Working with grouped objects makes moving related items around document pages easier during the layout process. InDesign CS5 adds a seemingly small feature to working with groups that allows us to edit individual objects that are part of a group without the need to ungroup the objects or swap to the Direct Selection tool to access them.
Imagine you’re working on something like a newspaper or magazine layout, and you’ve formatted a story with an image an caption, but don’t quite know yet where everyting will end up on the page… Let’s see how InDesign’s CS5’s new double click behavior helps us work more efficiently with groups.
Start out by creating the story text frame – I’m using the new CS5 Span All feature to automatically span the headline across all columns and am also enabling the Fixed Column Width option in the Object > Text Frame Options dialog so that I can later on easily change the width of the story text frame and have InDesign automatically amend the number of columns!
Add image and caption, and select the image and caption and turn these two objects into a group ( Object > Group), and apply text wrap to the group – I tend to use jump object with jump object text wrap.
Next select the story frame and the previously created group and create the overall group that contains not only the story but also the image and caption.
What we’ve just created is a group that nests another group.
Now comes the fun part… Editing our group work without ever ungrouping it or changing to the Direct Selection tool!
Let’s assume you decide the story is better over 4-columns. We need to get hold of the story text frame. Using the Selection tool, simply double click the larger text frame to select it. Yes, you heard it right! no ungrouping, no direct selection tool involved. Click outside the group to see the article in group mode again.
As the headline now runs over a single line, the image and caption aren’t quite in the right spot. In fact it might be that you decide to change the position of the image and caption altogether.
Here comes the even funner part… our image and caption are a sub group within the overall group. Double clicking this group will enable us to select the sub group itself and move it around… all with the use of the Selection tool.
Group work made easy:
- An article group is easily moved around the page as a whole using the Selection tool.
- An image and caption group (sub group) can be accessed within the article group by double clicking with the Selection tool and moved around as a sub group.
- A story text frame (individual object within group) can be accessed with in the article group by double clicking it with the Selection tool and resized. It can also automatically add/subtract columns and always span its heading across all columns.
- Oooh, and what if you want to change the part of the image that displays? With the Content Grabber enabled, hover the Selection tool over the image within the group and ‘grab’ hold of the image. If you don’t show the Content Grabber (View > Extras), continue to double click with the Selection tool to get to the image…
What can I say? This new CS5 double-click behavior really is kinda cool!
This article was last modified on December 20, 2021
This article was first published on August 11, 2010
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