InDesign for QuarkXPress Users [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Flexibility with Frames

When you work with QuarkXPress boxes, you have one workflow: First, you draw a text box or a picture box, then you fill it with content. InDesign offers more flexibility to the process: You can continue to use the same method you learned with XPress, or you can learn to create frames on-the-fly.

Placeholder Frames

When you want to use the XPress method, you can use InDesign's frame tools (see Chapter 12. And you can make fancier boxes with corner effects, which we describe in Chapter 15.)

Note that there aren't separate frame tools for text and pictures, as there are in XPress; you use the same tool to create either a text or picture placeholder. By default, these tools create graphic placeholders (also called "picture frames"), indicated by the "X" in them (see Figure 10-2). However, you can turn them into text frames by clicking in them with the Type tool or selecting the frame and choosing Text from the Content submenu (under the Object menu). As in XPress 4 or 5, you can change the content of a frame at any time. You can recognize text frames by their in and out ports, used for connecting the frames. Unassigned frames have neither an "X" or ports.

Frames On-the-Fly

InDesign also offers the choice of creating frames on-the-fly. To place a graphic when no frame has been created, you can simply choose Place from the File menu (or press Command-D/Ctrl-D). After selecting a graphic to place, you'll see the loaded graphics cursor (see Figure 10-3). If you click, InDesign automatically creates a frame and places the graphic in it, at the point where you click. You can also click-and-drag on the page with the loaded graphics cursor, which places the picture inside a frame with one corner where you clicked and another corner where you let go of the mouse button.

You can make text frames on the fly just as easily. For example, if you just want to make a quick caption there's no need to make a frame first. Just choose the Type tool (or press T), and drag out a rectangular frame with that tool. After dragging out the shape, the text insertion point is flashing, ready to accept your text.

Or, when you want to place text without first making a frame, choose Place from the File menu (or press Command-D/Ctrl-D) and select a text file to place. InDesign changes the cursor to the loaded text cursor (see Figure 10-3), with which you can drag out a frame to the size you wish. When you release the mouse, text flows into the frame.

Dragging and Copying Shortcuts

InDesign has two more frame creating shortcuts up its sleeve. First, when you paste graphics or text from the clipboard (select Paste from the Edit menu or press Command-V/Ctrl-V), InDesign creates a frame in the center of your current page. We discuss copying graphics from Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand in Chapter 63. Be warned, however, that when you copy a bitmapped image, it is becomes an embedded object and is not linked to a file on disk (we don't recommend doing this).

The second trick is a truly amazing way to add text or graphics to a page: You can select one or more text or graphic files on the Windows or Macintosh system desktop or in Windows Explorer and drag the files into InDesign! On the Macintosh, drag the files into an InDesign window until you see a black outline around window, then release the mouse. In Windows, drag the files over a minimized InDesign window and, when the window opens, release the mouse. InDesign creates a frame for each file (they're stacked if you're dragging several files), and the frames are linked to their external files. What a time saver!