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Use Free Transform Tool in Adobe InDesign CS6

Edited by Freya, VisiHow, Eng, Judy Harris and 1 other

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Video: Use Free Transform Tool in Adobe InDesign CS6

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You're watching VisiHow. In this tutorial, we are going to show you how to use "Free Transform Tool" in Adobe InDesign CS6 in Windows 7.

Use the free transform tool on Adobe InDesign CS6.mp4-canvas180 755999.jpg

Steps

1
To begin, you should open Adobe InDesign CS6 either from your desktop or by coming down to the bottom-left corner and clicking the Windows icon
.
Clicking this will bring up a list of your recently used programs. You might see "Adobe InDesign" on the list. It has a pink-and-purple icon with the letters "ID" on it.

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2
Otherwise, click the search bar at the bottom of the screen and type "Adobe InDesign"
.

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3
Then, click "Adobe InDesign CS6"
.
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4
Click "File" on the bar at the top-left of the window
.

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5
Move the cursor to "New" and click "Document..."
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Alternatively, you could click "Open...". This will create a new document. You can also do this with the shortcut "Ctrl" + "N". For more information, refer to our tutorials on https://visihow.com/Get_Started_with_a_Document_in_Adobe_InDesign_CS6 how to create a new document and on how to open an existing document.
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6
Let's click "OK"

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7
First, click "Rectangle Tool"
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Please refer to the tutorial on how to use "Rectangle Tool", "Ellipse Tool", and "Polygon Tool".
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8
Then, change the "Fill" and "Stroke" colors
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There is another VisiHow tutorial on how to do this.

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9
Create a shape
.
Let's create a square.
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10
Next, click the "Selection Tool" black arrow if you are working with more than one object
.
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11
Click the objects with which you want to work
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A blue line will appear around the object, signalling that it can be edited.
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12
Then, click the "Free Transform Tool" icon in the vertical toolbar
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The icon is a dotted rectangle with an arrow through it. You can also press "E" on the keyboard. There is a very small black arrow in the icon and in the other icons too. That means that you can click and drag the tool to reveal an expanded list. The cursor will change to the black arrow.
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13
You can click and drag the shape to reposition it
.
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14
You can also use this tool to change the size of the object by clicking and dragging the corners or sides
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Hold "Shift" if you want to keep proportions.
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15
You can also rotate your shape by clicking and dragging the circular arrow that appears when you hover over the corners of your object
.
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16
You can always use the options at the top to change other shape settings
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"Free Transform Tool" is very useful when creating shapes or areas for text. As InDesign is more focused on text and images, use this tool to create frames and shapes into which you can place images or text.
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This concludes our tutorial showing you how to use "Free Transform Tool" in Adobe InDesign CS6 in Windows 7. If you have any questions or comments regarding this video or the program used, then just add them to the comment section below. Thank you for choosing VisiHow!

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