Hi and welcome to another educational video on InDesign. In today’s tutorial, we will focus on how to add objects like shapes and lines in Adobe InDesign.

Getting Started and Create a New Document

Let’s dive in and create a brand-spanking new document. To do that, you can either head to the main menu and click File > New > Document or use a keyboard shortcut, Command N for a Mac or Control N for a PC.

Create a Rectangle

To create a rectangle, you can either select the rectangle tool from the toolbar or use a keyboard shortcut by pressing the letter M on your keyboard.

Ok, so to draw your rectangle, just click and drag your mouse. If you want to make it a perfect square, hold down the shift key while you’re drawing it. That way, no matter where you move your mouse, it’ll stay a perfect square with equal sides. Cool, right?

Create a Ellipse aka Circles

Alrighty, now we’re gonna draw a circle! First, click and hold on to the rectangle tool and then move down to the ellipse tool. Or, if you wanna be speedy, just hit the letter L on your keyboard for the keyboard shortcut! Then, click and drag your mouse to make an oval shape, or if you want a perfect circle, hold down the shift key while you’re drawing it. 

Creating Polygons, Hexagons, Triangles…

Let’s have some fun now! We’re gonna turn hexagons into triangles using the polygon tool. First, click and hold on to the ellipse tool and then slide on down to the polygon tool. Unfortunately, there’s no keyboard shortcut for this one. Bummer, right? But hey, if you use the polygon tool a ton, you could always make your own keyboard shortcuts for it! 

Alrighty, Alrighty, let’s draw some polygon shapes! To get started, just click and drag your mouse to create your shape. If you want to make it perfectly shaped, hold down the shift key while drawing it. But wait, how do you make a hexagon or a triangle with this tool? Here’s how:

1. Click anywhere on the page. A polygon dialogue box will open.
2. In the dialogue box, you can enter the number of sides you want for your shape. For a hexagon, enter “6”.
3. You can also enter the width and height of your shape if you want. If you do, Click “OK” and voila! You should now see a perfect hexagon on your page.
4. But, if you don’t want to enter a width or height for your shape. Just hit “OK” in the polygon dialogue box! Simply click and drag your mouse to create your shape. 
5. Click again on the page, and change the number of sides to “3” to get your triangle.

Easy peasy, right? Now go ahead and create some awesome polygon shapes!

Resize, Move and Rotate Your Shapes or Lines

Let’s say, you want to resize your shapes. To do this, grab the Selection tool (also shown as the black arrow) or hit the letter V on your keyboard. Then, click and drag on a corner or the top/bottom/side to make it bigger or smaller. 

Now, if you want to keep the same proportions as your original shape, just hold down the shift key while resizing it. That way, everything stays the same size and nothing gets all wonky.

But wait, there’s more! You can also hold down the option or Alt key to resize it from both sides at the same time. It’s like magic! So many options, and so little time. 

Let’s rotate our shapes. Select it by using the Selection Tool or the black arrow or hit the keyboard shortcut, the letter V on your keyboard. Place your mouse or cursor just outside one of the corners until your cursor turns into a curved arrow. Then, click and hold your mouse to rotate the shape around. And don’t forget, you can also move your shape around with the selection tool! You can also rotate it at a specific angle using the tools at the top of your toolbar. And if things get a little wonky, you can always reset it back to zero with this handy button here. If you don’t see the toolbar up here, don’t worry. Just change your workspace. I have mine set for Essentials Classic, but keep in mind that the toolbar settings might not be visible in other workspaces like Essentials and Review.

Drawing Lines in InDesign

Okay, it’s time to draw some lines! First, select the line tool in your toolbar or hit the backslash key shortcut. Then, click and drag to draw your line. Easy as pie!

Now, to keep your line perfectly straight or in perfect 45-degree angle increments, just hold down the shift key while drawing your line. This will draw your line from the center point rather than just one side. But wait, there’s more! To keep your line perfectly straight and draw from the center point, hold down both the shift and option/Alt keys while drawing. It’s like a magic trick!

You can also use the same methods to resize and rotate your line as I showed you with the other shapes. Simply select the Selection tool or hit the letter V on your keyboard, and place your mouse or cursor just at the end or beginning of the line until your cursor turns into a curved arrow. Then, click and hold your mouse to rotate the line around. Or use the rotating angles up here. And if you want to resize your line while keeping both sides perfectly symmetrical, just hold down the option/Alt key while resizing. But be careful, just a heads up! If you grab the line instead of the endpoints while holding the option/Alt key, you might accidentally end up copying the line instead. So, make sure you grab those endpoints carefully!

That’s it! You’ve just mastered the art of creating and manipulating shapes and lines by resizing and rotating them. In our upcoming video, we’ll take it one step further by adding some cool colours to these shapes. If you enjoyed this video and want to stay updated on the next one, make sure to hit that subscribe button and the notification bell. We’ll notify you as soon as it’s ready. Thanks for tuning in!