An Introduction to 'In Design'

Alan Rolfe, University of West London, Ealing, London

Getting text on to a page

If you want to get text into In-Design, there are three possible situations:

1. You don't have any text yet, so you are going to type it directly into the program. [Select option 1]
2. You already have some text you want to use, but it's not formatted in any way. [Select option 2]
3. You already have the text, and you want to keep the formatting it already has. [Select option 3]

Typing in text directly

All text has to be typed into a text frame. To create a text frame, choose the Type Tool from the toolbox and click and drag a rectangle on the page. You can then type your text into this rectangle.

This text frame can cover the whole page, or only a part of it. Text frames can overlap if you want them to, or be combined with graphics. You can resize the frame at any time with the selection tool . This will not affect the text size.

Importing unformatted text

The best way of importing unformatted text is by taking it from a standard text file. This gives you better control than simply copying-and-pasting from another application. Select 'File/Place' from the main menu and then select the file you wish to import.

If the incoming text is likely to have additional carriage return (newline) characters in it, tick the 'Show Import Options' box. This is particularly likely if the text has originally come from an email, or has been copied-and-pasted from a web page. Then click on 'Open'.

If the 'Show Import Options' box was ticked you will see a further dialogue box. The one below is for standard text (.txt files); other types of file will produce slightly different boxes.

Tick the appropriate box to eliminate unwanted carriage returns. (if you're not sure which is best, try one way then the other.) Another option you can select at this point is to replace a number of consecutive spaces by a tab character. This can help in alignment. Then click 'OK'.

You will get a text placement icon with a few words from the start of the imported text. There are several things you can do with this:

1. Click-and-drag on the page. A text frame will be created with the imported text inside it.
2. Click anywhere on the page. A text frame will be created starting at the vertical level at which you clicked and going down. The frame will be the full width of the page (or column).
3. Click inside an already existing empty text frame. The text will be imported into this frame.

Your page should look something like this:

Importing formatted text

Formatted text can come in a number of different forms, depending on the program in which it was created. In order for In-Design to display the formatting correctly, it needs to have the appropriate import filter. The version of In-Design you are using may or may not have the import filter you need. Select 'File/Place' and choose the file you want to import. The 'Files of type:' box here lists the import filters available. Then proceed as for unformatted text (see above).

Large amounts of text

If the imported text will not fit into the text frame, a red cross appears at the bottom right of the frame to indicate that there is more text to be placed:

You can:

1. enlarge the frame using the Selection Tool until all the text fits.
2. click on the cross to obtain another placement icon which you can then use to place the remaining text.

For more details on this, see the sections on threaded text and multiple pages.

Maintained by Alan Rolfe

© Copyright UWL 2011

Last updated July 6, 2011