Tip of the Week: Measuring Angles

Mike Rankin

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This tip was sent to Tip of the Week email subscribers on November 28, 2014.

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Ever need to know the measure of an angle in your InDesign documents? If you rotate an object with the Selection, Rotate, or Free Transform tools, you can see the angle of rotation right at your cursor, as long as you have Show Transformation Values chosen in Interface preferences.

You can also see the angle of a rotated object by selecting it and checking the Control panel.



But what about the angle of something in a photo? Turns out this is pretty easy to find as well. Just take the Measure tool and drag along one side of the angle (hold Shift to constrain to 45 degree increments).

Then move your cursor over the point where you want the two sides to meet (aka the vertex of the angle). Hold Option/Alt and drag to create the other side of the angle.

The angle measure will be displayed in the Info panel, along with lengths of the sides (called D1 and D2).

Drag an endpoint to adjust the angle. Drag a side to move the angle without altering it (great for comparing angles).

Bonus: InDesign will remember the angle and display it again the next time you select the Measure tool.