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Anchored ObjectsWhat needs to be done if you want your object to move with the text? You need to turn it into an Inline or an Anchored Object.

Inline graphic steps (manual):Open Inline.indd from your exercise file. (or build your own 2 column page)

1. Select one of the objects from the Pasteboard and resize it to approximately the size you want it to be in between your text paragraphs. (Ctrl+Shift+drag (Mac Cmd+Shift+drag) with Selection tool)

2. Select it with the Selection tool then Edit > Cut.

This cuts it to the clipboard and now you can paste it back into your text as an inline object (use the Type tool).

3. Click at the end of your paragraph to set an insertion point with your type tool and add one or two paragraph returns on your keyboard then

4. Choose paste.

When you paste an object into a text frame with the Type tool, it becomes an Inline Object.

If you start typing above it, you’ll see that it moves down the column of text.

Depending on your leading, it could be overlapping a bunch of text.

1. Select the object with the Selection tool and drag it up or down.

Inline Objects can only be moved up or down within their column— not left or right.

2. To drag the object down so it does not cover text usually requires you to add many more paragraph returns from your keyboard to make enough space for you to drag up and down.

Go ahead and add as many paragraph returns before your image so it is clear of any text overlap at the top. Then using the Selection tool reposition it between the paragraphs.

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3. With your extra paragraph returns in place, use your Selection tool to drag the object up or down and into position.

The advantage to inline objects is that your images move along with the text as you edit. However they also have their limitations — only moving up or down and cannot be moved outside your text columns.

4. To centre your image, drag your text tool over the returns and image to select and choose your alignment from the Control panel.

Close this file.

To have more flexibility moving the images around let`s try Anchored Objects.

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Adding Anchored Objects Steps:Open the file anchored objects.indd from your exercise files.

1. With your type tool, set an insertion at the beginning of the first paragraph then right click and choose Anchored Objects > Insert.

2. Change the Object Options to Graphic.

Choose an Object Style if you already have one made otherwise leave this for now. You can always add it later if you wish.

The remaining areas need more explanation so to start let`s just change the Position: to Custom.

Custom means it turns from an Inline Object into an Anchored Object, and there are a lot of controls for how you can move anchored objects and where they can go on the page.

You can return later and finesse these once you have your anchored object placed — for now just Click OK.

3. Your object is now somewhere outside the text frame.

With your Selection tool click, drag and resize the anchored frame anywhere you want on your page.

You could put it in the other column — anywhere you wish.

Where is the actual anchor code? It’s anchored in the same position as where your cursor was when you selected Object > Anchored Object (or right mouse click for Anchored Object > Insert.

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An easy way to find the anchor code is to turn on your Text Threads (View > Show Text Threads). You can also zoom in to see the code in your text or with your text cursor inserted in the text go to Edit > Edit in Story Editor. You will see the Anchor symbol. Delete this symbol and you delete your anchored object.

Add your image to the Anchored Object frame:

With the Selection tool, select the frame and place a graphic just as you would into any other graphic frame.

File > Place — your graphic of choice.

Let's look at the rest of the options

Anchored Object options.

Insert your text cursor in another part of a paragraph and right mouse click > Anchored Object > Insert

When you are starting a new Anchored Object is the only time you can see the full Options box.

The options box is big and confusing but we will look at all the options in this section.

We start with a bit again on the Inline objects:

You have various options for Above Line objects, including setting it to the Left, Center, Right and so on. If you choose this option your object will always site between the two paragraphs. It takes away all leading, etc. to keep the object exactly between the two paragraphs.

This could be much easier than using the previous manual example. Try setting a few objects in between your paragraphs to experience whether you like this method over the previous manual exercise..

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Above Line anchored objects are very handy whenever you have an object that you need to make sure always stays between paragraphs, however, like the previous manual example, it does not give you a lot of control to move it outside the boundaries of that text frame.

The most flexibility comes from Anchored Objects.

With your Selection tool click on your Anchored Object with the image and right mouse click for Anchored Object > Options. You now see the shortened version of the Options box.

1. With the Anchored Object selected (not the Inline):

This lets you determine what part of the object you are referring to. For example, right now it’s set to the lower left corner of the object.

If you change the reference (anchor) point to the upper right corner — watch what happens to that object.(be sure preview is turned on)

Why did it move? Because now the Reference Point is the upper right corner.

InDesign is actually placing the upper right corner, exactly where you tell it to go.

3. The third section, Anchored Position, lets you control where that point should be. The Reference Point diagram is confusing until you look at the X Relative or the Y Relative sections below.

4. Look at the X Relative To pop-up menu. Right now it’s set to Text Frame. That means that this Anchored Object is going to be set horizontally based on the position of the text frame itself.

What part of the text frame?

That’s where the Reference Point diagram comes in, based on the center point of the text frame.

In general, you find this dialog box easier to understand by talking to yourself.

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i.e., “this is going to assign a position to the upper right corner and it’s going to place that upper right corner at -.3 inches from the center of the text frame (this will change with your chosen measurement system).”

If you change this offset to zero and you press Tab, (you have to press Tab in order for it to know that you are done typing in that field) it’s going to place the upper right corner at zero millimeters from the center of the text frame.

If you change this Reference Point to the left edge, it’s going to put the upper right corner zero millimeters from the left edge of the text frame and that’s exactly where it has gone in this situation. The upper right corner is zero millimeters.

It’s right aligned perfectly with the left edge of the text frame.

You have other options in the Relative To pop-up menu as well, such as Anchor Marker.

That would actually set it to the left edge of the Anchor Marker.

The Yen symbol is InDesign’s way of determining where that Anchored Object is sitting.

The upper right corner is now aligned with that character,

1. Change this to Page Margin. It’s now going to be zero inches from the left edge of the Page Margin. So it aligns it perfectly at the Page Margin.

Change it back to about 4 millimeters off from the left edge of the text frame.

Look at the Y Relative popup menu.

This lets you control the vertical position of this object. Right now it’s set to Line (Baseline) This means the upper right corner of this object is going to be about 10 millimeters down from the baseline of wherever the line is that the Anchored Object is anchored into.

If you set this to zero and hit Tab, you can see that the upper right corner is perfectly aligned with the baseline of that line.

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You have other options as well, for example, you could set this to a position based on the Page Edge, the whole page itself that is, or the Page Margin or the text frame or the column edge, you have a lot of choices.

1. Choose Line (Top of Leading), because you want this upper right corner to be aligned with the top of the leading of this first line of the text.

Look at the Keep within Top/ Bottom Column Boundaries checkbox. This lets you choose whether or not you want your Anchored Object to always stay within the text column.

For example, if this text flowed down until it was ultimately pushed all the way to the bottom of the text column, it will actually stick out beyond the text column

Setting the X and Y points takes lots of practice to get it where you want your object, but the good news is, you can use your Selection tool to move your Anchored Object where you want and the points should set themselves (you may need to help a little).

The final checkbox, Prevent Manual Positioning, lets you control whether or not that object should be able to be dragged or moved or resized in any way.

If you want to make sure that it stays right where you have set it here in this dialog box, go ahead and turn that checkbox on. In this case you are going to leave it turned off, because you may need to do a little bit more tweaking to this object.

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Lastly — Relative to SpineThis is one I use all the time.

If I think I may want to move pages around or add pages, the page with the anchored objects may shift from the left hand page to the right (for example).

If I have set up the Anchored Object with Relative to Spine, when I drag the TEXT frame over to the right (for example) all images will move and reposition the images appropriately on the opposite page.

Left Right

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