Importing text

Available Files

The following files are available for download:

Download Exercise Files

We're now at the point in the newsletter creation process where we can start adding content to the document. As mentioned previously, all of the contents of the newsletter have been gathered ahead of time and are ready to be placed into the document. The first element we'll add to the newsletter is the text of the main article.

InDesign can import text from a number of different sources, including Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, plain text files, and even other InDesign documents. The main article for the newsletter is saved as a plain text (.txt) file. To start, the article will fill the first and most of the second page of the newsletter. As we add more content, including images and additional articles, the main article will eventually extend to the back page of the newsletter.

To get started, we'll want to make sure we're viewing the first page of the newsletter in the document window.

To open the Pages panel, if necessary, in the Panel dock,
Click
To move to page 1, in the document pages section of the Pages panel,
Double-Click

The first page of the newsletter is displayed, with the contents of the A-Cover parent page visible here (but not editable). We'll place the text of our first article in the first column, starting just underneath the nameplate.

Understanding text flow options

Before placing the text into the document, let's take a moment to think about how we want the text to flow into the columns. If we were to select our text file and click in the left column below the nameplate, the text would be placed into the document — however, it would only fill that one column. From here, we would need to manually distribute the rest of the text into the following columns. This process is referred to as manual text flow.

However, what if we want the text to flow automatically through all of the columns available in the document until we run out of text? We can do this by using InDesign's autoflow option, where we hold down the Shift key while clicking where we want to start placing the imported text into the document. When placing text using autoflow, InDesign will automatically place text into the following columns — and even create new pages, if necessary — until all of the text from a file is placed into the document.

Since our main article is rather long, let's use the autoflow option as we place the text into the document.

To start placing the file main.txt, in the Menu bar,
Click File, Click Place…
Navigate to the InDesign Basics folder on your computer.
To open the folder containing the articles for the newsletter,
Double-Click the Text folder
To select the file we want to place,
Double-Click main.txt

Our cursor will change to display an excerpt from the beginning of the article next to the cursor, as shown in the following image:

Cursor loaded with text, displaying the first few lines of the file main.txt.

To position the cursor where we want to start placing the text,
Point to the left margin, just underneath the nameplate

When we hold down the Shift key as part of the next step, the cursor will change to display the Autoflow icon:

To place the text using the autoflow option, on the keyboard, press and hold:
Shift key, Click where the cursor is positioned under the nameplate

The contents of main.txt are now placed into the newsletter, filling the first page and most of the second page. However, the content also flows right over the newsletter's nameplate — we can fix this using the Selection Tool.

Resizing text frames

Both text and graphic frames can be moved, resized, and modified as needed when creating a layout. When a text frame is resized, if the text frame is connected to another one, the text inside of it will reflow through to the next connected frame.

When selecting a frame with the Selection tool, we'll see a number of little white squares at the corners of our frame and in the middle of the frame's sides, as shown in the following image:

Diagram pointing out the handles on a frame.

These are the frame's handles, and pressing and dragging these handles enables us to resize (and in some cases, rotate) the frame we have selected.

Let's resize the middle and right columns of text so they no longer cover the nameplate. We'll do this by pressing and dragging the middle handle at the top of each frame.

To activate the Selection tool, if necessary, in the Tools panel,
Click
To select the middle text column, with the Selection tool active,
Click inside the middle column
To resize the selected column,
Press & Drag the top middle handle down until the top of the column is below the nameplate
Repeat steps b and c with the right column of text.
To deselect the right column of text,
Click the pasteboard

To save the file, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + S

The front page of the newsletter should now look like the following:

Page one of the Midwest Pet Pals Gazette newsletter, showing the nameplate and the text for the newsletter's main article.

Importing text

Available Files

Step 1. Open the Pages panel, if necessary, and make the first document page the active page in the document window.

Understanding text flow options

Step 1. Place the file main.txt into the newsletter using the autoflow option, starting in the left column underneath the nameplate.

Resizing text frames

Step 1. Activate the Selection tool if necessary, then resize the middle and right columns of text.

Step 2. Save the file.