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I can’t play the piano, though I can tap out a few tunes on the keys with one or two fingers—sort of like I’m using a bunch of keyboard shortcuts in InDesign. And sometimes when I’m using shortcuts in InDesign, it feels like I’m playing a little tune on the piano—like when I’m using the Gridify feature to create a set of duplicate objects on the fly. While this does require more than one finger, it’s easier than playing “Chopsticks”, and for your efforts you get an instant grid of objects, you can adjust as you drag. Here’s how.
Start by selecting the object you want to duplicate.
Pause for a moment, then press and hold Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac).
Start dragging. The original object stays put and you’ll see a second copy at your cursor.
Without releasing Alt/Option, press the right-pointing arrow on your keyboard. You’ll see the bounding box of a new copy in the middle of the original object and the one at your cursor.
Want more copies? Press the right arrow again to make as many copies in a straight line from the original to your cursor.
If you keep adding copies, eventually they’ll start to overlap, which might be what you want for a certain effect.
If you want fewer copies, press the left arrow key.
To constrain the set of objects to a horizontal row (or 45 degree angles), add the Shift key.
Now you can turn the single row of objects into a grid by adding more rows (to create columns). Press the up arrow key to increase the number of rows, press the down arrow to remove rows. Hold Shift to equalize the spacing in between objects.
Practice a few times and you’ll get the hang of it. You might never master Beethoven, but you can quickly fill a page with the magic of Gridify.
This article was last modified on July 25, 2019
This article was first published on November 24, 2015
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