Ctrl+X to remove it from its story and place it on the Clipboard for later use. Use z +C or Ctrl+C to leave the text in the story and place a copy on the Clipboard. Click anywhere else in text ‚ within the same story, another story, or another publication ‚ and press z +V or Ctrl+V. If you're menu-driven , the Edit menu provides Cut, Copy, and Paste commands as well.
Deleting and replacing text
To remove text from a document, you can highlight it and choose Edit ‚ Clear or press Delete or Backspace on the keyboard. Or you can simply type over the highlighted text or paste new text on top of it.
| QuarkXPress User ‚ | Don't use z +K or Ctrl+K to clear text ‚ while that works in QuarkXPress, this shortcut opens the Preferences dialog box in InDesign. |
If text is not highlighted, you can delete text to the right or left of the cursor. On the Mac, press Delete to delete to the left and press Del (sometimes labeled Clear) to delete to the right. In Windows, press Backspace to delete to the left and Delete to delete to the right.
Undoing text edits
Remember to take advantage of InDesign's multiple undos while editing text. Choose Edit ‚ Undo and Edit ‚ Redo any time you change your mind about edits. The Undo and Redo keyboard commands are definitely worth remembering: z +Z and Shift+ z +Z or Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z.
Using the Story Editor
InDesign CS adds a feature long available in Adobe PageMaker: the Story Editor. This window, shown in Figure 15-5, lets you edit text without the distractions of your layout. It presents your text without line breaks or other nonessential formatting ‚ you just see attributes like boldface and italics, as well as the names of the style sheets applied in a separate pane to the left. After clicking in a text frame, you open the Story Editor by choosing Edit ‚ Edit in Story Editor or pressing z +Y or Ctrl+Y.
Figure 15-5: The Story Editor window.
| New Feature ‚ | The Story Editor is new to InDesign CS. |
| Cross-Reference ‚ | You set preferences for text size and font in the Story Editor Display pane of the Preferences dialog box (choose InDesign ‚ Preferences on the Mac or Edit ‚ Preferences in Windows, or press z +K or Ctrl+K), as detailed in Chapter 3. |
In the Story Editor, you use the same tools for selection, deletion, copying, pasting, and search and replace as you would in your layout. The Story Editor is not a separate word processor, simply a way to look at your text in a less-distracting environment for those times your mental focus is on the meaning and words, not the text appearance.
