Converting Text Frame to Box?

[NotHerbert]

Like Farran's earlier post...I often find myself designing with text frames inside of larger stroked boxes (it truly is easier to work with a separate box than have to deal with insets, *I* think). If the box is not on its own layer or sent to back, the next time you click with the text tool (thinking you're editing the text in the text frame inside that box), what happens is -- instead of getting a cursor where you want it, so you can edit that text in the inside frame -- your outside box NOW BECOMES a text frame with the cursor flashing in the upper left corner ready to accept text.

So instead of a simple rectangle, NOW you've got a threaded frame. If you don't type any text, it's still a (blank) threaded text frame, though granted your original stroke remains.

This is VERY frustrating because (for whatever reason) the font that sometimes gets assigned there is one that is currently unavailable to my system. I DISCOVER THIS when I go to make a PDF proof and am told that I have fonts unavailable (even though no characters are created with that font). I then use FIND FONT and find the BLANK TEXT FRAME (that I had simply wanted to be a stroked box) with no type inside it yet an assigned font that I physically now have to change if I wish to continue processing my proof.

SO, my question is the following: How do I tell InDesign, "Yo, I just wanted a box here, not a text frame; please divorce all text here and make thee a box again!" From the Help file, it looked like Type/Type on a Path/Delete Type from Path was going to do the trick, but alas, it is a greyed out option under these circumstances.

If I catch myself creating these, I just UnDo. But is anyone aware of a conversion (or "text divorcing") process for this situation?

 

[eugenetyson]

Well one way to completely lock it down is to put it on it's own master page. That way you have to access it through the master page. Locking the object down doesn't keep it safe from the Type tool. InDesign just sees you have the Type tool active and that you're clicking on a rectangle, so it just assumes you want to Type text in there, Assumptions being the mother of mistakes.

You can change the object type though, by going to:
Object>Content>Graphic

If you have any text in here it will tell you you are about to lose it.

But hey why not put your stroked boxes on a layer underneath your text. You can lock that layer or even turn it off if you want to work on just text that resides on another layer.

InDesign has layers and people don't use them. They often say, but photoshop you can do this, well you can do it in InDesign, just the same way and the same practice.

 

[NotHerbert]

Eugenetyson:

Object>Content>Graphic is EXACTLY what I was looking for (not sure why the Help file couldn't guide me there more easily). Thanks for the great tip.

As to your point about Layers, good suggestion, though in the interests of streamlining the layout process, I find that use of Layers slows you down. It's a couple extra clicks to assign a layer (open the pallete, select a layer, return to your page, etc.) and I usually don't bother. Or I find that I turn the page, want to access something on a now-locked layer and have to go UNlock it, which takes time (granted, SMALL amounts of time, but the aggravation factor adds up). But you're right, on pages with stacked items, it MIGHT be just the thing to improve workflow.

I come out of a PageMaker orientation, and accessed almost ALL my power settings via keystrokes. Maybe there are keystrokes in InDesign I'm unaware of (using Mac CS1 at the moment), but I find there's a LOT more reaching for pallettes in InDesign and all that mousing to the edges of the screen and back can become tedious.

 

[eugenetyson]

You can edit the shortcuts.

Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts

And you assign virtually anything you want to a keystroke(s) with InDesign.

I understand the frustration of using layers and that time does accumulate when having to reach for palettes.