Trouble With Another Agency's InDesign Templates

[rickm49771972]

Took over a client from another agency and am working on some of the templates the other agency created. I'm mostly self-taught in InDesign, so am discovering lots of cool new tools thanks to this other agency's templates, and also encountering some road blocks.

 

This image is not linked. How has it been inserted? What are the dotted lines around the image?

How is this underscore/line created? It's not underlined text, it's not _____, it's not a drawn line. It appears to be in the text box. However, I am unable to select it and when I try to delete that unnecessary space between the bounding box and the first line of text, the line disappears.

 

The box behind the header is connected with the textbox. How is this done? It's not grouped with the text; it seems to be a part of the text. I can't figure out how to access it (change the color, delete it, etc.).

 

Any insight on the above would be amazing! Thank you in advance.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Templates are the bane of this field.

They're like code in other fields, but without any guiding priciples or standard practices, so every template developer uses completely oddball methods and convoluted tricks to get fairly simple results... and good luck to the next user who has to decipher what peculiar technique is used for a particular element.

Just wanted to say it's not 'just you,' and good luck.

[rickm49771972]

Haha thanks! I'm constantly vascillating between struggling through whatever's in front of me and just recreating it on my own.

[Peter Spier]

Most likely the logo was pasted. Not a big deal since it's small, but not considered as best practice.

The thin red line is a Paragraph Rule Below. The blue line is probably also be a Paragraph Rule, either above or below

[rickm49771972]

Thanks!!

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse · Accepted solution]

The "blue line" is Paragraph Shading; similar to this:

 

[Peter Spier]

Thanks for that Brad. I was wondering about the rounded corners.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

As far as the last two items go, it looks like borders and rules are in play, either as part of the Paragraph Style, or as part of an Object Style applied to the frames. Look there for a clue on each.

[rickm49771972]

Thanks!!!