InDesign Tools

Adobe InDesign CS5.5 includes tools grouped together around four categories of tasks. If you're familiar with Adobe Illustrator, you'll feel right at home in the InDesign toolbox. To select objects within an InDesign layout, use the program's suite of selection tools. To draw graphic elements and create type objects, use InDesign's drawing and type tools. To alter the shape and size of objects within an InDesign document, use the transformation tools. Finally, to move within a document and perform miscellaneous functions, choose from InDesign's modification and navigation tools.

Selection Tools

To alter and edit the objects and elements in an Adobe InDesign layout, you must select them first. InDesign offers two primary selection tools that work similarly on different types of objects. The Selection tool activates entire objects and groups thereof. The Direct Selection tool selects parts of objects and groups. The Page tool enables InDesign's ability to incorporate multiple page sizes within one layout. The Gap tool distributes inter-object space evenly between objects beside and above one another.

Drawing and Type Tools

To create graphic and typographic elements within an Adobe InDesign document, you must use the program's creation tools. The Type tool creates a text object into which you type or place your headlines and copy. The Line tool enables you to draw straight lines, whereas the Pen Tool crafts bezier curves as well as straight lines. The Pen tool includes nested options to add and delete anchor points, thereby reshaping lines and objects, and to convert anchor points from smoothly curved to straight. Use the Pencil tool to create paths in freeform shapes, which you can Smooth or Erase with nested options. Draw frames in rectangular, elliptical or polygonal shapes with three nested Frame tools, then place text or graphics into these containers. InDesign's nested Rectangle, Ellipse and Polygon tools enable you to draw these shapes as noncontaining objects.

Transformation Tools

Once you create objects and frames using the Drawing and Type tools, you can alter their shapes with Adobe InDesign's Transformation tools. The nested single-transformation tools -- Rotate, Scale and Shear -- let you turn and twist your design elements into new shapes and sizes. The Free Transform tool combines the functions of the three single-action tools into one multi-function operation, allowing you to push and pull your graphics and text without switching tools.

Modification and Navigation Tools

Adobe InDesign's Modification and Navigation tools help you move through, alter and annotate your work. The Eyedropper tool captures appearance attributes from text and graphics and enables you to apply these sampled parameters to other objects. Use the Measure tool to find the distance between two spots on a page at any measuring angle. The Zoom tool lets you magnifying your pages or back up for a thumbnail view. The Hand tool lets you browse through your document from page to page. Use the Note tool to annotate your layout with edit comments or reminders. The Scissors tool cuts paths and line segments, turning closed shapes into open ones and separating parts of shapes into individual objects. The Gradient Swatch tool alters where gradients start and end on the objects to which they're applied and adjusts their application angle. The Gradient Feather tool smoothly integrates an object into the background of a page by adding a soft edge that fades toward transparency.

References

• Adobe Systems: Using Adobe InDesign CS5 & CS5.5
• "Real World InDesign CS5"; Olav Martin Kvern, et al.; 2010
• "InDesign CS5 Bible"; Galen Gruman; 2010