InDesign for QuarkXPress Users [Electronic resources]

Parent and Child Objects

To nest an object in another object, just choose the first object, which we'll call the "child," with the Selection tool, and Copy or Cut it to the Clipboard. Then select the second object, which we'll call the "parent," and choose Paste Into (not just Paste!) from the Edit menu (see Chapter 19.)

You can even create a hierarchy of objects nested in objectsgrandchildren and great grandchildren of the original objectby copying or cutting the parent object and using Paste Into to nest it into some other object.

Selecting Nested Objects

Making a nested object is pretty easy. The trick is how to

select the nested object later. If you choose the Selection tool, it selects the parent object and its content (the child) at the same time. To select the child object so you can manipulate it, you must do it in two steps: First, click the edge of the child object with the Direct Selection tool (don't click one of its anchor points). Second, switch to the Selection tool (the easiest way is to press V), and you'll see the child object bounding box (see Chapters 17 and 18.

To remove a nested object from its parent, use the same two-step process to select the child object's bounding box. Then press Delete, or cut it to the Clipboard if you want to use the object again.

Using Text as a Background

Suppose for artistic effect you'd like to use some text as the background for one or more very large letters. Here's how you can do it with nesting (see Figure 13-2):