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DBLjan
Legend
December 1, 2016
Question

Liquid Layout #1 try…"object based" and text boxes/

  • December 1, 2016
  • 3 replies
  • 1097 views

Hi there,

i just saw the liquid layouts tutorial and figured, that techique will be perfect for our weekly print ads, which differ in width.

But just started i am now stumbeling over the first obstacles, and I need a answer, if this is possible with liquid layout, which seems to be bound to either one of the four adjust-options.

Here is my test master:

First I tried "scale" and ended up with the background (just a yellow box) wont filling the page, but the text is behaving like I want:

Then I tried the "object based" method, background is behaving like it should, and then I found out that the textbox bounds are scaling without adjusting the text size, resulting in overflow text…(not actually in my test file, but you could imagine that the text should not and cant reflow)

Since this is a simplified test file, my complex final ad has to work with "object based", but the text has to scale…i cant just text2path because it has to be editable.

Is there a solution for resizing text/scaling textboxes in "object based"-liquid layout?

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

Mike Witherell
Community Expert
Mike WitherellCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 13, 2016

I agree with you, DBLjan; it is a limitation.

Mike Witherell
Mike Witherell
Community Expert
Mike WitherellCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 12, 2016

You already have the option to scale objects on the page. That works well already. Try selecting everything and Cmd/Ctrl Shift Dragging the whole thing.

Mike Witherell
D
DBLjanAuthor
Legend
December 13, 2016

Michael, if i dont get you wrong, but this has nothing to do with liquid layouts and is basic when working with InD. Im not talking about scaling objects, im talking about not having that option with textboxes while it comes to "object based", the text 'shrinks' if I go from A4 to A3…and if I dont want that, im bound to 'scale' everything to keep spaces filled…and thats a problem if the template should work with different values for width and heigth.

As you can see, if I want my canvas to be filled, im bound to liquid layout page rule 'object based' althou the headline is scaling fine.
As I have to choose object-based page rule, my text starts to reflow. I would be fine with the LoremIpsum-text to reflow, but if I have something like a headline (…and i dont want text2path and be able to edit) i should have an option to reflow or scale.

Mike Witherell
Community Expert
Mike WitherellCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 1, 2016

Liquid layout is helpful to maybe 80% of where you want to go, but it doesn't have a complete ability to redesign and redefine your ad layout. Add to it a few possibilities:

1. Text frame options > Auto-Size tab. Here you can give the textframe the magic ability to resize itself

2. Consider using Object Styles on your textframes, where you can pre-define many attributes all at once, including the Auto-Size attributes

3. Pages panel menu button > Create alternate layout. Here you can check on "copy text styles to new style group", ... and *redefine* the size and other attributes of those linked styles. That way, the alternate sized layout can have the styles change the size and leading of the text

With these additional think-throughs, maybe you can get the layout to 90%. Most things still require human intelligence and design, of course.

Mike Witherell
D
DBLjanAuthor
Legend
December 1, 2016

I boil it down to InDesign just missing an raidobox-option like "scale content" or "reflow" when dealing with class text frame in "object"-liquidlayout.

Thank you anyway for the feedback, but I think this feature has to evolve a bit in 2017.1

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