How should I use character, paragraph, table or object styles in InDesign to create specific spacing between elements in the example provided? My goal is that when the information is updated, the elements will keep consistent spacing.
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1Could you be a little more specific? For example what kind of elements do you mean? And what do you mean by info? My guess is that you want a consistent spacing between text frames, even if the text content of a frame changes?– WolffCommented May 23, 2018 at 17:00
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This is far too broad with too many possibilities. You need to narrow the scope of the question. Otherwise, you're essentially asking about basically all possible features in InDesign (text, table, objects)– ScottCommented May 23, 2018 at 17:04
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i added an image of the template i am trying to create for the catalog. We are using a plugin to populate the information into indesign. So what would be the most efficient and consistent way to design and assign styles to these elements (measurements, data) so it will maintain the same format.– Joe WildeCommented May 23, 2018 at 17:10
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2 Answers
If you want to be efficient, this will likely need to be tailored depending on how you receive your content. I don't currently see a use for character styles.
- Table style: to generate the red stroke around each table.
- Cell style: to generate the vertical strokes in between numerical values and vertically center the content.
- Paragraph styles: 3 of them, one for each font size currently used. Depending on how the content is provided, you can use a tab to separate the numbers from the smaller type or use another column altogether.
To create the title with the red background, you could either use a cell style or use a paragraph style with a thick offset stroke below.
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Thank you very much. this helps. Will I be able to assign specific sizes and spacing between the vertical strokes and numbers, so that if one of the products doesnt have all 5 measurements, it would be blank and allow the rest of the table to stay the same? Commented May 23, 2018 at 17:39
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@JoeWilde You will do this when you actually build the table (not in a style) by specifying the column width for these cells. It's a bit similar to other tables if you've used HTML, Word, Excel. I would advise you create one table to get a feel of things and come back for a more specific question or to edit this question if you are stuck at any point.– curious ♦Commented May 23, 2018 at 17:44
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ok I will be doing that today. So when I create a table in indesign, will I be able to create a table format that includes all of the paragraph styles and cell styles within it. Because I then would like simply apply that formatted table to the data im uploading. Commented May 24, 2018 at 15:57
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I still feel this is pretty broad. I mean there are table styles, cell styles, paragraph styles - all which would need to be deployed.
- (A) Create a Paragraph Style for the item ID text (red box).
- (B) Create a Paragraph Style for the measurements(?) text - large numbers
- (C) Create a Paragraph Style with tabs for the text listing on the right side
- Create a Table Style for the overall table (red outline and spacing around it).
- Create a Cell Style assigning (A) for the item ID (red box).
- Create a Cell Style assigning (B) for the internally divided cells (the vertical lines)
- Create a Cell Style assigning (C) for the item list (right side listing next to image)
- Create a Cell Style for the image cells (spacing)
By configuring Paragraph Styles first, you can then assign those paragraph styles to Cell Styles as you create them, ensuring the text within the cells matches the paragraph style, while using the cell style options to add spacing, backgrounds, and/or rules to the cells themselves.
When combined, all this theoretically should allow quick, consistent, formatting of data.
It's difficult to be more precise without either writing a small book on how to utilize each aspect of various style options, and without knowing the exact format of data to be imported. You can search Adobe Help on the various style formatting option and how to use them.
