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P
pn78204181
Known Participant
October 17, 2019
Question

How do I erase PART of a line drawn with the line tool in ID?

  • October 17, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 13351 views

I'm brand new to InDesign.   I've drawn a line using the Line Tool.  It's just a simple straight, vertical line.   And now I want to erase a segment in the middle of it, so the line will have a gap in it.    The erase tool just makes a little cloud shape but it doesn't erase anything.     How do I do this?    Thanks in advance!

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2 replies

Steve Werner
Community Expert
Steve WernerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 17, 2019

It's working for me in InDesign CC 2019. Here two images to show this. You must DRAG ALONG THE PATH over the part you wish to erase.

 

Steve Werner
Community Expert
Steve WernerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 17, 2019
I also support what Migintosh wrote. You should learn about using the Pen and Direct Selection tool to be able to work with more complex paths.
M
Migintosh
Legend
October 17, 2019

You can use the pen tool to do that.

  1. Start by selecting your line with the Select tool (black arrow)
  2. Click and hold on the Pen tool in the Tools pallet. That will show you the various tools nested within the Pen tool.
  3. Select the Add Anchor Point tool (the pen with the +)
  4. Click two points on your line where you would like the gap (you will see a new blue dot if you hit the line. If you missed, it won't add an anchor to the line, but just try again until you hit it)
  5. Switch to the Direct Select tool (white arrow)
  6. Click into an open part of your page to deselect the line
  7. Select the segment by clicking on it with the Direct Select tool, or dragging a marquee through the segment of the line you created by adding the two anchor points
  8. Hit the Delete key

That's one way, but there are others as well. Since you're brand-new to InDesign, may I suggest you try some instructional videos at Lynda.com or a book (InDesign Visual Quickstart Guide by Sandee Cohen has been recommended on the forum).

    K
    Kāminī
    Participant
    December 8, 2023

    Thank you for this step by step guide, Migintosh, it worked out really well for me to understand using the pen tool to delete parts of a line out. 

    N
    Nick Passmore
    Participating Frequently
    December 9, 2023

    It would take some work to set up, but it would play to InDesign's strengths and be more flexible to use a combination of paragraph and character styles to get this effect.

     

    I would set it as:
    tab, date, tab, pipe character, tab, text
    for the lines with a month name and
    tab, tab, pipe character, tab, text
    for the lines with no month name.

    Then set up a paragraph style to control the tabs as right, right, left and to set their positions with a nested style to call a character style after two tab characters that stretches the pipe character below the baseline enough to connect to the pipe character on the line below.

     

     

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