What do you do when you need to objects on a page to maintain their position even when changes are being made? You need a dynamic layout that allows you to anchor objects relative to other objects so they maintain their position while you add or remove text. In this InDesign Secrets tutorial from Lynda.com, you'll learn all about working with dynamic layouts in less than six minutes.
- InDesign is a page layout program, and I believe that page layout, at its core is all about managing the relationships among all the different elements of your page. But sometimes it seems like InDesign forces you to do a lot of manual work to keep all those relationships going. For example, on this page I have a very simple relationship between the images and the text frame. I want these images, these captions and this line to move down the page as this text frame up here expands as I add text.
Now, InDesign should be able to do that for me, right? And indeed it can. Here's how we make it work. First I need to turn on Auto size for this text frame. To do that I select it on my page, go to the object menu and then chose text frame options. Or press Command+B or CTRL+B on Windows. Now I'll press Command+3 or CTRL+3 on Windows to jump over to the auto size tab. You could just click on that tab if you want to but using a keyboard shortcut's more fun. Now in order to make this text frame grow as I add text or shrink when I remove text, I need to turn auto sizing on.
And I'm gonna set this to height only. And, I'm going to have it grow from the top down. That's this top button here. Than means anchor the top and let the bottom flow up or down as necessary. And when I click okay, it doesn't look like anything's changed, but in fact, that is now going to auto size as I add or remove text. But the question is, as I add text and that text frame expands, how can I get these other objects, that line these images and these text frames to move down the page too? So the answer is, to anchor them into the text frame itself.
The first step in doing this is to select all of these objects and group them. I'll just press Command+G or CTRL+G on Windows. Next I want to anchor them into the text frame above. To do that I'm gonna use the selection tool in the tool panel. And then I'm going to drag this little blue box, see the one up here in the upper right corner? I drag that up into this text frame. And I'm gonna drop it, could be anywhere but I'm gonna put it right at the very beginning of that story. Now that group of objects doesn't move but the square turned into a blue anchor symbol.
By the way, note that this in only blue because the current layer color is blue. If these objects were on a different layer it would be Red or Green or something else. Now we need to tell InDesign how the anchored object should behave. To do that I could go to the object menu and then chose Anchored Object and then options. But I like right clicking, I like that context menu. So I'm simply going to right click on top of that object, that group. And I'm gonna chose anchored object, options. Now inside of this dialogue box, which I admit looks kind of confusing, we need to tell InDesign what part of the anchored object, that group, should be positioned, and based on what part of the text frame.
Now in this case I want to position the upper left corner of this group. So I'm going to click on the upper left corner of the Reference Point icon here. Next I need to specify what the anchored position should be. I'm gonna make sure "X Relative To" is set to "text frame". And I'm gonna change the X offset to zero. That means the left edge of this group should be aligned to the left edge of the text frame. Next, and this is the core of the trick, I'm gonna change "Y Relative" also to "text frame". And I'm gonna change the Y offset to something small.
Maybe three picas, that's half an inch. Now just to review what I'm doing here, I'm setting the upper left corner of the group. The anchored object to be aligned along the left edge of the text frame. And three picas or one half inch down from the bottom of the text frame. See how this icon right there is set to the bottom left corner? That means as that bottom left corner moves the anchored object will move too. This dialogue box can be confusing so take your time with it and look over the settings carefully.
You'll need to set the X offset and the Y offset appropriately for you're design of course. Also, see this "prevent manual position" check box down here? Selecting that check box locks the objects in the group so that you can't place or change text or graphics in them. So in this case that's good, but on the other hand if I were making a template that would be a problem, because somebody else opening this document would not be able to change those images or the text. But on the other hand if I turn that off then they might accidentally move the group on the page.
So they have to be careful. Now when I click okay, you'll see everything looks just right, but remember that anchored objects act kinda like characters in your text story. And I can see that really easily by selecting that text frame, going to the edit menu and then choosing edit in story editor. See that Icon up here in the upper left corner? That's the anchored object right there. And the reason that's important to know about is, when I edit the text inside this text frame, I have to be careful not to delete that character at the beginning.
'Cause if I do, then the whole group disappears. All of those graphics and the line and so on. That would be bad, but as long as you keep that in mind you can now edit this text. And as you add or remove text, the other frames will move too, let me show you. I'll close that, I'll click here at the end of the story and I'm just gonna type some gibberish to give you a sense of what's goin' on there. But as I type, you'll see that the text frame gets bigger and all those objects also moved down the page because they're anchored.
Now I'll do the opposite, I'll pull out some of that text. And as soon as I hit the delete key you'll see that the text frame gets smaller, and all those objects move up. The more you use anchored objects and get comfortable with that anchored options dialogue box, the more cool things you'll find yourself doing with that feature, it's really powerful.
Updated
12/23/2020Released
8/25/2011New techniques will be added to the collection every other week, so check back early and often. Find more tips and tricks at indesignsecrets.com.Note: Because this is an ongoing series, viewers will not receive a certificate of completion.
Skill Level Intermediate
Duration
Views
Q: Why can't I earn a Certificate of Completion for this course?
A: We publish a new tutorial or tutorials for this course on a regular basis. We are unable to offer a Certificate of Completion because it is an ever-evolving course that is not designed to be completed. Check back often for new movies.
Related Courses
-
InDesign CC 2018 Essential Training
with David Blatner6h 30m Beginner -
InDesign: Interactive PDFs
with David Blatner2h 27m Intermediate -
InDesign CC 2018: EPUB
with Anne-Marie Concepción4h 35m Intermediate -
InDesign CC 2019 Essential Training
with David Blatner5h 23m Beginner -
InDesign Quick Start
with David Blatner22m Beginner
-
This Week's Secret
-
Introduction
-
Welcome to InDesign Secrets1m 10s
-
-
December 2020
-
November 2020
-
October 2020
-
September 2020
-
Use one frame, not many4m 37s
-
August 2020
-
July 2020
-
June 2020
-
May 2020
-
Threading filled frames3m 14s
-
Custom page numbering tricks5m 13s
-
November 2012
-
October 2012
-
061 Embedding images7m 44s
-
-
September 2012
-
057 Text wrapping6m 54s
-
-
August 2012
-
July 2012
-
June 2012
-
May 2012
-
April 2012
-
March 2012
-
January 2012
-
April 2020
-
Making speech bubbles3m 32s
-
Working with ligatures5m 9s
-
February 2012
-
December 2011
-
016 Running a script9m 33s
-
November 2011
-
October 2011
-
August 2011
-
September 2011
-
March 2020
-
February 2020
-
Auto-expand acronyms4m 39s
-
-
January 2020
-
December 2019
-
November 2019
-
October 2019
-
409 Copy and paste effects4m 39s
-
-
September 2019
-
408 The master page trick1m 46s
-
August 2019
-
July 2019
-
June 2019
-
May 2019
-
April 2019
-
March 2019
-
February 2019
-
376 Make cast shadows3m 35s
-
-
January 2019
-
November 2018
-
December 2018
-
369 Shared CC Libraries tips5m 15s
-
October 2018
-
360 Find spacing problems4m 50s
-
363 Export all text8m 16s
-
-
August 2018
-
351 Change default fonts5m 51s
-
352 Best default RGB4m 45s
-
-
September 2018
-
July 2018
-
May 2018
-
343 Border spacing fix4m 59s
-
June 2018
-
346 Export to HTML55m 38s
-
April 2018
-
February 2018
-
March 2018
-
January 2018
-
325 Link text frames6m 10s
-
December 2017
-
November 2017
-
September 2017
-
October 2017
-
313 Quick Apply preferences6m 35s
-
August 2017
-
July 2017
-
May 2017
-
290 Work with scripts3m 35s
-
June 2017
-
April 2017
-
286 How to format ellipses5m 39s
-
March 2017
-
281 Share a CC library7m 10s
-
January 2017
-
February 2017
-
December 2016
-
271 Add images to an index4m 39s
-
November 2016
-
September 2016
-
October 2016
-
260 Batch process images7m 33s
-
263 Sync master pages5m 51s
-
-
August 2016
-
July 2016
-
June 2016
-
April 2016
-
May 2016
-
240 Side-by-side tables5m 35s
-
March 2016
-
February 2016
-
228 Setting text at an angle6m 24s
-
December 2015
-
January 2016
-
222 Adding paragraph shading1m 50s
-
October 2015
-
November 2015
-
September 2015
-
July 2015
-
August 2015
-
204 Creating a8m 14s
-
205 Managing scripts5m 38s
-
May 2015
-
189 Placing InDesign files5m 14s
-
-
June 2015
-
193 Printing tracked changes5m 41s
-
-
April 2015
-
186 Making long shadows5m 41s
-
February 2015
-
March 2015
-
January 2015
-
December 2014
-
November 2014
-
October 2014
-
September 2014
-
August 2014
-
July 2014
-
148 Cropping with paste into5m 18s
-
-
June 2014
-
May 2014
-
141 Inserting glyphs6m 42s
-
April 2014
-
March 2014
-
February 2014
-
January 2014
-
December 2013
-
November 2013
-
October 2013
-
September 2013
-
August 2013
-
105 Working with MiniBridge5m 45s
-
106 Customize your QR codes6m 17s
-
July 2013
-
June 2013
-
May 2013
-
April 2013
-
March 2013
-
February 2013
-
December 2012
-
069 Ten uses of the Story Editor11m 39s
-
-
January 2013
- Mark as unwatched
- Mark all as unwatched
Are you sure you want to mark all the videos in this course as unwatched?
This will not affect your course history, your reports, or your certificates of completion for this course.
CancelTake notes with your new membership!
Type in the entry box, then click Enter to save your note.
1:30Press on any video thumbnail to jump immediately to the timecode shown.
Notes are saved with you account but can also be exported as plain text, MS Word, PDF, Google Doc, or Evernote.
Share this video
Embed this video
Video: 196 Working with dynamic layouts