The easiest way to get text into a text frame on top of another text frame

[oysteinvidnes]

I’ve been using InDesign all the way since the first versions, and I mostly enjoy it. There is however one small but nagging issue that has bugged me this whole time, since switching from QuarkXpress 3.31 or thereabouts ... I decided to make a last effort to try to investigate the rational way to do the following operation which I probably do more than a dozen times a day.

Here it goes: Let’s say you have a big text frame on a page, typically the main text area of a book. On a specific place on top of this, I’ll inevitably want to put some text. I know exactly where, so I start by pressing cmd+f and draw a frame. Then I press t to get to the text tool, and click inside the new frame to convert it to a text frame and start typing or pasting. But no luck - the text always goes into the text frame behind.

There are workarounds of course, like drawing the new text frame extremely wide, enough that there is an area outside the frame behind it to click on, so as to ‘force’ the text into the new frame - as I always have done it since Indesign 1.0 -- muscle memory by now, but it’s still irritating to have to resize the frame afterwards. Locking the frame behind it also too much hassle -- there may be multiple frames to lock, this needs to be a quick operation.

The easiest way that I have managed to find, is probably this:

1. Draw frame

2. Go to the Object menu, choose Content > Text

3. press t for text tool, and THEN click inside the new frame, and

4. start typing

I can even make a keyboard shortcut for the Content > Text part, and do this thing more rationally than I have all these years, but I will still be nostalgic about how easy this used to be in Quark 25 years ago. Am I missing something? I hope so!

[oysteinvidnes]

Thanks for listening! Now, back to work.

[rob day]

If you try the script make sure the text frame you are trying to align with is selected.

[jmlevy]

Do you know this trick?

Start to draw your new text frame (with the text tool) outside of the area of the existing one. Do not release the mouse and press the space bar: you will be able to move the new one over the existing one, and you can continue to size it as you want

[oysteinvidnes]

Neat and handy trick! I didn't know this.

(And it gives me a faint hope that someone who was smart enough to code this, also could think of a way to even let me start the drawing of the new text frame inside the area of the existing one).