Real World Adobe InDesign CS4: Text Wrap
Any independent object in an InDesign publication can have a text wrap—a boundary that repels text—applied to it. Wrapping text around an object is something like the opposite of flowing text inside a text frame. When you flow text inside a frame, you want text to stay inside a path; when you apply a text wrap, you want to keep it out. To set the text wrap for an object, follow these steps (see Figure 6-41).
Figure 6.41 Text Wrap
- Select an object—any frame or group—on an InDesign page.
- Display the Text Wrap panel, if it’s not already visible (press Command-Option-W/Ctrl-Alt-W).
- Click one of the Text Wrap buttons in the Text Wrap panel. InDesign displays the text wrap boundary around the selected object, and pushes any text falling inside the text wrap boundary to the outside of the boundary. If you applied the text wrap to a text frame, the text in that frame is unaffected by the text wrap boundary.
- Set the text wrap offset distances using the Top, Left, Bottom, and Right fields in the Text Wrap panel. If you want the text wrap to be the same on all four sides, make sure the Link icon is enabled in the middle of the panel. However, if you’ve selected anything other than a rectangular frame, you’ll only be able to adjust a single field (the Left field) to set the offset distance.
Note that when it comes to inline or anchored objects (objects that are anchored to a position in a text story), text wrap doesn’t always play by the same rules. We cover that in more detail in “Inline Frames and Anchored Objects,” later in this chapter.
When you choose the Wrap Around Object text wrap type, and have an imported graphic selected, InDesign adds a new section to the bottom of the Text Wrap panel (if you don’t see it, choose Show Options from the Text wrap panel menu). You can create the text wrap contour from paths or an alpha channel stored in a graphic, or detect the edges of objects in an image (see Figure 6-42). It’s very similar to the clipping path options.
Figure 6.42 Contour Text Wrap Options
Ignoring Text Wrap
As we pointed out in the “Composition Preferences” section of Chapter 1, “Workspace,” many people aren’t used to the fact that applying text wrap to an object affects the text below and above that object in the stacking order. Fortunately, you can make individual text frames immune to text wrap: Select the frame, choose Text Frame Options from the Object menu (or press Command/Ctrl-B) and turn on the Ignore Text Wrap checkbox.
Inverted Text Wrap
InDesign can apply an inverted text wrap to an object, which causes text to wrap to the inside of the text wrap (see Figure 6-43). We find this very helpful when... well, actually, almost never. But it’s nice to have options.
Figure 6.43 Inverted Text Wrap
Editing a Text Wrap
The text wrap boundary is a path, and can be edited and adjusted just as you’d change the shape of any path in InDesign (see Figure 6-44). You can draw new line segments using the Pen tool, or change the location of path points using the Direct Selection tool.
Figure 6.44 Editing a Text Wrap
Master Page Text Wrap
In CS2 and earlier, items on the master page that had text wrap would not affect document page items unless they were overridden. Now there’s a choice: By default, a master page object does affect text wrap on document pages, but if you don’t want it to, you can select the object on the master page and choose Apply to Master Page Only from the Text Wrap panel menu.
Wrap To Options Wrap To Options
When you apply text wrap to an object that is narrower than the column of text, the text will typically flow on both the left and the right sides of it—useful in a few instances, ugly in most. You can control where you want the text to flow by choosing from the Wrap To pop-up menu in the Text Wrap panel (see Figure 6-45). If you want it to work like QuarkXPress, choose Largest Area.
Figure 6.45 Choose a Wrap To Option