Tim Cole’s Anchored Frames Productivity Tutorial
Tim Cole has posted a fabulous new tutorial on how to be productive when creating anchored frames frequently. It makes use of the anchored frames feature in InDesign CS2 and CS3, the InDesign Secrets/DTP Tools Keyboard Shortcuts palette, the Story Editor, and drag-and-drop text.
Here’s how it begins:
InDesign’s anchored frames feature is a life-saver for certain types of publishing jobs. If you’re in a situation where you’re creating the same type of anchored frame over and over again, then here’s a tip that might help you work go much faster and save a lot of production time.This tip is about creating a very useful keyboard shortcut that will enable you to insert a styled anchored frame automatically without having to go through multiple manual steps over and over again.
In this example, I’m laying out a book that contains a marginal outline that’s supposed to serve as an aid to the reader. The marginal outline needs to track with the text, so that as the text is reflowed, the marginal outline frames adjust accordingly. This is exactly what InDesign’s anchored frames are designed to do for you.
Enjoy!
It’s a splendid post by Tim Cole indeed.
However, here is a problem I get with Anchored Objects now and then — the top yellow box is fine, the bottom one is not:
http://www.klausnordby.com/repository/id_anchor.png
When the “Keep with Top/Bottom..” is enabled, the object nicely stays aligned with the frame — but it’s being pushed up, sort of, and in that area the Text Wrap fails to work properly. Any tips from the owners or the lurkers?
Until (unless?) InDesign’s support of anchored objects extends to allowing objects to fall in different frames than their anchor points — necessary to cut off potential infinite loops if a wrap that affects text before the anchor pushed the anchor to the next frame — then this issue is one you just have to learn to live with. It means adjusting the layout, or changing the position of the anchor so that the wrap only affects text after the anchor point.
Dave
Up to now, I’ve been using anchored objects to insert tables into across columns, as the space above and below doesn’t apply across columns, a box with the table inserted that has text wrap on works.
I’ve never used the way Tim Cole describes, I guess I never came across a project that needs it. But it’s a great reference and I will definitely be passing this information on. It’s quite simply brilliant.
Thanks
Klaus, I can’t tell if you want the anchored frame to move to the next page, or if you want the text wrap to work. Unfortunately, text wrap only works on lines after the anchored object. This is very frustrating for many people (including me).
By the way, the other problem you might encounter with your image is that the drop shadow applied to the anchored object could cause flattening issues with the text next to it. If you’re printing on an adobe pdf print engine RIP, this isn’t a big deal. But if flattening must be applied, that text next to the drop shadow might “fatten up” in some circumstances. That’s one reason I wish we could put anchored objects on a different layer (such as a lower one) from the text frame they’re anchored into.
I’d want to keep the object right there, not next frame — and have correct text wrap. OK, so this is a “known issue” — it seems I may have to cut-paste some anchored objects a bit, to move them up.
David, you’re right, the transparency flattening in this case could be a potential worry. This graphic was just a dummy-test, to show you my wrapping problem, but simply dropping shadows would be the right thing here (tiny pun intended).
Also note Tim Cole’s addendum to his excellent tip: aligning only the first line in the marginal text to the body text:
http://blogs.adobe.com/indesignchannel/2007/11/why_only_align_first_line.html
Klaus, I’m not really a fan of the Keep options (I prefer to edit the text or, if not possible, commit some tracking/kerning violations — last resort only!), but I don’t think they have anything to do with the problem. The only solution I can think of is trying to edit the text that precedes it, in order to have the last paragraph “fit”.
David, regarding the transparency flattening problem in my sample graphic, I know I can “Release” the Anchored Object and then move it to a lower layer. Yes, we lose the lovely editability of the object/text flow, but it overcomes the flattening issue, so it could be implemented as a very last step before a PDF creation. However, this has one annoying snag: it seems I must do this locally with each and every Anchored Object — I can’t even Shift-select them — surely both dumb and boring?! A “Release All” function in CS4 would thus be nice — or better yet, a script which gives us this functionality NOW. Does anyone know of any such script?
gah! It is so frustrating to have the first line of each paragraph just run straight underneath my anchored object. My first day with CS3 and I can’t believe they haven’t fixed this issue. I end up having to anchor the object with the previous paragraph, where it isn’t relevant at all…
How can I make my anchored object (a table in a text box) wrap to the next page, but stay anchored to the text? I have a document that flows across many pages and a huge table that needs to span across my 2 column page format and spill over to the next page.
Wondering why all my anchored objects (texts) look “Bold” when they’re not?? I haven’t printed yet but even on an exported pdf they look bold. Any help would be greatly appreciated