Changing the Default Stroke to Inside or Outside (instead of centered)
Johnny wrote:
Often I draw a frame and then add a stroke to the box. InDesign always centers the stroke on the border! I know how to go to the stroke panel and align the stroke to the inside of the box, but, can I set the stroke to always align inside the box by default?
Excellent question! When a question includes the phrase “always… by default” the answer usually includes this phrase: “with no objects selected”! For example, if you want all the text frames you draw to always start off with the “bodytext” paragraph you made, first click the paragraph style while no objects are selected. That sets the default for this particular document.
(Or, if you create a paragraph style and click on it while no documents are open, then it becomes the default for all documents you create from now on.)
So in your case, you want to make sure no objects are selected, then click the desired alignment button in the Strokes panel.
Note, however, that this will only affect the unassigned frames — not text frames or graphic frames that you draw out. The unassigned frames are the shape frames you make with the Rectangle tool, Ellipse tool, and the Polygon tool. (In other words, this doesn’t work for the frames that have a big “X” in them.)
An even better way to change the default formatting of these objects is to change the definition of the [Basic Graphics Frame] in the Object Styles panel. Here’s where it gets funky, because this style is called “basic graphics frame” but it does not apply to graphic frames (the ones with an “X” in them). Instead, InDesign applies this style to unassigned frames! Very frustrating, because there is no way to make an object style that automatically applies to real graphic frames.
You can also edit the [Basic Text Frame] if you want to change the way text frames appear when you draw them. Fortunately, that works as you’d expect. Note, however, that I’m not keen on editing anything called “Basic” in InDesign. For more reading on this subject, check out:
- InDesign’s Three Kinds of Frames: Text, Graphic, and Unassigned
- Beware Basic Styles
- Applying an Object Style when Placing an Image
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Why do people keep using the rectangle frame tool when they should be using the rectangle tool? The reason these frames have a big X in them is that it’s saying “I’m a graphics frame, but I’m empty.” I’m sure this is a holdover from Quark, but really! It drives me nuts when I open a designer’s file and it’s peppered with Xs all over the place.
Very helpful! Thank you.
This does not help with the fact that a box initially created with no stroke will NOT default to an inside stroke when when the stroke is activated AFTER creating the box. VERY frustrating.
I want to create an un-stroked box, then after it is created, put a stroke on it. THAT is when I want it to default to an inside stroke. I just can not figure out how to make it do this. It ALWAYS forces the stroke in the middle.
There are too many of these little idiosyncrasies in InDesign that routinely infuriate me.
Someone please help. Thank you.
I agree, that is a really annoying behavior, and there doesn’t seem to be a way around it. As soon as you completely remove the stroke, the alignment always snaps to centered. But could you possibly do it the other way around? Change your default object style to apply an inside stroke to all new frames, and then just remove when desired it by pressing forward slash? Either that or create an object style that only applies the inside stroke alignment, and use Quick Apply to, well, apply it quickly.
A year later (but who is keeping track?)… Thank you.