Here’s a cool trick that I learned from Karin Söderlund at an InDesign conference a few years ago in Stockholm: Anchor graphics into a text frame to allow them to reflow. In other words, don’t just make a big grid of images on a page; make each graphic an anchored object. The benefits are quite amazing.
For example, here’s some images on a page, with captions:
In the above image, each graphic is grouped with a caption text frame and simply placed on the page. That makes it very hard to re-order them. I mean, can you imagine having to add a new image between the first and second frame, while keeping the others in order? Gah!
Here’s the same layout, but where each group is anchored into a text frame (each group has been assigned an object style to make placement and text wrap more consistent):
Suddenly, it becomes far easier to rearrange the items because each object (each group, that is) acts like a single character in a story. For example, here’s what it looks like in Story Editor:
To move one of the graphics, just select it with the Type tool and drag it to a new location in Story Editor (or copy and paste), or whatever. If you delete one, the rest all reflow into position. Or, you can add a new image easily by just inserting a new anchored object group into the proper place. Here, I’ve added a picture of a Zebra as the second image; note how all the other images reflow to make room:
What’s even more astonishing about this technique is that it also lets you apply text wrap to these images. For example, here’s what happens when I put a starburst violator over the upper-right corner of the page:
Because we’re treating the images (or, in this case, the groups) as text, they reflow around the starburst easily and painlessly.
I wouldn’t use this technique for all my images, of course, but when I need a grid of images (or text blocks, or any other object) that may need to reflow, Karin’s technique is awesome.
This article was last modified on December 19, 2021
This article was first published on October 17, 2008
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