Comments on: Show Notes for Episode 20

By: genobambino

genobambino — Sun, 21 May 2006 23:31:23 +0000

Cool, good stuff. Thanks for your help. How did the Creative Suite
conference go? Pick up any new tricks?

By: The InDesigner

The InDesigner — Sat, 20 May 2006 15:50:08 +0000

The thing about Anchored Objects
is that, by default, they are placed in your text as “inline”
objects, meaning that their position is related primarily to the
baseline of the text into which you pasted it. This will rarely get
you the result you want if what you want is something that doesn’t
look obviously like an Anchored Object. What you want to do is
Control-click (or right-click) on the object after you paste it in
and choose Anchored Object –> Options.?r?n?r?nIn the resulting
dialog, you want to switch from Inline to Custom. In the Custom
dialog, de-select “Prevent Manual Positioning” and then just click
OK. You’ll probably see that your object has changed position when
you do that. But since it’s now a Custom object with Manual
Positioning enabled, you can just click and drag it wherever you want
it positioned relative to you text, frame or page.?r?n?r?nThis method
is a lot easier than trying to figure out the intricacies of the
Anchored Object Options dialog if you’re just trying this out for
yourself. However, if you really want to take advantage of Anchored
Objects, I suggest you read the section on that topic in the User
Guide, which is how I finally figured out how to crack these cryptic
options. It’s actually quite clear and makes good sense of the
topic.?r?n?r?nOnce you have the first object the way you want — and
you’ve done it intuitively by dragging it around, which is a good
way for designers to work — just select it with the text tool (NOT
any of the selection tools), copy it, and paste it into the next
location in the next text frame (or somewhere else within the same
text frame).?r?n?r?nThat’s the fast and entirely shallow explanation
of this topic. I make no claims about this being in any way thorough,
but I think it should answer your question.?r?n?r?nAs for not seeing
the dashed line as you move the object around, shame on me for not
mentioning that you can only see that line when you’ve already
chosen Show Text Threads from the View menu.?r?n?r?nI hope this helps
get you started, but you should definitely read the small section in
the User Guide about Anchored Objects. It should help you understand
the full scope of your options.?r?n?r?nMichael

By: genobambino

genobambino — Fri, 19 May 2006 18:22:30 +0000

ha,
you must have been answering me before I got the rest out, once I
reread my question I realized it was kind of vague. Hope the second
part of the post clarified it for you.?r?n?r?nThanks for your quick
response…

By: The InDesigner

The InDesigner — Fri, 19 May 2006 18:01:20 +0000

Adam –?r?nThat’s the problem
with combining different features in one podcast. If you’re trying
to keep it concise, one feature (in this case Tables) always shortchanges
the other (i.e. Anchored Objects). Anchored objects can be a tricky
beast until you get the general concept. And to get exactly what you
want, you often have to tweak all of the settings in the Anchored
Objects dialog box until you find that sweet spot.?r?nI am quite
literally running between sessions at the Creative Suite Conference,
so I can’t go into great detail right this second, but I will
address this by tonight if I can.?r?nIn the meantime, can you let me
know which specific result you didn’t get in your attempt. You
mention “the first graphic” — but in which example, and which
graphic? That’ll go a long way toward helping me answer your
question.?r?n?r?nMichael

By: genobambino

genobambino — Fri, 19 May 2006 17:57:12 +0000

Im
talking about the tip with the arrow objects that point to the next
cell, and when I say graphic, I mean arrow object…?r?n?r?nThanks.

By: genobambino

genobambino — Fri, 19 May 2006 17:51:52 +0000

Michael, I have tried a few of the tips you gave, I had no problem
with the object placed inside a cell to give the row a rounded
look.?r?n?r?nI do have issues with the “anchored object” one however.
I paste a graphic in, and go to anchor object options, but can not
get the same results you did, can you explain what you did to set the
first graphic.?r?n?r?nI also do not get the dotted line that
references the insertion point, must be doing something
wrong…?r?n?r?nIm unfamiliar with anchored objects and do not use
them much.

By: Prlwytskofski

Prlwytskofski — Wed, 17 May 2006 18:42:55 +0000

I see what you mean. I was trying to make a box for a
picture with text underneath. For now i use a construction with a
graphic-box and a textbox. Scaling the graphicbox will overlap the
textbox when i do not group them. Grouped, also the textbox
scales.?r?n?r?nThen starting to use tables i thougt of a table one
column wide two rows high. Top cell containing the graphic, botom one
containing text. But as you explained, indesign probably just
stretches the table width when the text is wider then te picture.
Well i slap om my thinking hat again…

By: genobambino

genobambino — Wed, 17 May 2006 04:11:49 +0000

ahh,
very cool, thanks. Guess I should consult the show notes first next
time…

By: The InDesigner

The InDesigner — Wed, 17 May 2006 01:49:33 +0000

1) Yes. There’s a great (and
cheap) way to paste text into cells and preserve the formatting of
the table. It’s not perfect — especially if you’ve got merged
cells and a lot of specific manual formatting and overrides applied
to the table you’re pasting into — but if you’re just updating
info, it’s the right solution for you. It’s exactly what I mention
in these show notes — the $25.95 shareware script PopTabFmClip.js.
Follow the link in the original post and you’ll see what I
mean.?r?n?r?n2) You can change multiple cells with the exact same
level of control that you do with any other text in your file
(well…maybe not setting tabs…but NEARLY all other options are
available). If you select a range of cells, go to the Swatches
palette and first click the “T” icon at the top (to indicate that
you’re applying the swatch to the text and not the fill of the
cell), then select the appropriate color swatch. It’s that
simple.?r?n?r?nHope that helps.

By: genobambino

genobambino — Wed, 17 May 2006 00:03:30 +0000

Enjoyed the podcast Mike…?r?n?r?na few table
questions…?r?n?r?nIs there a good way to paste text into cells in a
table and preserve the formatting of the table??r?n?r?nI have a
several tables I use once a week, and update them with new
information, everytime I paste the new info, I have to go through and
set all my cell formatting, tabs and things like that.?r?n?r?nAlso,
is there a way to change the text attributes for several cells at
once, besides using styles??r?n?r?nSometimes I will need to change a
row of cells to have white text instead of black, and can find no
easier way to do this than clicking on each cell and changing it.