Stylised borders in InDesign

Is it possible to create a re-sizeable 'chalk style' border in InDesign?
Thanks if you can help

If you are willing to sacrifice some of the realistic look of chalk for the ability to modify the frame size, here is a way:
I created the frame with the slant hash stroke at a large stroke size. Then applied an outer glow and inner glow with noise and spread values added. Also added a slight basic feather with diffused corners. Then added a few points to the frame and moved them slightly (so frame is not uniform). Frame can be adjusted in size and shape.

Similar Messages

How do you add page borders in InDesign?

How do you add page borders in Adobe InDesign CS5.5?

Page borders? I'm not sure what you're asking but you ca use the Rectangle Tool in the Tool Bar on the left to Add a Rectangle around the page.
You can apply a stroke colour by going to Colour Panel and selecting the Proxy for the stroke and the colour you need.
And you increase the Stroke Width by going to the Stroke Panel.

More Borders

Hi, been using Indesign software for a couple of years now, migrated from Quark.
Does anyone know of any third party plugin for fancy borders. Indesign ones are a little basic. I know you can manipulate them in corner effects, but I'm after something a little fancier to use on some small adverts in a local paper.
Cheers in advance
J

How about making what you want in Illustrator and placing the border art?
You can create custom stroke styles in ID, but you don't have nearly the variety or control (particularly for corners) that you get in an illustration package.
Peter

Why am I having lines/borders appearing around my placed Illustrator images in my Indesign Document?

After I save my InDesign Document and close it... When I open it back up again. There are borders around all of my Illustrator placed images.
I can't seem to find out what is causing them or how to get rid of them.
When I am working on the file with it open they are not there.. it's only after I save, close and reopen.
What the heck????

Thanks for asking Will....
I've gotten so confused with back issues of the file....saved in InDesign CC that I just started over..
Was simpler to do that than to try to fix the one I was working on.....
But while I have you trying to help me..
Could you tell me how to set the document setup for a new document in InDesign CC to inches?
I tried going into the preferences.... it's not there.. Looked through all of the preferences.. still can't find it.
The documents I'm working on are 47" x 28" or thereabouts and I am having to go back to InDesign 5.5
create the document there then open it in InDesign CC to have it the right size.
Thanks for your help!

Printing even borders / margins from PDFs created in Indesign

Hi,
I am having trouble printing images with even borders / margins - from my Epson R2400 inkjet printer.
In Indesign I have set all margins to 5mm along all edges. Then I export the document as an A4 PDF.
When I open the PDF using Acrobat, the margins appears OK and even - same as in Indesign.
When I print it, from Acrobat, the print then has a thicker margin on one side than the other. I have the same issues when printing from Indesign - except printing from Indesign is about 1000 times slower than printing from Acrobat!
Does anyone know of any way of preventing printing PDFs with uneven margins?
Any advice much appreciated!!! I'm wasting alot of paper and ink trying to print using different printer settings.

Desktop printers will always be somewhere inaccurate. It’s just something you need to live with.

InDesign Borders

I'm facing a major frustration, and I'm wondering if there's already a solution, or if this needs to be a new feature to be implemented in future InDesign versions.
Adobe Illustrator has a wonderful palette for brushes which can be used as borders for text, etc. However, InDesign seems to be at a standstill in its border palette development since.. well, since the beginning of InDesign. With the exception of some minor corner style developments, designers still seem to be constrained to creating flat, simple multi-lined "Quark" style borders. (e.g.: Thick-Thick, Thick-Thin, etc.) with a propriatory file type: *.inst.
It's impossible to find designers trading *.inst files online, versus the Illustrator Brush file types, *.ai files which can be found in abundance both for free or charge. My theory behind this is that, at some point in the last 10 years, a developer must have intended to expand the border creation abilities in InDesign, but never received any attention and concentrated on other more important features. Well, I'm here to appeal to the developers! It's time! Time, I say!
Now, why would I want the Illustrator Brush/Stroke functionality in InDesign?
Well, it seems like a no-brainer to me; it's a matter of workflow. When I'm designing anything more complicated than a logo or digital illustration, such as a flyer, a book, or any other multi-page piece with text and illustrations, I use InDesign for its pre-press abilities, bleed setups, typography styles, linking, etc. Thus, it just makes sense that if I make a border around a page, I should have a nice, wide variety of borders to choose from, or create ones on the fly from Illustrator *.ai files just like in Illustrator.
This apparent lack of cross-compatibility means in order to achieve anything more than a flat line or easter-egg smiley faces, I'm limited to creating a pre-shaped border Illustrator and placing it into the page. Resizing becomes a disaster as they end up having to be treated as illustrations rather than borders. "Edit original", "Edit original", "Edit original".
During my scouring of the net for a solution, I've found many other designers out there with the same question., some dating all the way back to CS2 days.
Incidentally, while we're at it, heck, I'd love to see the same abilities in Photoshop. I mean why not? It's got vector tools in there as well. There really needs to be more universal palettes in the entire Adobe Creative Suite series. It just makes sense. The unification theory of palettes! Mwahahaha! *clasps his hands* Yes, I ask for too much.. but.. well, it's a good idea, ain't it?
But seriously. It would be of massive use in InDesign; I'm surprised that it doesn't yet exist ten years into InDesign history. Is there a solution at this point? Or is this more of a feature request?
Cheers.
—RR—

I know I'm a trifle late as this question is shown as answered. Anyway, a couple of points. I used to use an app called Graphic Type Designer (GTD for short).
http://www.graphictype.co.uk/using_gtd.php?
It could create borders,corner peices, lines and corner effects using specially designed fonts. It would save these designs in WMF (Windows MetaFile) or plain text formats. I used it a lot with PageMaker and for a short while, InDesign as InDesign barely improves on the border selection that came with PM. I had to stop using it as it does not wotk with 64 bit Windows as although it is a 32 bit app, it retains a 16bit installer.
Anothe alternative I have found today by searching for, and finding some great Illustrator brushes is this site:
http://www.graphicxtras.com/
There seems to be a hell of a lot of brushes, borders and patterns for Illustrator on this site alone. As bob says, it is probably best (unles they add a ton more borders and effects in InDesign) to use Illustrator's borders and brush libraries to create custom borders. Hope this helps...
Ian

SWF Export, no font showing in Acrobat and zoom border problem (Acrobat & Reader) - Indesign CS6

Hi Everyone,
If anyone could help me on this that would be great, I've spent hours on the forums and manuals to no avail.
I'm making an interactive PDF brochure in Indesign for one of our new products and I'm having issues (actual or perceived??!!) with the SWF export and PDF creation. I'm placing animations and video in the INDD, exporting it as an SWF (with the text option as Flash Classic Text) and then opening the SWF (not importing to a word doc or anything, just opening the SWF) with Acrobat using the advanced options to import the video resources and to enable the content when the page is opened. I then save the file as a PDF. In the PDF everything works as it should, the animations, the buttons, the video plays and so on. Great.. hmm not quite.
The trouble I am having is that all the content of the SWF when viewed in Acrobat seems to be getting rasterised/flattened - is this correct? After the SWF is opened, Acrobat indicates no fonts in the fonts tab in the document properties so when the SWF is zoomed in Acrobat, or the saved PDF in Reader, the font gets pixelated and the document is not searchable/text can not be highlighted. The images are not selectable either - it is as if the entire page has been flattened to one image. Is there a way to stop this so that the SWF opened with Acrobat retains the font and individual images like a normal PDF? Do I have to open the SWF in Flash first to set some parameters or something? Is there something I am doing wrong when exprting the SWF from Indesign? I think I have tried about every possible export combination. When I open the .HMTL (exported at the same time as the SWF from Indesign) in a browser, the same happens. All the animations work but the text appears to be rasterised/flattened/not searchable. Sorry if I'm not using the correct terminology.
I have tried importing the SWF back into another new INDD and exporting that as an interactive PDF but then the video does not work. I suppose I could try exporting all the individual animations as SWFs, importing them all and trying to get them to work with the video but I can see that will take quite some time and does not seem to be a guaranteed solution from what I have read on the forums - video playback being the issue.
Another problem is that when the SWF, or saved PDF, is zoomed in Acrobat/Reader between approx 150% and 210% a thick white border appears in the document and the content is squashed into the middle creating a slightly pixelated and narrow page. When I zoom out from the page I get a small white line on the right hand border at around 70% zoom. Please see images. Does anyone have any idea why this is happening and what I can do to fix it?
On another, sort of related topic, my timing panel went blank yesterday and was not showing any animations in documents that it had been used to order and synch animations on page load as well as new documents. The panel was blank. I updated to V8.0.1 and the panel sprang back into life - hope that helps anyone else finding the same problem.
I am not very familiar with Indesign/Acrobat/Flash so I guess all the above could be what I'm doing or I could be asking really dumb questions - apologies from a newbie.
Best,
Emily

Hi All,
I have now pretty much solved all the issues by creating the SWF in Flash rather than Indesign. I would advise anyone looking to create an interative PDF with animation and interactivity to go with Flash from the start. While Flash is a little more involved to create the same effects as Indesign, the extra time taken will ensure a more controllable and better looking PDF in terms of text quality, scalability and so on. Plus you will not spend days trying to get video to work along side imported SWF etc in Indesign. One of the best controls in Flash is being able to set the stage.scaleMode for the document so the PDF still looks crisp when zooming, no white borders etc. So, create the .fla, export to .SWF, open the .SWF with Acrobat, modify the advanced settings to enable start on page load and save as a PDF. If you don't know Flash, I didn't a couple of days ago, watch a couple of tutorials on Youtube.. buttons, tweens, embedding video and you'll be ready. Don't be put off by ActionScript, there are really handy Code Snippets in CS6 that do all the heavy lifting for you.
Sorry Indesign!
Best,
Em

I need to know how to import xml files into indesign cs6.

My client wants to send me xml text files to import into Indesign for a multi-page publication. I don't have a clue where to start. Can you point me to a tutorial that would help me figure this out?
I have a sample file that looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<providers>
<provider>
 <name>Bow Valley College</name>
 <description>Putting the Community back in college…in the Bow Corrid
ANY TIME, ANY PLACE, ANY PATH, ANY PACE LEARNING.
Designated as the comprehensive community college for Calgary & its
surrounding region, Bow Valley College offers you learning opportunities
through flexible delivery options, including classrooms, online or self
paced modules. Whether you are taking a course for interest, to enhance
your career skills or to finish high school you have access to all of the
traditional Bow Valley College student supports.
Visit our website [2] or come see us at our Canmore campus.
BOW VALLEY LEARNING COUNCIL MEMBER.
Links:
[1] http://www.bowvalleycollege.ca/bow-corridor.html
</description>
 <contact_information>Canmore Campus
Provincial Building, 800 Railway Ave.
Canmore, AB  T1W 1P1
OFFICE HOURS: 8:30am - 4:30pm, Monday - Friday (except from 12 - 1pm)
PHONE: (403) 678-3125
FAX: (403) 678-3127
BANFF CAMPUS: Lower Level, Banff YWCA, 102 Spray Ave., Banff (ONLY OPEN
WHEN COURSES OFFERED). </contact_information>
 <email>[email protected]</email>
 <website>www.bowvalleycollege.ca/bow-corridor</website>
 <registration_information>Cancellation policy: Once your course has begun no refunds or credits will
be given. Compassionate grounds may be considered with official
documentation. There are no refunds, transfers, or credits if you cancel
within one week of the course start date.
BY PHONE: (403) 678-3125. Payment by Visa or Mastercard
IN PERSON: Canmore Campus, Provincial Building, 800 Railway Ave., Canmore.
Payment by cash, Visa or Mastercard.
 
FUNDING ASSISTANCE MAY BE AVAILABLE FOR THOSE ON A LOW INCOME ON SOME
COURSES. PLEASE ASK FOR MORE INFORMATION.</registration_information>
 <courses>
 <course>
 <title>Computer Basics/Windows 7 - Instructor led, Canmore</title>
 <description>An instructor will lead the class through the basic features of Microsoft
Windows, the Internet and Email. Find out how to start programs, create,
save and organize your files and use the online help feature. You’ll also
get an introduction to surfing the internet and setting up an email
account. This course is designed for those with little or no computer
experience – and is still our most popular course. 18 HR COURSE.</description>
 <schedule_entries>
 <entry>
 <date>Mon 6:30 - 9 pm, Oct 7 - Dec 2</date>
 <date>Thu 6:30 - 9 pm, Oct 10 - Dec 5</date>
 </entry>
 </schedule_entries>
 </course>
 <course>
 <title>Word 2010 Introduction - Self-paced</title>
 <description>Explore the basics of Microsoft Word to produce professional letters and
documents. This course guides you through the effective use of the Word
Ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar. You’ll learn how to efficiently edit,
move and copy text; manipulate fonts; apply bullets and numbering; borders
and shading; insert and re-size Clip Art; enter headers and footers; insert
page numbers; set alignment and indents; and change page settings. You’ll
learn to use the AutoCorrect feature and finish documents using the
spelling, thesaurus and grammar features.
Self-paced, 18 hr course.
Prerequisite recommended: Computer Basics or equivalent experience.</description>
 <schedule_entries>
 <entry>
 <date>Mon 7:30 - 9 pm, Oct 7</date>
 <date>Thu 7:30 - 9 pm, Dec 5</date>
 </entry>
 </schedule_entries>
 </course>
 <course>
AND SO ON...FOR 64 PAGES WORTH OF CONTENT
HELP!!!
SGAREN

Hello Sally,
First, I have only heard/read good things about the book Steve recommends. It is on my to buy list one day. Been awaiting a long deserved vaction to pick it up to read.
I approach XML files pretty much like I do any text file I am sent in that I will import or copy/paste a text file into a frame in ID and begin setting my styles. With XML, though, I first clean it up, move closing tags up to their logical close lines, remove spurious codes that mean something in HTML but don't necessarily belong in the XML file (like &#x2019 which is an apostrophe so I do a search and replace. But for   which is a non-breaking space I simply search and replace with a regular space in general), and make sure the XML validates.
Validation is much like making sure an HTML page is formed properly. I use an XML editor (XML BluePrint) and a text editor (UltraEdit) for these tasks. If I had to only have one or the other, I suppose the XML editor is what I would use.
I always show the import options when I import the XML and make sure that I link to the file.
So once a sample of the XML is on a page in ID (via File | Import XML), I highlight text within a tag, say like in your example above, the Providor name, and make it like I want and then create a new style. I generally name the styles as per the XML tag. Later on, that makes mapping tags to styles a little easier.
Once I set up all the styles preliminarily, I map the tags to styles. You can do that either via the Tags palette or via the Structure Pane that will appear once the XML is imported. In both cases, it is found via the flyout menu at the top right of their respective windows.
After mapping my styles to the tags, I select the root element in the Structure Pane (the topmost element. In your sample above it is "providors" and delete it. This removes the XML in your ID file. But the styles and tags are still present.
Then I import the XML again and look to makes sure all the tags/elements are styled as intended. I then correct any errors/ommissions. Then...I'll delete the XML again and import the full XML file.
I can upload what I did with your XML sample above so you can compare it to your source file if you would like. You would then see how/where I moved tags. Now, moving the tags is only "necessary" to avoid all the extra blank paragraphs. That can be accomplished by ID's search/replace, too. But I like to start out with the XML cleaned up, so I take the few minutes to do it.
Take care, Mike

How do I move a page or delete a single page in CS6 indesign are keep format?

I created a 75 page book in InDesign CS6. The template had double-sided right and left facing pages, each with a black border and page number in the center bottom of the page.
As an experienced InDesign user, I had very few challenges putting the document together. Once completed, I edited the images and attempted to rearrange some. I traded some even numbered pages with odd numbered ones. I added a few pages and deleted others. Then I discovered that many of the pages were not formatted correctly. Numbers were no longer in the center. Borders framed only 2/3 of pages, shifting right or left onto the pasteboard.
After careful study, I discovered that everytime a single page was moved, all the subsequent pages were formatted incorrectly. If two successive pages were moved together, formatting remained appropriate.
I called Adobe for support. I called over and over again. The first level of support required me to describe the problem. The low level support was repeatedly stumped. After considerable time on the phone, they escalated the case and told me someone at the next level would call me back within 72 hours. This happened 3 times. I was never called back within 72 hours. I was called back a week after my third call when I was several hundred miles from my computer and the nearest WiFi. I was given yet another 72 hour window in which I was supposed to sit by my phone and wait for a call. Again no one called.
I called again and again. I explained my problem over and over. At this point, after being cutoff three times this afternoon and once this morning, I have come to the conclusion that not only does Adobe have no way to solve this problem, they lack the courtesy to tell me so.
I am using a Macbook Pro, previously with 10.7+ and now with system 10.8+. The error is clearly in the program. I have a clumpsy way to do what I want but I can only put in page numbers page by page.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/74iqzfbqj8r01v7/indesign%20problems%202-3.jpeg
This link shows the document as it originally was.
Next I switched page 2 with page 3. (so 3 comes first).
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pvicu6zvr87j5tz/indesign%20problems%203-2.jpeg
This link shows a page from a longer document and the misplacement of Master page set-up. Note that some pages have correct border and number placement while others do not. The border extends beyond the page onto the pasteboard.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ade4580gx0lleyd/document%20with%20several%20incorrectly%20format ed%20pages.jpg

Problem with PDF 1.3-Export: Photoshop-Files with transparency over InDesign colored objects

Hello!
I'm using InDesign CS6.
I'v finished now a layout for a folder, and I put a photoshop-image with transparency over a InDesign-rectangle which I have filled with a cmyk-color in yellow.
When I export a PDF with the Settings "PDF X-3:2002" (with PDF-Standard 1.3) the Photoshop-image shows uggley jagged edges at the border to the InDesign-colored background. However, the Photoshop-images which are over another bitmap-image (as background), this images don't show this annoying edges.
When I export to PDF-Standard 1.4 the problem doesn't occor, however my printing-service requests PDF 1.3.
I know, the workaround for this problem is, to replace the yellow background-color with an bitmap-file with the same color, but is there any other option to get a correct result without this more time-consuming image trick?
I think it has to do with the transparency reduction which is necessary if using PDF 1.3. When I examine the PDF-File in Illustrator, this edges occurs mostly at the borders from the tiles in which the image is cut during the transparency reduction process. Although, if I open the rendered PDF in Photoshop this jagged edeges are visible, so it is definitly a render error.
I would be glad if someone of you has a solution for this problem, in the attachment is an image which illustrate the problem.
Best wishes

Find another printer.
End of problem. It really saddens me to think that these Luddites are
still in business making no effort to move into the 21st century.
Bob

The custom style mapping option text still maintains the word formatting or it shows a style override in the InDesign style - how do I correct this?

When I tell the custom style mapping option to format a Word style (from an rtf document) with the InDesign style, the text still maintains the word formatting or it shows a style override in the InDesign style. I have a large document that needs to import the styles correctly and I've followed the tutorials exactly however the placed text is still hanging onto the word RTF styles. I want the rtf text to convert to my InDesign styles completely without overrides.

I actually need the cell styles. That's what sets my font, spacing, and GREP styles.
I did find the solution today. In the table style or table setup, I needed to set the "Stroke Drawing Order" to "Column Strokes in Front". Even though it was previously set to "Best Joins" and I had no strokes for rows or for the table borders, it just wasn't giving priority to my dotted columns.
Thanks for your response though!

How to edit text in an existing InDesign document?

I'm unfamiliar with InDesign, and I apologize in advance for what I'm sure
is a very beginner/dumb question, but I'm stuck. I've been using the Help
files, so far to no avail.
I have been given the simple (I thought!) task of changing a few lines of
text on an existing InDesign file, using CS3. But I have not been able to
edit these lines of text. What I've tried is selecting the text and using
the Text tool, but nothing that I do has made it possible for me to delete
text and type in new text.
Help of any kind would be very much appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Patty

Hi Kenneth, I checked, and "Frame Edges" are not turned off, and Hidden Characters isn't selected. What I mean by "nothing" is this: the cursor looks like the Eiffel Tower with two curves coming out of the top. When I click and drag, the cursor moves, but there nothing else happens visually at all. The above is what happens on the part of the document where I want to make the edit. In other parts of the document, following the same steps draws a light-blue-bordered rectangle. When I release the mouse button, the rectangle stays, and has a # sign on its left edge, and the cursor is a vertical line and blinking. But when I type, the cursor moves, but no letters appear. This is at least something, but it isn't happening in the part of the document I want to edit.. :\ Patty <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected].. >> When I follow those instructions, dragging does nothing. > > If you followed these instructions, dragging should produce a text box, > an empty container with a flashing cursor before an end-of-story mark. > This might appear to be "nothing", especially if you have Frame Edges > turned off (in View menu) and Hidden Characters hidden (in Type menu). > But as soon as you begin typing, you should see letters appearing. > > Might be easier to try it first in a new, empty document, or off the > edge of the page. > > -- > Kenneth Benson > Pegasus Type, Inc. > www.pegtype.com

Double sided card in Indesign

Hi,
I have a problem with creating some double sided cards in Indesign and I was hoping that someone can help me please?
I have to create double sided cards in Indesign, so each side of the card has a border and crop marks in the exact same place. Each side is also a separate pdf file.(a front pdf and a back pdf). I cannot make these as a single pdf and print because the printing is on card, which is on the bypass try of the printer.
I need to print this double sided and then chop the edges off using the crop marks as guides. I have tried printing these files - so I place the card on the bypass tray and print the front, then place the card back on the bypass tray and print the back - in the exact same place. But when I print this, one side of the card always prints to the side - meaning the crop marks are misaligned for chopping.
I'm wondeing if there is anything I need to do in Indesign rather than the printer to print so that the crop marks on the same place on either side of the card.
Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks very much
pd

As Bob says, desktop printers, and even commercial copiers generally don't have the kind of precision for sheet-to-sheet and front to back registration accuracy.
Avoid borders closer than about .25 inches to the trim line unless you plan to cut each card by hand. Even the fronts won't be perfectly aligned to each other in the stack so you need to allow for some drift in the design. The further you keep anything from the edge that will lead the eye to see a mis-alignment the less likely anyone is to notice. A hard, narrow border is not a good choice for this sort of output.
Leave the border off the back completely if you can, and allow as much margin as possible to hide the shift there, too, and trim for the front side as that is presumably the most important.

Why do screenshot borders get cropped when they're imported?

Hi, FrameMaker 10 Windows 7, images created in SnagIt 10 and then SnagIt 8.
Hi,
First of all thank you for your great help, especially Van Kurtz! Now I have another problem.
When I take a screenshot, I put a border around it in SnagIt. I import the images in anchored frames, which I've managed to tame. However, the image imports without borders. I use 300dpi and tried reducing to 275, but I can't reduce any more as the company requests that we use 300 and also, the images would be blurry.
After I import, I hold the Shift key drag the border of the image to get it the size I want in the anchored frame (BTW is there any way to do this automatically, as in InDesign?) and there is still no border (and there wasn't one when the image was originally imported).
Why is the border cropped? This usually happens at only one or two sides, not completely, usually the bottom or right sides, and randomly. The image is always well inside the anchored frame.
Thank you so much in advance!
Susan
PS I thought this might be solved when I saved the doc as PDF, but no. And the printed doc is identical to the PDF on the screen.
PSS Is this the fault of the older version of SnagIt (8)? I used SnagIt 10 til my trial ran out and then was forced to switch to 8. It may just be that I didn't notice this problem until recently, but some of my images in the document ARE okay with borders complete.

> The choices are expressed in dpi with inches (or points or picas) in parentheses.
For a bitmap imported as EPS (and, I suspect, PDF), the choice is a percentage, default 100%. FM won't give you any clue about what the originating dpi is, so you have to know, if you care. And the preview image is of no visual help, because it will be a coarse 72 dpi indexed color at 100%.
> NOTE this does NOT change the logical resolution (dpi) of the image, just the physical display size.
Strictly speaking, it does change the dpi. What doesn't change is the overall pixel dimensions. If you import a 1x1inch 100x100 dpi screenshot TIFF at 2x2 inches, it will be 50 dpi (but still 100x100 pixels).
Borders can be applied by Framemaker itself, and they will be vector, and not subject to scaling, aliasing or vanishing at small scales. Applying borders prior to rasterization or in a raster editor often has unhappy results.
Next hurdle: rendering to PDF. Save-as, Print-to or Distill are all subject to the Job Options, which can easily have defaulted to "subsample to really blurry with nasty compression artifacts". Make sure the settings preserve the res you desire for the data structure involved (bitmap, contone gray or contone color). e.g. "downsample to 300 dpi for images above 450 dpi", and LZW or ZIP compression for screenshots, as a rule.

Can you move a single vertical line in a table in Indesign ?

Ok I have a very complex medical form with several rows and columns. The problem is that I want to move just sections of a column line and I can't seem to figure it out. Below is a screen shot of part of the form. The vertical line between 1st QA and 2nd QA is what I'm talking about. The one you see I drew but I'd prefer to have that as an actual column line. Make Sense ? Thanks for any help.

What I was suggesting is this:
1) Unmerge that cell, so that it now is split into the 4 columns, as above.
2) Split the 2nd column's cell into two (not the whole column—just that cell).
3) Merge cells 1 & 2, and 3-5 in that row. Now you have a divider that you can move without affect the rest of the table, because it will be hidden everywhere else. Make sure to hold down SHIFT as you drag to move it without resizing the table.
That new column is there all the way up, but InDesign will see the cells above that as being merged.
Unlike Word & PPT, InDesign sees tables as rigid structures—and I prefer it that way—as opposed to how Word & PPT allow you to move them independently after merging. That usually creates more work keeping everything aligned.
Here's another method:
1) Keep the cell merged as it is, but make the margins 0.
2) Insert a new 2 column, 1 row table in that cell and resize.
3) Remove all the borders except the middle vertical divider.
That method is a little funky—and it won't resize automatically with the rest of the table if you want that—but it kind of works in a pinch.
Rich

Stylised borders in InDesign

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