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sandhopper
Participant
May 12, 2020
Answered

frame tool is drawing ordinary rectangles?

  • May 12, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 1162 views

Hi there I'm using InDesign CS4 for the first time. I've used both photoshop and Illustrator at a very rudimentary level for years but I'm now making a scrapbook for my daughter. I'm 100 pages in and my work around for placed images is no longer working. So problem No#1 is not being able to resize a photo that appears giant when placed.  The error message tells me things will fall off the work area (sorry can't be exact because its now just crashing every time I try). I was placing it inside a copy of an existing image. And that was working fine. It is now just placing a pixelated portion if the image. So I thought I'd try and place it in a frame. Problem No#2, the frame tool is producing something that looks just like a rectangle and won't allow me to place anything. It just crashes. I manipulated the images in photoshop and saved them as jpg before placing. Other images are placing just fine, including ones that are worked on in photoshop

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Correct answer Laubender

Hi sandhopper,

there are several ways to place graphics and images after they are loaded to your place cursor, the place gun.

 

Simply click to a point on your layout:

That's the most straight forward method, but also the most "dangerous" one.

As you found a loaded image in the place cursor could exceed the area of your pasteboard.

 

Instead:

[1] Draw out a rectangle with the loaded place cursor. While doing this do not let the mouse button go until you are satisfied with position and size of the rectangular shape. That will create a rectangle with the graphic or image inside.

 

[2] Prepare an empty graphic frame.

If you hover with the loaded place cursor over an empty graphic frame a single click will unload the place cursor to the graphic frame. No need to select the graphic frame in the first place.

 

[3] Prepare a graphic frame with a "dummy" placeholder graphic.

If you hover with the loaded place cursor over the graphic frame:

Hold the Alt key. A single click will unload the place cursor to the graphic frame to replace the graphic inside the frame with the graphic or image in your place cursor.

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

3 replies

Bill Silbert
Community Expert
Bill SilbertCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 12, 2020

CS4 is more than ten years old and is not officially supported for any Macintosh OS later than Yosemite (OSX 10.10) or for Windows 10. Since you said that whatever workaround you've been using stopped working it sounds like any recent update to your OS could be the reason. For example, Windows 10 upgrades automatically for most users and often one of those updates could make an unsupported version of InDesign stop working correctly or at all. Please supply what operating system you are using so that this possibility can be accounted for.

L
Community Expert
LaubenderCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
May 12, 2020

Hi sandhopper,

there are several ways to place graphics and images after they are loaded to your place cursor, the place gun.

 

Simply click to a point on your layout:

That's the most straight forward method, but also the most "dangerous" one.

As you found a loaded image in the place cursor could exceed the area of your pasteboard.

 

Instead:

[1] Draw out a rectangle with the loaded place cursor. While doing this do not let the mouse button go until you are satisfied with position and size of the rectangular shape. That will create a rectangle with the graphic or image inside.

 

[2] Prepare an empty graphic frame.

If you hover with the loaded place cursor over an empty graphic frame a single click will unload the place cursor to the graphic frame. No need to select the graphic frame in the first place.

 

[3] Prepare a graphic frame with a "dummy" placeholder graphic.

If you hover with the loaded place cursor over the graphic frame:

Hold the Alt key. A single click will unload the place cursor to the graphic frame to replace the graphic inside the frame with the graphic or image in your place cursor.

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

M
Migintosh
Legend
May 12, 2020

If you hover the mouse over the tool, it should say Rectangle Frame Tool. If it says Rectangle Tool, you have the wrong one. That one makes an undefined-content rectangle. If you do have the right tool, draw out a rectangle frame, select it with the Select tool (black arrow) and go to Object>Content. It should have a check mark next to the word Graphic if you drew it with the Rectangle Frame Tool. If it doesn't, and you're sure you used the Rectangle Frame Tool, you may need to reset your preferences (https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/setting-preferences.html).

 

Also, if the image inside the frame isn't the scale you want, try selecting the frame and going to Object>Fitting. There you will find several options (some with keyboard shortcuts). The one I'd start with is Fit Content Proportionally. That will make it either as wide or as tall as the frame, but won't stretch either the width or the height to fill the frame.

 

Lastly, I'm not sure if you know, but when placing an image, you can draw out the frame, and the image will be that size, rather than 100%. You can also place several images at a time. Click, then drag out an area, but before you let up the mouse button, click the right arrow or up arrow and it will place the number of images you are placing into a grid, all the same size.

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