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vinny38
vinny38
Legend
November 13, 2018
Question

Rectangle frame tool vs Rectangle tool

  • November 13, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 15261 views

Hi Community

A discussion has started on the French forum based on "why on earth are there two separate tools in the toolbar: Rectangle tool and Rectangle frame tool?"
Since we can assign what we want to one or the other, what can justify this "duplicate"?

Therefore, my question is:
Do you see any interest in having these two separate tools in the tool panel?
If so, can you explain in which specific cases do you prefer to use a particular tool?

Vinny

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    amaarora
    Community Manager
    amaaroraCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    November 13, 2018

    Hi,

    Rectangle Frame tool- With content as Graphic, has a Basic Graphic Frame style applied

    Rectangle Tool-With content Unassigned has a [None] style

    Personally, i would create rectangle for backgrounds, fills etc. Clicking inside a rectangle does not select it vs clicking inside a rectangle frame

    Rectangle frame can be preferred for holding images (or act as image placeholders because of its appearance) since it can hold an image when a place cursor is hovered over it.

    By default, frames with rectangle tool have a stroke applied.

    -Aman

    vinny38
    vinny38Author
    Legend
    November 13, 2018

    Steve Werner​ Why did you mark Aman's answer as correct?

    Sorry but no...

    Let me rephrase my question:

    "What major differences between Rectangle tool and Rectangle frame tool justify their presence in the Tools panel as two distinctive tools?"

    So far, no good answer to this question, sorry again.

    Vinny

      Steve Werner
      Community Expert
      Steve WernerCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 13, 2018

      The rectangle frame tool is excellent for adding placeholders for anything. I can’t explain it much better than that.

      And frankly, as far as newbies go, anyone diving into InDesign without any basic training is not going to get a lot of sympathy from me if they’re confused. In fact, if they’re confused by this, they’re pretty much doomed to failure anyway.


      Vinny, I'm not sure you're understanding the idea of a placeholder. In some workflows, designers  begin to do a layout when not all the assets are ready. Photos or text are "to come" so you can create placeholder frames which approximate the size and position where the content is going to go. Viewing them with the X across the frame makes it easy to visualize graphic placeholders as does placeholder text. That may not apply to your workflow but it's very common.

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