Say you’ve got an image grouped with its caption (Object > Group). You want to scale the image (and its frame) but not scale the text in the caption frame. But if you click on the image with the Selection tool to scale it with Command/Ctrl-Shift-dragging, the whole group gets selected; and as you drag, the whole group scales, like so (before and after):
A user posted this situation on the InDesign User Forums recently, and among all the responses received, I liked this solution the best: Use the Position tool. It’s hiding under the Direct Selection tool in both ID CS2 and CS3. Just press and hold there to reveal it and choose it:
The Position tool is a combo Selection/Direct Selection tool specifically for images and their frames. When you click with it on an image frame, it acts like the Selection tool, allowing you to drag on the frame handles to crop the image, or Command/Ctrl-Shift-drag to scale the image and its frame. When you click inside the image, it acts like the Direct Selection tool, letting you move the image around within the frame or scale it without affecting the frame.
Another neat feature of the Position tool is that it “doesn’t speak Group,” so it’s impossible to inadvertently modify other objects in a grouped selection while you’re working on an image in that group.
Watch the Cursor
To use the Selection Tool mode of the Position tool, move the cursor so it’s pointing at the image frame (not inside the image), and click. Its cursor changes to let you know when you’re in the right position, so keep an eye on it before you click.
For example, starting with a selected group (left image below), you’ll know you’re in the right place to click the Position tool — to select it for scaling — when its cursor looks like an arrow without a tail. If the group isn’t selected (right image below), its cursor will look like an arrow with a square dot when it’s in the right position. In each of these screen shots, the cursor is on the right side of the image:
After you click, you’ll see the image’s handles. You can Command/Ctrl-Shift-drag on any handle of the selected image to scale it without affecting the other objects in the group, as shown below. The image is scaled up (I dragged on its upper right corner) but the text frame grouped with it is unaffected.
This article was last modified on December 18, 2021
This article was first published on July 29, 2007
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Sam, if you group your objects and resize using percentage, then the spacing will remain relative
Sam, I don’t recall how you’d do that in QX, nor can I think of how you’d do it in ID. I think you’d just have to scale, then use the Align palette to set the Space between the objects.
Along a similar line, does anyone know how to resize a group and maintain the spacing between the objects? i.e. a picture frame and caption text box – if you resize the group, the font size stays the same, but the spacing changes. I would like to “lock” my pica gap like you could in Quark.
Or (and this would work in any version of InDesign) select the pic with the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) then switch to the Selection Tool (black arrow) and, using Object Menu > Select > Container or the icon on the Control palette, select the frame and command/ctrl-shift to scale to your heart’s content.
Stephan, yes, that’d be another way, but only if you’re in CS3.
The Position tool isn’t so strange once you start using it. ;-)
Or,
instead of using the strange position tool, you can just double click the image in the group, press V to toggle to selection mode (black arrow) and command/ctrl-shift scale the image. Same result. ;)
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this great tip! I do electrical textbooks which have Figure graphics with Figure # captions throughout the text. 75% are one size, but about 25% are a different size. I used to have to “redo” the 25% and go through several steps to make the changes. (There were different textwraps for the graphic and the caption boxes, which made it even more knarly.) I just did a chapter worth of graphics in about 1/4 of the time using this tip.
Great topic AM.
I have fallen in love with the Position tool compared to the Direct Selection. Not only does it allow you to scale items with a group, but it is a “safe” tool that won’t inadvertently change the shape of a frame or rule.
I’ve even swapped the keyboard shortcuts for Position and Direct Selection to make it easier to get to the Position tool.
The only thing I would like to see in the Position toool is to allow it to modify the shape of grouped text frames.
Then I would never need the Direct Selection tool which I have come to distrust.