Guide the Way • Set Up Guides in Desktop Publishing Documents

Provide guides to alignment for page elements

Guides are non-printing lines, often light blue lines, that aid in flow and alignment of text and positioning of graphics during page layout. Most desktop publishing software applications allow the user to drag guides onto the page or position them precisely using a dialog box. Grids are similar to guides but are not covered in this tutorial.

Guides are also known as guidelines. Although each program has its own terminology, there are three basic types of guides and two placement options.

TYPES OF GUIDES

Margin guides: A dotted or rectangular non-printing rectangle represents the page margins of a document. Margin guides are usually specified during initial page setup for the document and appear on all Master and publication pages.

Column guides: Some software may have special dialog boxes for setting up pre-set or custom columns with gutters. These guides can be placed on master or publication pages. Normally all pages begin with a single column — the space between the margins. With multiple columns, a pair of vertical guides that move together mark gutters or column spacing between columns. Column guides control the flow of text within columns, keeping it out of the gutters.

Ruler guides: These nonprinting horizontal and vertical guides are used to align objects on the page. Typically ruler guides are placed on the page by dragging them from the horizontal and vertical rulers surrounding the publication or by specifying precise positions using a dialog box. Ruler guides can also be used on the pasteboard.

PLACEMENT OF GUIDES

Master guides: These guides appear on Master pages and on every page in the document that is based on the master page. These can include column guides, margin guides, and ruler guides. Changes to these guides affect the guides on all publication pages that use the Master guides. In Microsoft Publisher, the Master guides are called Layout Guides and the Master pages are called the Background.

Local guides: These ruler and column guides appear on the publication page where they are placed and not on the Master pages or other pages. Changes to local guides does not affect Master pages or other publication pages.

Software Tutorials
Learn how to set, view, and use guide options in InDesign, PageMaker, Publisher, and QuarkXPress. These tutorials include keyboard commands, shortcuts, and tips on setting and using guides in each program.

Adobe InDesign | Adobe PageMaker | Microsoft Publisher | QuarkXPress

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