Is there a way to copy a box with multiple strokes from Illustrator, to InDesign, and use it as an actual box

[RyanMelendez93]

Hi everybody,

So I have this box I made in Illustrator, and it has three stacked strokes applied to it, and it scales just fine in Illustrator.

But now I'm making a booklet where I need to copy this box (as styled above) and be able to scale it so I can make it any size I need depending on how much or little text is going to be inside it. But when I copy the box straight out, it pastes it as a group of boxes, rather than a single box, and when I scale it, this happens...

So my question to the experts is, is there a way in which to get the box to transfer to InDesign, as a box I can scale just like I could scale in Illustrator?

[Laubender]

Hi Ryan,

you could do all this with InDesign rectangles.

Do a stack of three frames.
One with a thin stroke.
One with a thick stroke.
One with a (white?) thick stroke.

If you want to change their dimensions, do not scale them, but select them with the Direct Selection Tool (the white arrow tool) between the anchor points by using a marquee selection.

Now hold the SHIFT key and drag in direction of the x-axis to change the horizontal dimensions of all frames without changing their stroke weights. Maybe you have to pause a bit after holding down the mouse key before you start dragging.

The result for horizontal dragging the selection of a segment is shown here:

To continue, deselect all.
Then select one of the horizontal segments with a selection marquee to change the vertical dimensions.

Regards,
Uwe

[Laubender]

Do not use the Selection Tool (black arrow tool) to do this.
That could change the relative position of the stacked frames to each other.
I did my three frames with different sizes centered on each other.

Regards,
Uwe

[Peter Spier]

You could also set up a single custom Thick-Thin (The stroke type would be Stripe) stroke style in ID (or maybe the one built in is already proportioned correctly) and just use that to apply the border to your text frame, as long as the color of the two lines is the same.

[vinny38]

Hi there,

If I understand well, you want a white stroke between your thick and thin strokes.

So I suggest you create custom stroke styles.

You need 3 styles (following set up are for example, adjust as desired):

1. thick: start 0 - width 10%
2. white: start 10% - width 30%
3. thin: start 40% - width 5%

Then create a box, apply style 1. Set color (blue?)

Copy / paste in place, apply style 2. Set color to white

Copy / paste in place, apply style 3. Set color (blue?)

Group all 3 boxes and that's it, apply wanted weight to the group.

regards

nb: have a look here: http://indesignsecrets.com/beauty-stacked-strokes.php