Comments on: Scale One Image in a Group

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:15:19 +0000

Sam, I don’t recall how you’d do that in QX, nor can I think of how you’d do it in ID. I think you’d just have to scale, then use the Align palette to set the Space between the objects.

By: Sam

Sam — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 20:07:27 +0000

Along a similar line, does anyone know how to resize a group and maintain the spacing between the objects? i.e. a picture frame and caption text box - if you resize the group, the font size stays the same, but the spacing changes. I would like to “lock” my pica gap like you could in Quark.

By: Phil Long

Phil Long — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 15:35:48 +0000

Or (and this would work in any version of InDesign) select the pic with the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) then switch to the Selection Tool (black arrow) and, using Object Menu > Select > Container or the icon on the Control palette, select the frame and command/ctrl-shift to scale to your heart’s content.

By: Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:40:45 +0000

Stephan, yes, that’d be another way, but only if you’re in CS3.

The Position tool isn’t so strange once you start using it.

By: Stephan Möbius

Stephan Möbius — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 19:59:46 +0000

Or,
instead of using the strange position tool, you can just double click the image in the group, press V to toggle to selection mode (black arrow) and command/ctrl-shift scale the image. Same result.

By: Cathleen

Cathleen — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 19:14:51 +0000

Thank you, thank you, thank you for this great tip! I do electrical textbooks which have Figure graphics with Figure # captions throughout the text. 75% are one size, but about 25% are a different size. I used to have to “redo” the 25% and go through several steps to make the changes. (There were different textwraps for the graphic and the caption boxes, which made it even more knarly.) I just did a chapter worth of graphics in about 1/4 of the time using this tip.

By: vectorbabe

vectorbabe — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 15:02:53 +0000

Great topic AM.

I have fallen in love with the Position tool compared to the Direct Selection. Not only does it allow you to scale items with a group, but it is a “safe” tool that won’t inadvertently change the shape of a frame or rule.

I’ve even swapped the keyboard shortcuts for Position and Direct Selection to make it easier to get to the Position tool.

The only thing I would like to see in the Position toool is to allow it to modify the shape of grouped text frames.

Then I would never need the Direct Selection tool which I have come to distrust.