Is there a simpler way of moving placed page elements around in InDesign?

Jri

Member
Hi all,

I don't often use InDesign, but recently I've been working on increasingly large projects in it.

Normally, when scaling and moving page elements around with the mouse - I find that I am constantly moving/transforming the content of a frame, THEN in the menu setting the frame to fit the content (or vice versa).

Now that the projects I am working on are increasing in size, this is becoming really tiresome, my question is:

Is there a simpler way/tool/preference for moving placed page elements around on the InDesign artboard - one that doesn't independently move the content and the frame one at a time? (ideally, something like the way the normal black selection tool in Illustrator handles vector objects).

It seems absurd that this wouldn't exist in InDesign - so I assume it's just something that's under my nose and I can't figure out.

Thanks in advance,

Jri.
 
Hi all,

I don't often use InDesign, but recently I've been working on increasingly large projects in it.

Normally, when scaling and moving page elements around with the mouse - I find that I am constantly moving/transforming the content of a frame, THEN in the menu setting the frame to fit the content (or vice versa).

Now that the projects I am working on are increasing in size, this is becoming really tiresome, my question is:

Is there a simpler way/tool/preference for moving placed page elements around on the InDesign artboard - one that doesn't independently move the content and the frame one at a time? (ideally, something like the way the normal black selection tool in Illustrator handles vector objects).

It seems absurd that this wouldn't exist in InDesign - so I assume it's just something that's under my nose and I can't figure out.

Thanks in advance,

Jri.
To be honest I don't really know what you are talking about.
There is an annoying Content Grabber - and you can turn this off in View>Extras>Hide Content Grabber

To access the image inside the frame you'll need to double click with the Selection Tool (black arrow tool) then move image about inside of Frame.

With the Object>Frame Fitting Options - you can set it to Auto Fit based on what you select. Resize a frame and the image resizes too.

I'm not really sure what you're getting at though?


There's a handy tool in the Object>Transform Again

This will apply the same transformation and movement as previous one, like a mini-action.
Transform again individually - this does each one at a time - so move the first one and size, then grab the rest and run transform again individually.

Sequence ones same as above, but you could move them, rotate them, scale them etc. Then run the action for Sequence Again or Again individually if you have a lot of items.


But if you give me an example I'll try help best I can.
 
Basically, when I use the normal Selection Tool (shortcut 'V'), I click on the corner of an image to resize it.

Instead of resizing it, it resizes the holding box that it is placed in - resulting in the placed image staying the same size, but the bounding box is now smaller, making it appear as though the image is clipped.

This means that I then have to click on the image and select 'Fit Content To Frame' in order to update the image scale/position to match that of the bounding box that I have just edited.

I'm finding it a faffy way of managing images (in this case, hundreds of them) individually.
 
Hold down the modifier keys CMD on Mac and resize now. It will go wonky so you have to press Shift to constrain portions.


OR select your object. Go to Object>Frame Fitting> Frame Fitting Options.

You'll get a dialog box for this -
Click Auto Fit
Select> Fit Content Proportionally
And that should do it.
Any time you resize the frame it will automatically jump to the width of the frame.


If you do the above with no documents open - it will become the default for all new documents.

However, existing documents will obtain the original setting.


You will also see the Auto Fit option in the Top Bar if you're using that or it will be in the Properties Panel on the right hand side.
Just ticking this enables this behaviour.


The Top Bar - or the Properties Panel - these are dependent on what is selected and change tool sets as you select different objects.


Yes InDesign operates differently than Illustrator. I hate setting text in Illustrator, and working with images is a nightmare for me.
I prefer InDesign.

The answer why so different? Because Adobe has 2 different teams (actually all teams are separate) and the Photoshop team decides to work one way, the Illustrator team decides it works another way and the InDesign team decides to work it the other way.

They don't talk to each other in there at all in regards to features and combining the unity of look and feel.
 
IT WAS THE BLOODY CMD BUTTON ALL ALONG!

And yes, the inconsistency in the Adobe package is ridiculous.

Thanks Hank.
 
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