Add columns to text frames


You can lay out text in columns. You can create columns of equal or varying widths and gutters. You can also apply right-to-left text flow to the columns for bidirectional (bidi) text, such as Arabic and Hebrew (Note that this option is available only for certain languages).

The text in the frame (left) was laid out in two columns (right).

To add columns to a text frame

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1 Select a paragraph text frame.
2 Click Window Properties.
3 In the Properties docker, click the Frame button to display the frame-related options.
4 Type a value in the Number of columns box.

To resize text frame columns

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1 Click the Text tool and select a text frame with columns.
2 Perform a task from the following table.

 

To
Do the following
Manually adjust column and gutter width
Click the Text tool . Drag a column side selection handle.
Set a specific column and gutter width
In the Properties docker, click the Frame button to display the frame-related options. Click the Columns button , and type values in the Width or Gutter boxes.
Automatically create columns of equal width
In the Properties docker, click the Frame button to display the frame-related options. Click the Columns button , and enable the Equal column width check box.

 

To change the flow of bidirectional text in columns

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1 Select a paragraph text frame.
2 Click Window Properties.
3 In the Properties docker, click the Frame button to display the frame-related options.
4 Click the Columns button .
5 In the Column Settings dialog box, enable the Right-to-left columns check box.

*

The Right-to-left columns option is available only for bidirectional languages, such as Hebrew and Arabic. The proper keyboard must also be installed.

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