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December 1, 2010
Question

Stroke on only one side of a square?

  • December 1, 2010
  • 11 replies
  • 108431 views

Hi folks!

Is is possible in InDesign to have a stroke on only one side of a square? And if so, how do i go about doing that?

On Mac OSX 10.6.4, InDesign CS5

11 replies

es ae ell jae
Participant
August 15, 2017

cripes, this is a simple thing to do in ms word.

steal it from them, adobe, they steal everything else...

es ae ell jae
Participant
August 15, 2017

and i used it for all kinds of nifty applications...

saying it is illogical is funny, because no one would think to do MANY of the things that happen inside indesign/illustrator had those features not been there & mutated to boot...

happy_GlowB82A
Participant
December 14, 2016

I've also been trying this method: drawing a line and then setting is as an anchored object. The downside is that you may need to manually resize the line if the text box changes. The upside is it's simple to use and the line can easily be manipulated like any other stroke in InDesign:

Participant
July 18, 2016

I found this:

Setting a dots stroke to the yellow squares and directional feather to eliminate the stroke of each side.

The window below is for the bottom left yellow shape:

janpaepke
Participant
August 11, 2016

@aquidaniel

that is actually a genious workaround!

I used it and it works just like intended.

For people who want to use this on text boxes:

This will also cut into your text so you need to add an inset (⌘+B) with the size of the cut in.

until Adobe provides a better solution this goes into my "neat workarounds" stack.

9999raphael_freeman
Participating Frequently
June 16, 2015

so it took Adobe 5 years, but now you can...

Participating Frequently
June 29, 2015

You say that, but how does one do it now?

Peter Spier
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 29, 2015

It's a new feature in CC 2015....

Willi Adelberger
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 27, 2015

Use a table with a single cell.

Participant
May 27, 2015

It's not possible - but it should be.

Yet it is possible in Adobe Muse!!!

Are you listening Adobe? We want this feature in InDesign.

happy_GlowB82A
Participant
September 12, 2013

This was bugging me too, and I tried this solution:

  1. Select your object
  2. Create a new Object Style (Window >  Styles > Object Styles)
  3. Under options for the object style, select "Inner Shadow"
  4. Turn "Preview" on because you're going to need to finagle with the settings
  5. Key settings to adjust:
    1. Blending mode should be normal,
    2. Opacity should be 100%
    3. Choke must be 100%
    4. Size should be 0
    5. Play with the position values. Usually X and Y offset will be 0
    6. Distance will determine the "border" width.
    7. Angle determines the side the border will be on
  6. Save the style

What I'm essentailly doing here is choking the inner shadow on the box to a solid line, then adjusting the position of that shadow to just stick in on one side. This creates the illustion of a solid line. You won't have to cut up the object, you don't need multiple objects grouped together, the line will always move and adjust with the object, and you don't need to add text to mimic a line. The downsides are that it takes a few minutes to adjust the thickness and position just right, so be sure to turn on your preview; and this works best on 4-sided objects.

9999raphael_freeman
Participating Frequently
April 16, 2014

this is a nice answer, but requires the background to be white and this also give me a thin border on the right and left.

Participant
June 25, 2013

You could draw a 0.5pt line, then <cut> it and <paste> it in using the text insertion cursor at the top of your text frame. Select the line, and nudge it up by about 9pt.

Alternatively, you could use a Right-indent tab <shift+tab> at the top of your text frame, and give that line a paragraph rule above. If you offset the rule by about 3mm, it lines up okay.

Either way, it's a kludge. It would be nice if frames supported different strokes on each side. When going to HTML/CSS feels 'easy and liberating', something's screwy :/

For non-quadrilateral polygons, Adobe could just do what they do everywhere else, and grey-out the options where a feature isn't supported. Given the number of times I use triangles and stars, this would inconvenience me approximately never.

Participating Frequently
December 19, 2011

That would be a very useful feature. You can do it in tables but not in boxes.   I'm going to submit a feature request for it -- you can do the same and maybe we'll get it eventually!

Jongware
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 19, 2011

.. But InDesign isn't limited to just "boxes". What with triangles, or 5-pointed stars?

Even Illustrator -- fully targeted to illustrating, other than InDesign -- doesn't have this "feature". Possibly because there is no logic behind it.

Participating Frequently
December 19, 2011

@ Jongware - Sorry, should have said "frame" not "box." I would think the feature should work on any kind of polygon. And there is no reason not to ask for that feature. It's logical to me; I work at a company whose branding requires a thick green stroke at the bottom of all pictures, and a thin grey stroke on the other 3 sides.

Or by "logic" maybe you meant a technical developer term...

Peter Spier
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 1, 2010

The only way to have a stroke on one side of a squrae that I know of, other than drawing a separate rule (presuming you mean you want a stroke on a vertical edge -- for horizontal you could use a paragraph rule), is to use a one-cell table.