columns & text boxes (2 questions)

[hereandthere]

i am laying out a 300+ page book and i have decided to change the layout somewhat, but i don't know the best way to so this.


in each chapter, i have a separate section (testimonials) that appears multiple times throughout and needs to be formatted differently from the the main text.

these sections of text are contained in a 25% PMS process cyan box.

i had previously laid out the entire book with the main body and the testimonials in the same text box.

now, i am cutting out the testimonial text, creating a new text box with the PMS color and then pasting the text into the new box.
this creates a problem because:

- i create the new box, fill it with 25% cyan, set the text offset. then when i auto-flow the text, i have to make each box cyan and individually specify the text offset again, on every box. it doesn't do this automatically even though the first box was already formatted this way.
- if the main body copy gets edited again, the new blue boxes will remain in the same place and won't move with the edited body copy. for instance, if the paragraph before the testimonial gets deleted, i would like the testimonial box to be able to move with up automatically - does that make sense?

here is a sample spread for reference:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lluvioso/176930286/

i assume that i need to make new text boxes for the testimonials in order for their background to be blue and keep the main body background white, but it seems like there should be a quicker way to do this. is there a way to link the body copy text-boxes with the testimonial text boxes? or is there an entirely better way to do this process?



my other question is this:

- is there a way to convert a list of names in a one-column text box to two-columns, while retaining the single column format for the rest of the text?
the only way i have figured out how to do this without altering the main text is to create a new 2-column box for just the list.

thanks for any help!

gregg

InDesign CS 3.0.1
Mac OS X 10.4.6

 

[jmgalvin]

If you need an element often that is not compatible with using a Master page for the item, make a new library (file menu/new/library) and stash the thing there. when you need it, just drag from the library onto your page.

If you need an item that moves with the text when you edit that text, look up "inline graphics" in Indesign help.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4

 

[forestry]

You can also create a new object style on the styles pallette -- I did the same thing for off-set text, and created a text box style called "off-set text" which can be applied to any text box, just as you apply paragraph or character styles.