text highlighting in indesign

urstwile · 07-07-2009, 07:46 AM

To achieve the effect, first underscore the text. Then, in the character panel, click the downwards triangle, and select underline options. Increase the weight of the underline and fiddle around with the offset values and color of the underline until you get it where you want it.

genik · 07-07-2009, 08:01 AM

Many thanx mate!

hank_scorpio · 07-07-2009, 08:19 AM

The Underline or Strikethrough is perfect for this situation - personally I'd use the strikethrough because I wouldn't use that anywhere else, and I may perhaps use the underline somewhere, so it makes it easier to find the highlighted text by searching just for Strikethrough items.

For more than one line of text I use the Paragraph Rule Above or Below.

If you have more than a line of text aligned left ragged then the underline won't look pretty and you can't set a negative left and right indent for an underline so the text will butt right up to the edge of the colour box.

I know Harbs of In-Tools is looking into making a Paragraph Highlighter for InDesign. I don't know what the progress of this is yet, but I understand they are working on a more versatile way to do things like this.

Michael Murphy does a wonderful video on how to use Paragraph Rules to get all sorts of great effects for highlighting and decorating text.

http://www.theindesigner.com/blog/ep...aph-rules-rule

genik · 07-07-2009, 08:53 AM

wow fantastic info, i had no idea indesign could do stuff like that!
many many thanx!

PrintDriver · 07-07-2009, 11:16 AM

Get a proof. Make sure it rips.
Stylizing text has sucked forever and success sometimes depends on the font being used.

hank_scorpio · 07-07-2009, 11:38 AM

Never ever had an issue with doing this.

But yes - as always get a proof that's gone through the RIP.

Maybe I should but that as my sig? Hmmm....

genik · 07-07-2009, 01:50 PM

Originally posted by PrintDriver View Post

Get a proof. Make sure it rips.
Stylizing text has sucked forever and success sometimes depends on the font being used.

yes interesting point!

mojoprime · 07-07-2009, 03:48 PM

Originally posted by eugenetyson View Post

For more than one line of text I use the Paragraph Rule Above or Below.

yeah, we used this a lot at the newspaper. quark was really good with it back in the venerable 4.11 version. i still use it extensively. guaranteed to piss off any designer not familiar with it when they try to edit your files...

hank_scorpio · 07-07-2009, 03:53 PM

That's why I keep snippets of explanations of what was done and the technique, so that I can put them on the pasteboard.

Even if I forget what way I set up the style - I have a full tech note on the pasteboard with steps and editing instructions.

Time consuming and a time saver. The universe likes to balance itself out like that.

mojoprime · 07-07-2009, 03:58 PM

that seems like overkill, especially since you said you use a lot of PDFs, but whatever works for you is awesome. where i'm at now, i don't share a lot of files except with vendors and we do more and more via PDF these days. the other designer here knows about my idiosyncratic design style -- i still use picas as my primary unit of measurement.!

hank_scorpio · 07-07-2009, 04:06 PM

Well it's not really for me. There are less technical people here than me. Some basic users. If I'm not here and something complex like paragraph rules or moving a box needs to be done it all goes pear shaped.

It's easier to let them know how it was done and how to edit it rather than fix a plethora of errors when I come back.

Overkill or overskill?

mojoprime · 07-07-2009, 04:10 PM

um, i would say overkill. overskill implies arrogance, and as merlin used to say, there's always someone cleverer than yourself.

urstwile · 07-07-2009, 04:17 PM

Originally posted by PrintDriver View Post

Get a proof. Make sure it rips.
Stylizing text has sucked forever and success sometimes depends on the font being used.

The underline (and strikethrough) is not a true text style, as it was in the case of the earlier versions of Quark, where it actually called out a specific character in the font when it was invoked. It's more like the Underline Styles that used to be a separate Xtension in Quark and which they eventually embedded into Quark (last version I used was 6.5). The Quark "styled" underline was actually calling out this character from the font as an underscore: _ (and it was usually way too thick). In addition, back in the days when I used to do pre-press, the only styled fonts we really had problems with were the "effects" like bold, italic, and the ever-obnoxious shadow. Underscores never presented problems to any of the RIPs we used, and this was back quite a long while ago.

I've used this technique successfully going to printers with native files, and haven't had any problems.

Bob · 07-07-2009, 05:27 PM

Originally posted by eugenetyson View Post

That's why I keep snippets of explanations of what was done and the technique, so that I can put them on the pasteboard.

Even if I forget what way I set up the style - I have a full tech note on the pasteboard with steps and editing instructions.

Time consuming and a time saver. The universe likes to balance itself out like that.

There's also the NOTES function in InDesign, though like you Eugene, I prefer it to be right there in full, not to be missed. Which is why I often stick (non-printing) explanatory notes right on top of the piece in a locked, top 'NOTES' layer.

text highlighting in indesign

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