Multiple Column Ad with Text Wrap

Topics covered in this InDesign tutorial:

Multiple text columns, Drop caps, The baseline grid, Text wrap

Exercise Preview

Exercise Overview

This exercise shows you the often misunderstood but immensely important baseline grid. We’ll also show you some new text wrap options.

Getting Started

1. Create a new document:
   • Go to the Print tab and click once on the Letter (8.5 x 11 in) preset.
   • To the right of Width, set Units to Picas.
   • Uncheck Facing Pages.
   • Set Columns to 3.
   • Set Column Gutter to 1p6 (or 0.25 in).
   • In the Margins section, unlink the values and set Margins of Top: 12p11, Bottom: 18p7, Left and Right: 4p6
   • In the Bleed and Slug section, make all Bleed options p9 (or 0.125 in)

2. Click Create.

3. Go to Type > Show Hidden Characters to view hidden characters.

4. Go to File > Save As and name it yourname-eco-ad.indd.

Placing the Background Picture

1. Draw a Rectangle Frame that fills the Bleed guides (red guides outside the borders of your page).

2. Go to File > Place and from the InDesign Class folder, select green-grass.tif.

3. Go to Object > Fitting > Fill Frame Proportionally.

4. Use the Selection tool and the content grabber circle in the center of the image to move the photo up until the tallest blades of grass just reach the bottom of the margin guides.

Importing the Text

1. Make sure the Rulers are visible (View > Show Rulers).

2. Create a text frame that fills the two right column guides.

3. Switch to the Selection tool and keep the frame selected.

4. Go to Object > Text Frame Options and under Columns, set:

   Number:	2
   Gutter:	1p6

5. Click OK.

6. Using the margin and column guides, draw another text frame that fills the first column.

7. Into the right frame, place the file eco.txt.

8. In the left text box, type It’s Easy Being Green. (including the period).

9. Select all (Cmd–A (Mac) or Ctrl–A (Windows)) the text you just typed.

10. Give the text in the left box these attributes:

    Font:	Myriad Pro Bold
    Size :	66 pt
    Leading :	54 pt
    Paragraph Alignment:	Align right

11. You will need to make the text box wider to accommodate the text. Extend the left side of the box out past the left margin guide, only enough to fit one word per line.

12. In the layout, highlight the word Green. (including the period).

13. Open the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches).

14. At the bottom of the panel, Option–click (Mac) or Alt–click (Windows) the New Swatch icon .

15. Uncheck Name with Color Value then set the following:

    Swatch Name:	Orange
    Color Type:	Process
    Color Mode:	CMYK
    Color:	C=0 M=68 Y=85 K=0
    Add to CC Library:	Uncheck this option if shown

16. Click OK. You will see that the word Green and the period after it got the new orange color.

17. Give the body text the following attributes (put the cursor in the text and press Cmd–A (Mac) or Ctrl–A (Windows) to select it all):

    Font:	Myriad Pro Regular
    Size :	8 pt
    Leading :	13.5 pt
    First Line Left Indent :	1p3
    Color:	[Paper] (white)

Creating the Drop Cap & Other Type Changes

1. Click anywhere in the first paragraph of the body text.

2. Make sure the Control panel is showing the Paragraph options and set:

   First Line Left Indent :	0p
   Drop Cap Num. of Lines :	3

3. The R of the first paragraph looks too close to the text next to it; insert the text cursor just to the right of it (between the R and e) and kern out until it looks right.

   NOTE: You can kern it out with Opt–Right Arrow (Mac) or Alt–Right Arrow (Windows), adding Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) if you want to kern out in larger increments.

4. Select the R and make it Orange (apply the swatch you created earlier).

5. Highlight the line/paragraph Reduce Your Carbon Footprint. Remove the First Line Left Indent and make the text:

   Font:	Arial Bold
   Size:	10.5 pt
   Leading:	12 pt
   Color:	[Black]
   Space Before :	1p1.5

6. Put a soft return (Shift–Return (Mac) or Shift–Enter (Windows)) just before the word Carbon to bump it to a new line.

7. Highlight the last two words in the last paragraph: Get Involved. (including the period) and make them:

   Type style:	Bold
   Color:	Orange

Setting the Baseline Grid

Look closely at the alignment of the lines of text in both columns at the bottom of the page. (Zoom in as needed.) They don’t line up any more since we changed the leading of the carbon footprint subhead. Let’s fix it so both columns align again.

1. In the InDesign menu (Mac) or Edit menu (Windows), go to Preferences > Grids.

2. Under Baseline Grid, set the following:

   Start:	2p9
   Relative To:	Top of Page
   Increment Every:	13.5 pt (This is the same as the text’s leading.)

3. Click OK.

4. With the grid set up, we must tell the text to use it. Select all the text.

5. Make sure the Control panel is showing Paragraph options .

6. Click the Align to baseline grid button (located to the right of the Hyphenate checkbox). The lines in both columns should align again.

7. Click anywhere in the REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT paragraph.

8. Click the Do not align to baseline grid button .

9. Add a bit more Space Before the carbon footprint paragraph so it is now 1p3.

Placing the Light Bulb Picture

1. Draw a Rectangle Frame in the top-right corner of the page.

2. Switch to the Selection tool and keep the frame selected.

3. Click the top left reference point in the Control panel and set the following:

   X:	41p1	W:	11p8
   Y:	1p2	H:	25p2

4. Go to File > Place and select spiral.tif.

5. Go to Object > Fitting > Fit Content Proportionally.

6. Open the Text Wrap panel (Window > Text Wrap).

7. At the top of the panel, click the third button Wrap around object shape .

8. Set the remaining options as shown:

   

“Massaging” the Text to Fit

We want all of the text to be visible at the bottom of the ad and both columns to be the same length. The last words should be “Get Involved.” Notice that the text overflow symbol is showing. This means you are missing text. We’ll use tracking to squeeze the rest of the text in.

1. To see how much text is missing, select the Type tool and click anywhere in the text frame so the blinking cursor is somewhere in the text.

2. Go to the Info panel (Window > Info). There is a count of the text you see plus (+) the overset text (text you don’t see). It should say something like Words: 350+11 and Paragraphs 6+1. This means there is one extra paragraph of 11 words overflowing. (These numbers may be different for you depending on how much kerning you applied after the Drop Cap R earlier.)

3. Go into the InDesign menu (Mac) or Edit menu (Windows), choose Preferences > Units & Increments and set Kerning/Tracking to 5.

4. Select the paragraph right next to the light bulb that starts with Making homes…

5. If the paragraph is already six lines, skip to the next step. Otherwise track it in using Opt–Left Arrow (Mac) or Alt–Left Arrow (Windows). You can do this keystroke up to three times (for a value of –15) but anything more will look bad. This should track the letters in just enough to shorten the paragraph by one line.

6. Select the last paragraph of text by clicking four times in it quickly. Track the text in using the keystroke listed in the previous step until you see the words Get Involved.

7. Use the Selection tool (while holding Shift) to move the left text box up until the top of the letter s in the word It’s aligns with the top of the body text.

Adding the Color Bar

1. Draw a Rectangle Frame that fills the width between the left and right Bleed guides. Make it 3p3 in height. Its top should meet the top bleed guide.

2. Open the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches).

3. As shown below, at the top left of the Swatches panel, make sure the Fill swatch is in front (active). If it’s not, click it to make it active.

   

4. Select the Orange swatch.

5. With the rectangle still selected, go to Object > Arrange > Send Backward. The color bar should now be behind the light bulb but above the background image.

Adding the Statistic

1. Draw a text frame in the top-left corner of the page.

2. Switch to the Selection tool and keep the frame selected.

3. Click the top left reference point in the Control panel and set the following:

   X:	4p6	W:	13p
   Y:	3p8	H:	7p5

4. Place the file stat.txt in the text box.

5. Make the text:

   Font:	Arial Bold
   Size:	12 pt
   Leading:	15 pt
   Paragraph Alignment:	Align right
   Color:	[Paper] (white)

6. Choose the Pen tool .

7. As shown below, draw an arcing Bézier Curve from just beside the statistic to the left edge of the light bulb.

   

8. Open the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches).

9. Make sure the Stroke swatch is in front . If it’s not, click it to make it active.

10. With the stroke still selected, go to the Swatches panel menu and choose New Color Swatch.

11. Set the following: C=50 M=0 Y=100 K=0, and name the new swatch Green.

12. Once you click OK, the stroke gets the green swatch.

13. Open the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke) and set the options shown below:

    

14. Make a new text box on the pasteboard outside the page, measuring W: 7p, H: 8p2.

15. Type an asterisk (*) and make it:
    • Myriad Pro Semibold
    • 130 pt
    • Green (use the swatch you created)

16. Use the Selection tool and select the box.

17. Go to Type > Create Outlines.

18. Move the asterisk shape to the opposite end of the curve, near the light bulb.

19. Deselect everything, then press W on the keyboard to see the lovely advertisement without guides.

20. Save the document.