columns

[defaultwi2j0idukpnb]

Hi, I'm struggling to add columns to my page, as when I click on the paragraph formatting toolbar, the option does not seem to be available.

Anyone know where i might be going wrong/ have any advice?

[Randy Hagan]

If you want to split a text frame into columns, you first have to go to the Span Columns dialog box. If you don't have enough space to see all your paragraph/character commands across the Control Panel, go to the three lines at the right of the panel, click on them to open the sandwich/context menu and select the Span Columns... menu command. From there, you can change the Paragraph Layout: edit box from Single Column to Split Column and then set your options to subdivide the text frame into the columns you'd like for your document.

Hope this helps,

Randy

[Steve Werner]

If that's not what you're trying to do, you may be wanting to set tab columns for a simple tabular table. To do that you choose Type > Tabs and set tabs in the Tabs panel. See the User Guide for an explanation.

[rob day]

Columns are a property of a text frame not a paragraph. Select a text frame and choose Object>Text Frame Options:

[Randy Hagan]

Au contraire ...

Jus' sayin'

Randy

[rob day]

Yes you can split the paragraph text inside of a column (sub-columns), but that doesn’t change the text frame’s column count. This frame has 3 columns:

[Randy Hagan]

You could say, however, that it does change the count of columns set inside the text frame.

I set separate linked text frames from multi-column master pages myself, instead of multi-column text frames, due to unfortunate previous experiences with irregular text wraps from both InDesign and the dreaded QuarkXPress.But based on the question the original poster was asking, I inferred the poster was asking a specific, distinct workflow. So I did my best to accommodate him/her.

So we're going po-ta-to, poh-tah-to, to-ma-to, toh-mah-to. So from here, what you say let's call the whole thing off?

Randy