Editing text

If you cannot select text in a frame, the text frame could be on a locked layer or on a parent page. Try unlocking the layer or going to the master page. The text frame may also be beneath another text frame or transparent object. See Select text in a frame that is covered.

Change what triple-clicking does

Select text in a frame that is covered

Paste text

You can paste text from another application or from Adobe InCopy.

If the insertion point is not inside a text frame when you paste text into InDesign, a new plain text frame will be created. If the insertion point is inside a text frame, the text will be pasted inside that frame. If you have text selected when you paste, the pasted text will overwrite the selected text.

When you use Edit > Paste Without Grid Format to paste text into a frame grid, the pasted text retains its font, font size, and character spacing settings of the copied text. You can select text and choose Edit > Apply Grid Format to format the pasted text according to the character attributes of the frame grid.

Paste text from another application

Adjust spacing automatically when pasting text

When you paste text, spaces can be automatically added or removed, depending on the context. For example, if you cut a word and then paste it between two words, a space appears before and after the word. If you paste that word at the end of a sentence, before the period, a space is not added.

Paste text to a frame grid

You can paste text that retains its source formatting attributes. When you copy text with modified attributes from one frame grid and paste to a different frame grid, the text will be pasted with only those changed attributes preserved. You can also paste without grid formatting.

You can always apply grid formatting later by choosing Edit > Apply Grid Format. The grid format attributes specified in the Named Grids panel will be applied to the text.

Apply grid format to text

You can apply the grid format to any text that doesn’t conform to the grid format.

Change the text direction

In Galley view and Story view, text appears as horizontal, even if Vertical is selected. In Layout View, text is vertical if Vertical is selected.

A vertical text frame or frame grid is converted to a horizontal one, or a horizontal text frame or frame grid is converted to a vertical one. Changing this causes the entire story to be changed, and all frames threaded to the selected frames will be affected.

Drag and drop text

You can use the mouse to drag and drop text in the Story Editor or in the Layout View. You can even drag text from the Story Editor to the layout window (or vice versa), or into some dialog boxes such as Find/Change. Dragging the text from a locked or checked-in story copies the text rather than moves it. You can also copy text or create a new frame when dragging and dropping text.

You can use the mouse to drag and drop text in Galley View, Story View, or Layout View. You can even drag text into some dialog boxes, such as Find/Change. Dragging text from a locked or checked-in story copies the text rather than moves it. You can also copy text when dragging.

Jeff Witchel provides a video tutorial about drag and drop at Using InDesign Drag and Drop Text.

If the text you drop doesn’t have the proper spacing, select the Adjust Spacing Automatically option in Type Preferences.

Transpose characters

If you transpose two adjacent characters as you type, you can correct them with the Transpose command. For example, if you typed 1243 instead of 1234, the Transpose command switches the 4 and the 3.

View hidden characters

When you’re editing text, it’s often useful to see nonprinting characters, such as spaces, tabs, and paragraph symbols. These characters are visible only in a document window; they won’t output or print.

Edit text on a parent page

In InDesign documents, a parent page is a kind of template that applies to multiple pages. Master pages typically specify only common layout elements that appear on all pages of the document, such as the margins, page numbers, headers, and footers. You can use InCopy to edit the text on an InDesign parent page if the text is a linked file. However, you cannot change any of the frame attributes controlled by the master, and you cannot edit master-page text from any other (regular) pages in the document.

To edit text on a parent page, the parent page must include managed stories that are checked out.

Undo actions

You can undo or redo up to several hundred of the most recent actions. The exact number of actions you can undo is limited by the amount of RAM available and the kinds of actions you have performed. The record of recent actions is erased when you save, close, quit, or exit, so they can no longer be undone. You can also cancel an operation before it completes, or revert to a previously saved version.

Jump to a position marker

A position marker is like a bookmark, and it is used to mark a location in a document. This is useful if you need to return to that location quickly or frequently. A document can have only one position marker.

To jump to the marker from anywhere in the document, choose Edit > Position Marker > Go To Marker.

To clear the marker, choose Edit > Position Marker > Remove Marker. The marker is removed automatically when you close and reopen the document.

Add column, frame, and page breaks

Control column, frame, and page breaks by inserting special break characters in the text.

To remove a break character, choose Type > Show Hidden Characters so that you can see nonprinting characters, and then select and delete the break character.

Break options

The following options appear on the Type > Insert Break Character menu:

Flows text to the next column in the current text frame. If the frame has only one column, the text goes to the next threaded frame.

Flows text to the next threaded text frame, regardless of the current text frame’s column setup.

Flows text to the next page with a text frame threaded to the current text frame.

Flows text to the next odd-numbered page with a text frame threaded to the current text frame.

Flows text to the next even-numbered page with a text frame threaded to the current text frame.

Inserts a paragraph return (the same as pressing Enter or Return).

Forces a line to break where the character is inserted, starting a new line without starting a new paragraph (the same as pressing Shift+Enter or Shift+Return). A forced line break is also called a soft return.

Indicates where a line of text should break if the line needs to break. A discretionary line break is similar to a discretionary hyphen, only no hyphen is added where the line breaks.

Related break options are available in the Keep Options dialog box and in the Paragraph Style Options dialog box.

Use conditional text

Conditional text is a way to create different versions of the same document. After you create conditions, you apply them to ranges of text. You can then create different versions of documents by showing and hiding conditions. For example, if you’re creating a computer manual, you can create separate conditions for Mac OS and Windows. Before you print the Mac OS version of the user guide, you can show all text to which the “Mac” condition is applied and hide all text to which the “Windows” condition is applied. You can then reverse the condition states for printing the user guide for Windows.

Conditions can be applied only to text. You can make anchored objects conditional, but only by selecting the anchored object marker. You can apply conditions to text within table cells, but you cannot apply conditions to table cells, columns, or rows. You cannot apply conditions to text in locked InCopy stories.

For a video tutorial on using conditional text, see www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4026_id.

Planning conditional documents

When planning a project with conditional text, examine the nature of the material and look at how several people can take turns working with it if the document is handed off. Plan to treat conditional text consistently to make the document easier to use and maintain. Use the following guidelines.

Define how many versions your finished project will contain. For example, if you’re creating a manual that describes a program that runs on both Windows and Mac OS platforms, you might want to produce at least two versions: a Windows version and a Mac OS version. If you want to produce these versions with editorial comments sprinkled in the text during the review process, you’ll want even more versions: Mac OS with comments, Mac OS without comments, Windows with comments, and Windows without comments.

For documents with many conditions, you can define condition sets that can be applied to the document for quick versioning.

Decide how many condition tags you need to produce the desired versions. A version of a document is defined by a unique set of condition tags. For example, a version of a finished Windows manual might be defined by having a Windows condition tag showing, a Mac OS condition tag hidden, and a Comments condition tag hidden. In this example, you would need to decide whether to use one condition tag for Windows comments and another for Mac OS comments, or whether to use a single condition tag for both Windows and Mac OS comments.

Evaluate the extent to which the document can be conditional and how you can organize the material to simplify development and maintenance. For example, you might be able to organize a book so that conditional text is limited to a few documents. Or you might choose to keep versions of a particular chapter in separate files rather than in conditional text, and then use a different book file for each version of the book.

In some instances, such as when working with multiple languages, you may want to create separate layers that you can show or hide rather than using conditions, with each layer including text from a different language.

Determine the smallest unit of conditional text. For example, if a document will be translated to another language, a whole sentence should be the smallest amount of text you make conditional. Because word order often changes during translation, using conditional text for part of a sentence could complicate translation.

Inconsistency in applying conditions to spaces and punctuation can result in extra spacing or misspelled words. Decide whether to make spaces and punctuation conditional. If conditional text begins or ends with punctuation, make the punctuation conditional too. This makes the text easier to read when you're viewing more than one version.

To avoid word spacing problems, such as having an unconditional space followed by a conditional space, set standards for handling spaces following conditional text (either always conditional or always unconditional).

To avoid confusion, decide the order in which conditional text will appear and use this order throughout the document.

When indexing a document, pay attention to whether index markers are placed inside or outside conditional text. Keep in mind that index markers in hidden conditional text are not included in the generated index.

If you create a cross-reference to conditional text, make sure that the source text has the same condition. For example, if you add a cross-reference in a “Windows” paragraph and the text anchor appears in a “Mac” condition, the cross-reference is unresolved when the “Mac” condition is hidden. “HT” appears next to the cross-reference in the Hyperlinks panel.

If you create a cross-reference to a paragraph in which some text is conditional and then change the visibility settings of that condition, update the cross-reference.

Create conditions

Conditions you create are saved in the current document. If no documents are open when you create a condition, that condition appears in all new documents you create.

You can make conditional text easy to identify by specifying condition indicators, such as wavy red underlines.

In managed InCopy files, you can apply existing conditions, but you cannot create or delete conditions. You can hide or show conditional text in InCopy, but the changes do not appear in InDesign when the managed file is checked in. In InCopy standalone documents, you can create, apply, and change the visibility of conditions as in InDesign.

Apply conditions to text

You can apply multiple conditions to the same text. By default, condition indicators identify conditional text. However, if indicators are hidden, you can use the Conditional Text panel to determine which conditions have been applied to the current text. A solid check mark indicates the condition is applied to the current text. A dim check mark indicates that the condition is applied only to part of the selection.

Show or hide conditions

When you hide a condition, all text to which that condition is applied is hidden. Hiding conditions often causes the page numbering to change in a document or book. You can use the Smart Text Reflow feature to add and remove pages automatically as you hide and show conditions.

Hidden conditional text is generally ignored in the document. For example, hidden text is not printed or exported, index markers in hidden conditional text are not included in a generated index, and hidden conditional text is not included when searching or spell-checking text.

When you hide a condition, the hidden text is stored in a hidden condition symbol . If you select text that contains a hidden condition symbol and try to delete it, InCopy prompts you to confirm that you want to delete the hidden conditional text. You cannot apply other conditions, styles, or formatting to hidden conditional text.

If text has several conditions applied to it and at least one of those conditions is shown while another is hidden, the text is not hidden.

• To show or hide individual conditions, click the visibility box next to a condition name. The eye icon indicates the condition is shown.
• To show or hide all conditions, choose Show All or Hide All from the Conditional Text panel menu.

Use condition sets

A condition set captures the visibility settings for all conditions so that you can quickly apply different document renditions. For example, suppose you have a complex document with platform conditions for Mac OS, Windows XP, Vista, UNIX , language conditions for English, French, German, and Spanish, and editorial conditions such as Editorial Review and Internal Comments. For reviewing the Vista version in French, you can create a set that shows only the Vista, French, and Editorial Review conditions, and hides all the rest.

While sets aren’t necessary to do this, they help you quickly and reliably change different condition visibility settings.

Manage conditions

Find and change conditional text

Use the Find/Change dialog box to find text to which one or more conditions have been applied and replace it with one or more other conditions.