Format column with just one click

Time is money! Do you know the phrase? Have you ever heard it? Maybe your boss has thrown it at you or your employer has said it to you.

It's an unpleasant thing, because they're often a bit right somewhere. In today's working environment, you often don't have time to dwell on little things all the time. And that's why I've brought you a little column article that you can see here in front of you.




Let's take a look at what's hidden inside. We have a great headline and an introductory text. The introductory text is followed by a paragraph line that is slightly indented on the left and right. Then we have a continuous text with an initial at the beginning that spans three lines. And then the normal continuous text, which has an indent at the beginning of the paragraph. Divided into three columns, while the heading and the introductory text span all three columns.

I would like to show you how to create this article in no time at all with just a few mouse clicks.

Don't you think so? Then I would suggest we give it a try.

New page

I'll create a new page.

I'll simply drag my InDesign window a little smaller and have a sample text on the desktop. Until now, it has been hidden behind the InDesign interface. Now it comes to the surface.

Sample text

I drag and drop it onto my window, have it in the loaded mouse pointer, ...

... left-click and the text we received from the editor is tutti kompletti there.

Select object format

Now I select the corresponding format Column Portrait DIN A4.

And now watch out: one click!





And 90 percent of the work is done. That's great! How did the whole thing come about?

I'm going to show you step by step: We're going to create this column article and the associated formats together so that you can understand step by step how something like this is structured.

Step by step

New document

To do this, we open a new document: File>New>Document.





We do not need a double page, and the only thing that needs to be done here is to modify the number of columns slightly. We would like to have three columns. The column spacing is perfectly fine. I confirm this and then we already have the page layout as we saw it in the previous document.

Sample page

For the sample page, I copy the objects that are more or less accessories into the new document.

I will draw a text field at the beginning. Let's take a closer look at the sample text. And we can already see exactly what the editor needs to pay attention to. We have the heading at the top and then a paragraph; the introductory text and then a paragraph - only one at a time.

And then there are more paragraphs. But it's a good idea to work reasonably cleanly at this stage, because then we'll have fewer corrections to make later.

I select the entire text (Ctrl+A), place it on the clipboard (Ctrl+C) and double-click to copy it into the text window in InDesign.

Example text inserted:

I'll zoom in a little and then we'll just start with the formatting.

Zoomed example text:

Heading format

I will select the first paragraph (cursor is in the first line). You can now define paragraph formats in various ways. I'll do the first part in such a way that you can see immediately what changes. That's why I'm going to select "Myrad Pro" as the font, then choose "Bold Condensed" as the font style and increase the font size to 50 pt; another centered alignment, another color (red). And I can now define exactly this formatting that I have made as a paragraph format.

Paragraph styles palette

I open my paragraph styles palette. If you can't find it on your page, simply go to Font>Paragraph Formats or press F11.

Now I can select New paragraph format. Then it opens a dialog: I now call this "Heading".

Define paragraph format

And if I confirm this, then we have our heading, which is already preformatted exactly as we have set it up above (in the tool panel).

But as I said, you can also set the same within the paragraph format under the basic character formats or the character color.

Define paragraph format directly

Let's move on to the next paragraph format , because now we come to the introductory text. So I move my cursor down one paragraph. Call up a new paragraph format again and now write "Introductory text" under Format name.

Here I'll turn my back on Myriad Pro - it's only for the impressive headline - and choose Minion Pro, but in Italic font. 12 pt.

Introductory text

When I go to the indents and spacing, I also select the centered alignment here. I confirm the whole thing and format it.





Now it's basically how we actually want it, but the spacing between the heading and the introductory sentence and also between the introductory sentence and the consecutive texts is simply far too small. It's not loose at all. It all looks squashed together and that's why we can't leave it like this. But here, too, we can of course make a few improvements within the formats. And that's what we're doing now. That's why I'll start by selecting the "Heading" paragraph format in the Indents and spacing tab. There you can see the Spacing field afterwards. Here I select my "3 mm", and you can see that if you check the preview checkboxat the bottom left, you can view the changes live.

Revise the "Heading" paragraph format

I will do the same for the "Introduction text" paragraph format. Here I would like to have an end spacing of 10 mm.

The paragraph line is not drawn manually, but is attached to the introductory text in the "Introductory text" paragraph format under the Paragraph lines tab. There you can choose whether you want a line above or below it. We want to have a line below. So I activate the checkbox. Now we just need a little fine-tuning.

For example, 1 pt is far too thick for me. 0.5 pt is fine. One solid line is ok. The text color is also perfectly fine.

What I don't like, however, is that the line currently hangs directly below the base of our letter. That's a bit too close. That's why we can set an offset. The line will now jump down or up using this offset.

You can set up the offset like this. I can live with 5 mm and choose an indent to the left and right. I want the line to be a little shorter. I can therefore enter 10 mm on the left and 10 mm on the right. Confirm the whole thing. And then we've already done the first part.

The only thing missing now is the rest of the text, which needs to be brought into shape. I'll select all of this text and define a new paragraph format.

Mark continuous text

I'll call this "body text" and want it to contain "Minion Pro - Regular". This is exactly what I want. UnderIndents and Spacing, however, I will select Justified - last left-aligned. What belongs to a clean formatting in column character, however, is an indent of the first line. This means that after a period and a paragraph, there should be an indent in the next line (or in the next paragraph). You can define this under Indent - first line. I want 4 mm and confirm this.

Formatting continuous text

Then we can apply the format to our text by clicking on the paragraph format "body text". And then we've actually done almost everything. What is still missing is a small highlight. For example, if you want to have an initial at the beginning of an article - these are those big squiggly letters; we know them from old writings (where they were very prominent - e.g. in the Bible). If we want something like that, then we can do it. Click in the first paragraph; duplicate the paragraph format "body text" once by clicking on it with the right mouse button.

Duplicate body text

InDesign calls the new format "body text copy". I rename this to "Body text initial". I would then like to add an initial in the first position. You can do this very easily. Select initials and nested formats and then select the lines. This means: How many lines should the initial extend over. I would like it to span three lines.

Initial

I'll confirm this once and then apply it straight away. Then it looks like this (see screenshot).

Of course, the indents that we still have here are not at all nice. We have to remove them, of course. We open the paragraph format "Continuous text initial" again by double-clicking on it. Please set the indent of the first line for this format from 4mm back to 0mm. What is still needed for an initial is a great color. And that's what we're currently missing, because it still looks pretty bleak and black. So let's go back to the initials and then you can define a character format from this dialog.

Format initial

Simply go to this drop-down list and select a new character format. This will not close the first dialog and you can create a character format. Character formats are characterized by the fact that they can be placed over paragraph formats. In principle, you only need to specify the changes you want to make.

For example, we don't want to change anything here except the character color. So we will only select the character color and make it red. Of course, this also needs a name. That's why I call it "Initial Red" and confirm it.

Overview

And now our "E" shines in crimson red. And if we take a bird's eye view of the whole thing, it looks like this:





Almost perfect, but one little thing is still missing. We want the text at the bottom to be split into three columns. In order to achieve this result, we need to start by building certain formatting on top of each other. From a purely visual point of view, I will sort the styles by hierarchy. Simply click on the paragraph format, hold it down and move it to the desired position. So first the "Heading" goes at the top, then the "Introductory text", then the "Body text initial" and finally the "Body text". Now double-click on the individual formats and specify the next format in the paragraph format options window.

E.g. for the heading: When a text is written and then the Enter key is pressed, a new format should follow. And you define this at this point. I want the introductory text to follow at this point and confirm this.

Subsequent formats Then I double-click on the "Introductory text" and would like our "Continuous text initial" to follow the "Introductory text". And I'll confirm that too.





And I want the "body text initial" to be followed by the "body text". That was the first hurdle we had to overcome.

Text frame options

Now I can call up the text frame options by right-clicking on the selected text frame.





And there I can define that the text should be displayed in a three-column layout. So I enter three columns. InDesign already specifies 58.711 mm as the width. This is exactly the size of a column. If this is not the case for you, you simply have to enter it manually and then confirm.

Set text frame options

Of course, there is still a little something missing, because the entire text, including the "Heading" and the "Introduction text", is now squeezed into three columns.

Column span

Next, you need to modify the paragraph formats that are to span all three columns. And that is, of course, our "Heading" and the "Introductory text". So we select the "Heading" paragraph format by double-clicking on it and visit the Column span tab on the left. There, under Paragraph layout, you cannot select the individual column, but we want the entire column span. I confirm this.

And I repeat the same for the paragraph format "Introduction text". Here, too, I now want the entire column span .

You can see what happens: While I select Single Column, InDesign defines the format so that the introductory text is squeezed into the predefined columns, which we have stored in the text frame options. If I don't want this, I select the entire column span. And now we have the article largely in shape.

Place image

Two little things: You can place an image in the middle by pressing Ctrl+D, for example. This opens the place dialog. Then I select an image, drag it over the middle column and select the text outline. Double-clicking on the bottom handle of the text frame adjusts the frame to the amount of text.





The author abbreviation can be right-aligned in the last paragraph by placing the cursor between the period of the sentence and the author abbreviation - and then pressing Shift+Tab.

Create object format

Now the article is almost finished. There is only one thing left. We need to define an object format for the whole thing. That's why I simply click on the text frame and create a new object format (this works in the same way as with paragraph formats).

I call the object format "Column DIN A4 portrait". Then you have to check the box for paragraph formats. Then also check the box "Apply next format". This is very important!

What exactly have we done now? We have provided a text with the corresponding paragraph formats; we have installed the corresponding character formats and we have packed this entire package here - this individual text frame - into an object format so that the entire formatting can be called up by the object format "Column A4 portrait".

And what can we do with it now? It's very simple: you can draw a text frame, assign the object format "Column A4 portrait" to it and type or copy in your text - and you're done formatting it without having to call up paragraph formats.

Of course, you can also move the entire object to the desktop. This creates a snippet that you can bring back into InDesign elsewhere if required.

Of course, you can also save a text created with such an object format in a library in order to use it elsewhere.

Another option is to integrate the text into InDesign so that it serves as a source. Any changes you make to the text outside of InDesign will then be adopted by InDesign.

Linking a text file

This is very simple: I copy a text into an InDesign document and then it is important that the text is shown as a separate link.

Default settings for text links

The text usually does not have its own link . However, you can change this via the Edit>Preferences menu and there in the File handling area. To do this, simply place a checkmark next to Link placement of text and table files. I confirm this once.

Indicator for text links

The text must now be placed again after we have made the changes. Now the text in InDesign is linked to the text on the desktop ("Beispieltext.txt"). You can recognize this by the chain at the top left of the text frame and by the fact that a link has been added.

If I now change something in my original text document, e.g. the heading, and save it, InDesign tells me: "Oh dear, oh dear! There has been a change in the source document. I have to point this out".

You can recognize this by the yellow triangle with the exclamation mark where the chain symbol was previously visible. This warning symbol is also displayed in the shortcuts panel. We have the option of reacting to the change. To do this, we can simply double-click on the yellow warning symbol. An alarm will then sound again and InDesign will inform us that the imported version of "Beispieltext.txt" has been edited. We can confirm this.

Unfortunately, InDesign now rejects my object format. If you then see such a constellation that there is a small "+" after the object format (this also applies to the paragraph or character formats), this means that the corresponding format has been assigned to this object, but that a change has occurred. You can easily fix this by holding down the Alt keyand left-clicking on the format. The text will then reappear as defined in the object format - with the new heading as it was changed in the source document.

As you can see, you can do a lot with it. The potential is so immeasurable; there are so many ways in which you can integrate something like this into your daily work routine and rhythm. And at this point, I would simply like to recommend that you try it out for yourself. Try working with snippets or with object formats like this. And also try doing the example with the different column layout, because the chance that you will need this at some point is certainly very high.

Until then, I wish you all the best and lots of fun!

Yours

Stefan