How to Evenly Space Text Boxes and Graphic Frames

Hi needlepointerncREF,

if your image together with the figure number and caption is considered as part of a big text flow you could anchor your image in that flow. Distance to and distance from your image frame can be controlled by paragraph properties like space after and space above. Question are: Are you working with a document baseline grid? Is the height of an image always a multiple of the distance from grid line to grid line? If the answer is yes to both you can easily do three paragraph styles that work together to get even spacing. One paragraph style for the figure paragraph, one paragraph style for the anchored image frame and one paragraph style for the caption.

To work out the details is up to you: Grid values, point sizes for the paragraph styles, space after and space before values and maybe the values for text wrap if needed with the anchored image frame. Also values for baseline shift, just to throw in some ideas.

The core of it all: The image height must be a multiple of the grid distance!

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

2 ideas for you:

On a master page (preferably for multiple pages) draw one big frame the size of all your pictures rows and columns for the whole page. Then run a built-in script called MakeGrid.jsx. It will turn it into however many rows and columns you want, and it also gives you control over the spacing.

Another idea is to place all the pictures in one place command, thus loading your graphics cursor with many images. Place on the page by using the Grid *Gridify* placement techniqe which is a tapping of keyboard shortcuts while you drag to place the many pictures. Tapping the Up arrow key increases rows; tapping the Right arrow keys increases the columns. This is done while dragging out a big area which will be subdivided into rows and columns when you release the drag.

To change the spacing between frames, press Page Up or Page Down or hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) while pressing the arrow keys.

To change the spacing between frames, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) while pressing the arrow keys.

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/placing-graphics.html

I would turn on the Document Grid from View > Grids & Guides > Show Document Grid
You can control the grid look and feel from your preferences to make sure it is the correct size needed with correct spacing between gridlines for your page layout.
You can then layout the page as needed following the size of the gridlines. Hope this helps