InDesign for QuarkXPress Users [Electronic resources]

Fitting a Frame to Its Text

Before we discuss those controls, let's introduce a useful technique for fitting text in its frame which XPress doesn't have. Text frames are often larger than they need to be. You can ask InDesign to automatically fit the frame to the size of the text contained in it. First, either select the frame or frames with the Selection tool or click an insertion point with the Type tool. Then choose Fit Frame to Content from the Fitting submenu (under the Object menu), or press Command-Option-C/Ctrl-Alt-C.

The frame's size is reduced to the size of the text, but how it happens depends on what it contains.

• If the text is only one line, InDesign changes both the height and width of the frame (this is useful for captions!)

• If the text is more than one line, InDesign reduces the height, but not the width of the frame.

• If the frame contains only a table, InDesign reduces or expands the text frame to fit the table.

The Fit Frame to Content command will be unavailable if the frame is linked to other frames or if text is overset (the frame will not be made larger). We discuss similar commands for working with fitting graphics in Chapter 64.