InDesign for QuarkXPress Users [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Editing Tools

As we mentioned earlier, it is important to note whether you have selected the frame or the contents of the frame, because these editing tools change whatever is selected (see Chapter 18).

Rotate

InDesign's Rotate tool (press R) works very similarly to QuarkXPress's: select the object you wish to rotate then drag with this tool to determine the axis of rotation. You can click on the object even if it was not previously selected and InDesign will select the object along with its axis of rotation (but this only works if nothing on the page was previously selected).

Scale

Use the Scale tool (press S) to increase or decrease the size of a selected object on the page, including text and picture frames. We tend to shun this tool in favor of using the Transform palette or Command/Ctrl-Shift dragging the corner or side handles of an object with the Selection tool (which allows you to scale an object and its contents without switching to a special tool).

Shear

If you have ever wanted your text to resemble the the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or look like movie credits moving off into the distance, then this is the tool for you. With the Shear tool (press O) you can take an object on your page and apply a skew that'll make your eyes twitch. You can easily over-manipulate objects with this tool, so take advantage of InDesign's multiple undo feature if you find your objects in an awkward position.

Free Transform

You can use the Free Transform tool (press E) to rotate and scale objects. To scale, select one or more objects, choose this tool, and drag one of the corner or side handles in the direction you wish to scale. To rotate, click outside the bounding box and drag. Unlike the Shear tool, which can move in multiple directions concurrently, this tool requires separate actions to rotate or to scale.

Eyedropper

After working with the Eyedropper tool (press I) you will wonder how you ever got along in XPress without it. You can use the Eyedropper tool to copy colors or text formatting from one location to another without building a swatch, or a paragraph or character style. Double click on the Eyedropper tool to set preferences relating to what it will duplicate when copying formatting.

To copy the color from an imported image, move the Eyedropper tool over the image and click once. The color your clicked on should fill the eyedropper and should also be shown in the Color palette and either the fill or stroke color in the bottom of the Tools palette, based upon whichever is in the foreground. You can then apply the color to any InDesign object or save it as a swatch.

If you have already selected a color and would like to replace it with another color, hold down the Option/Alt key while clicking with the Eyedropper tool and the tool becomes white and points down and to the left, indicicating that it is ready to pick up another color if you click.

You can learn more about this and how the Eyedropper tool can be used for copying and pasting text formatting in Chapter 82.

Gradient

You can use the Gradient tool (press G) to modify the length and direction of existing gradients or to apply a gradient to one or more selected objects. One or more objects must first be selected on your page before you use the Gradient tool. After selecting an object, click and drag over it with the gradient tool to determine the direction of the gradient. The longer you drag, the longer the gradient. For an abrupt transition between colors in the gradient click and drag over a shorter distance. We discuss gradients in more detail in Chapter 81.