Adjusting Page Layouts and Objects

If you've ever created and worked with a document all the way to the finishing touches, and then discovered that the page size was wrong from the beginning, you know the meaning of frustration. Manually adjusting the size and placement of all the objects in a document is an ugly chore, one you want to avoid at all costs. However, should the unthinkable happen ‚ you have to modify the size , orientation, or margins of a document that is partially or completely finished ‚ InDesign will automatically resize and reposition objects when you change its basic layout.

For example, maybe you've created a magazine for an American audience that subsequently needs to be converted for publication in Europe. Most newsletters in the United States use letter- sized pages (8 ‚ ½ by 11 inches), while in Europe the standard page size for such publications is A4 (210 by 297 mm), which is slightly narrower and slightly taller than U.S. letter size. Of course, you'll have to change color to colour, apartment to flat, and so on. But you'll also have to both squeeze (horizontally) and stretch (vertically) every item on every page to accommodate the A4 page's dimensions. The Layout Adjustment command (Layout ‚ Layout Adjustment) gives you the option of turning this chore over to InDesign, which will automatically adjust object shape and position according to the new page size, column guides, and margins.

The Layout Adjustment dialog box lets you turn layout adjustment on or off and specify the rules used to adjust objects, when you change page size or orientation (via the Document Setup dialog box; File ‚ Document Setup or Option+ z +P or Ctrl+Alt+P) or margins or columns (via the Margin and Columns dialog box, accessed via Layout ‚ Margins and Columns). To adjust a layout:

1. Choose Layout ‚ Layout Adjustment to display the Layout Adjustment dialog box, shown in Figure 5-9.

   
   Figure 5-9: The Layout Adjustment dialog box.

2. Check Enable Layout Adjustment to turn on the feature; uncheck it to turn it off.

3. In the Snap Zone field, enter the distance within which an object edge will automatically snap to a guideline when layout adjustment is performed.

4. Check Allow Graphics and Groups to Resize if you want InDesign to resize objects when layout adjustment is performed.

   If you don't check this box, InDesign will move objects but not resize them (the preferred option).

5. Check Allow Ruler Guides to Move if you want InDesign to adjust the position of ruler guides proportionally according to a new page size.

   Generally, ruler guides are placed relative to the margins and page edges, so you'll probably want to check this box.

6. Check Ignore Ruler Guide Alignments if you want InDesign to ignore ruler guides when adjusting the position of objects during layout adjustment.

   If you think that objects may snap to ruler guides that you don't want them to snap to during layout adjustment, check this box. If it's checked, InDesign will still snap object edges to other margin and column guides.

7. Check Ignore Object and Layer Locks to let InDesign move locked objects (either objects locked directly via Object ‚ Lock Position, or via z +L or Ctrl+L, or objects that reside on a locked layer).

   Otherwise, locked objects will not be adjusted.

8. When you're done, click OK to close the dialog box.

The Layout Adjustment feature works best when there's not much work for it to do. But if you radically change a document that you've already done considerable work on, the Layout Adjustment feature usually creates more work than it saves. For example, the switch from a U.S. letter-sized page to an A4-sized page is a relatively minor change and the layout adjustments will probably be barely noticeable. But if you decide to change a tabloid-sized poster into a business card in midstream, well, you're probably better off starting over.

Here are a few things to keep in mind if you decide to use InDesign's Layout Adjustment feature:

• If you change page size, the margin widths (the distance between the left and right margins and the page edges) remain the same.

• If you change page size, column guides and ruler guides are repositioned proportionally to the new size.

• If you change the number of columns, column guides are added or removed accordingly .

• If an object edge is aligned with a guideline before layout adjustment, it remains aligned with the guideline after adjustment. If two or more edges of an object are aligned with guidelines, the object is resized so that the edges remain aligned with the guidelines after layout adjustment.

• If you change the page size, objects are moved so that they're in the same relative position on the new page.

• If you've used margin, column, and ruler guides to place objects on pages, layout adjustment will be more effective than if you've placed objects or ruler guides randomly on pages.

• Check for text reflow when you modify a document's page size, margins, or column guides. Decreasing a document's page size can cause text to overflow a text frame whose dimensions have been reduced.

• Check everything in your document after the adjustment is complete. Take the time to look over every page of your document. You never know what InDesign has actually done until you see it with your own eyes.

  Tip ‚  

  If you decide to enable layout adjustment for a particular publication, you may want to begin by using the Save As command (File ‚ Save As or Shift+ z +S or Ctrl+Shift+S) to create a copy. That way, if you ever need to revert back to the original version, you can simply open the original document.