Operation Manual

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Tex t
Last updated 11/30/2015
Drag and drop text
You can use the mouse to drag and drop text in the Story Editor or in the Layout View. You can even drag text from the
Story Editor to the layout window (or vice versa), or into some dialog boxes such as Find/Change. Dragging the text
from a locked or checked-in story copies the text rather than moves it. You can also copy text or create a new frame
when dragging and dropping text.
Jeff Witchel provides a video tutorial about drag and drop at Using InDesign Drag and Drop Text.
1 To enable drag and drop, choose Edit > Preferences > Type (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > Type (Mac OS),
select Enable In Layout View, Enable In Story Editor (InDesign), or Enable In Galley/Story View (InCopy), and then
click OK.
2 Select the text that you want to move or copy.
3 Hold the pointer over the selected text until the drag and drop icon appears, and then drag the text.
As you drag, the selected text remains in place, but a vertical bar indicates where the text will appear when you
release the mouse button. The vertical bar appears in any text frame that you drag the mouse over.
4 Do any of the following:
• To drop the text in a new location, position the vertical bar where you would like the text to appear and release
the mouse button.
• To drop the text in a new frame, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) after you start dragging, and
then release the mouse button before releasing the key.
• To drop the text without formatting, hold down Shift after you start dragging, and then release the mouse button
before releasing the key.
• To copy the text, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) after you start dragging, and then release the
mouse button before releasing the key.
You can also use a combination of these modifier keys. For example, to copy unformatted text to a new frame, hold
down Alt+Shift+Ctrl (Windows) or Option+Shift+Command (Mac OS) after you start dragging.
If the text you drop doesn’t have the proper spacing, select the Adjust Spacing Automatically option in Type Preferences.
Place (import) text
When you place a text or spreadsheet file, you can specify options to determine how the imported text is formatted.
1 (Optional) To create links to the files being placed, click File Handling in the Preferences dialog box and select
Create Links When Placing Text And Spreadsheet Files.
Selecting this option creates a link to the placed file. You can use the Links panel to update, relink, or remove links
to text files. However, if you format linked text in InDesign, the formatting may not be preserved when you update
the link. If this option isn’t selected, imported text and spreadsheet files are embedded (not linked).
2 Do one of the following:
• To create a new frame for the placed text, make sure that no insertion point is present and that no text or frames
are selected.
• To add text to a frame, use the Type tool to select text or place the insertion point.
• To replace the contents of an existing frame, use a selection tool to select the frame. If the frame is threaded, a
loaded text cursor appears.
If you accidentally replace a text file or graphic using this method, choose Edit > Undo Replace, and then click
or drag to create a text frame.