Video:How to Set Guides in InDesign

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Transcript:How to Set Guides in InDesign

Hi, I m Don Schechter for About.com computing. Today I will show you all of the different ways to modify margins, columns, and ruler guides in Adobe InDesign CS3. In most programs there are many ways to do one thing, and I will focus on specific commands in InDesign CS3.

Why Use Guides?

Using guides in Adobe InDesign helps to visualize non-printing areas. They also can aid in aligning text, images, and other graphics on your page.

Create a New InDesign Document

First, open up Adobe InDesign and create a new document by selecting "Document" from the welcome window. A New Document Dialog box will appear that allows you to customize the top, bottom, inside and outside margin guides as well as the column guides. I leave the margins as they are. If you choose to change one of the margins, all of them will change. I will create 3 columns. You can also adjust the gutter, which is the space between the columns. I will leave it at 1 point. Click OK when you re done.

Adjusting Margins and Columns

You can also change margin and column guides after you have created a document by going to Layout Margins and Columns. You can adjust the sizes the same way that you did in the New Document Dialog box. Click OK when you re done.

Manually Adjust Column Guides

If you want your columns to have unequal widths, go to View Grids and Guides Lock Column Guides to unlock the columns, so you can move them around. Then, with your selection tool, drag the column guides on the page to the width that you want.

Setting a Rule Guide

If you want to set a ruler guide, click and hold the selection tool over the horizontal or vertical ruler and drag it to the desired position. When you release the mouse, you will see a blue line, which is the new ruler guide, on your page. If you want the ruler guide to extend out of the page, hold down the Apple key on your Mac or Control on your PC while dragging.

Another way to create a ruler guide is to double-click a point on the vertical or horizontal ruler. A guide will appear. You can also create a ruler guide by going to Layout Ruler Guides. In this box, you can choose a percentage in the View Threshold space and change the color that the guides will be. I will leave the color as Cyan. Press OK when you re done.

Locking Guides

You can lock your guides, so you won't move them around by accident. Go to View Grids and Guides Lock Guides, or you can press Apple option on your Mac, or Control Alt on your PC. If you want to lock an individual ruler guide, select the guide by clicking on it. It will turn blue. Then press Apple L on your Mac or Ctrl L on your PC. You can also right click on the document and a menu will appear. Go to Grids and Guides and you can choose to lock or hide any of your guides there.

Click and Drag Guides

Another way to select a guide is to click and drag a rectangular shape around the ruler guide on the page. You will know they are selected when they turn blue. This is an easy way to select more than one guide at once. However, if the selection rectangle touches an object on the page, the object will be selected and not the guides. InDesign will not select both objects and ruler guides in the same selection.

There are a couple of ways to move guides around. To move a single guide, drag the guide using the selection tool. You can also select the guide, and then enter a new position in the X/Y fields at the top of the screen in the Transform palette.

Setting Multiple Guides

If you want to move multiple guides at once on the same page, shift-click or select them all by creating a rectangle around the guides. Then you can drag them to a new location.

Copying Guides

To copy guides to another page of a publication, select the guides and press Control C on your PC or Apple C on your Mac to copy them. You can also right click on the guides and select Copy from the drop down menu. Paste the guides onto another page by pressing Control V on your PC or Apple V on your Mac, or go up to Edit Paste.

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