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1. Re: ideal preferences for grids/align to grids
maf79 Oct 29, 2009 8:00 AM (in response to maf79)Also, how do I change one text boxes grid preferences to off? I've tried going to object > text frame option and I must be doing something wrong. What offset do I select?
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2. Re: ideal preferences for grids/align to grids
mattaca Oct 29, 2009 9:31 AM (in response to maf79)Hi Freckles. Grids can be very useful if you know how the work. A couple things that are important to understand:
1) The baseline grid is a document preference, meaning whatever you set it to be, that will be the baseline grid for your entire document.
2) Only those paragraph styles which are set to align to the grid will snap to it. If you don't want a certain style to ever snap to the grid, edit your paragraph style so that Align to Grid says "none" (this option is under Indents and Spacing). You can also tell it to align the First Line Only. If you need to override your paragraph style preferences in a specific instance, you can always put your cursor in that paragraph and select "Align to baseline grid" or "Do not align to baseline grid" in your toolbar.
3) Aligning a paragraph to the grid forces the leading to be a certain amount (or a multiple of that amount). For example: a 10pt grid would make paragraphs appear to have either 10pt leading, 20pt leading, 30pt leading, etc. If your leading is smaller than the grid increment, it will fit the grid. If the leading of your paragraph is greater than the grid increment, it will take up more than one line. For example, a paragraph with 11pt that is aligned to a 10pt grid will actually look like it has 20pt leading, because it needs two lines to fit.
5) If you need to have more than one grid in a document, you can set a custom baseline grid for individual text frames (in your Text Frame Options under Baseline Options).
Regarding your specific question about turning off the grid for a particular box, you would need to select all the text in that box and click the "Do not align to baseline grid" button in your toolbar. I personally like to work with my baseline grid showing (toggle using Command + Option + ') so I can tell when things are aligning and when they are not.
There are plenty more resources out there (entire books even!) on how to effectively work with grids. You should be able to find plenty of info online. For now, I hope this puts you on the right path.
Matthew
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3. Re: ideal preferences for grids/align to grids
maf79 Oct 29, 2009 9:46 AM (in response to mattaca)Wow! You are my hero! Thank you for explaining it in such a simple way. Being completely lost, I was starting to get even more lost by reading the same things over and over again.
I think I got it now. I'll come back if I continue to have problems.

