Automatic layout adjustment - Indesign Tips

When you change a layout setting that affects page size, margins, or columns, and the Layout Adjustment feature is enabled, that feature uses a set of logical rules to move and resize page guides and objects.



Page designed vertically, for print (left); page orientation changed for on-screen viewing, with layout automatically refitted by the Layout Adjustment feature (right)

You can modify the rules in the Layout Adjustment dialog box. The Layout Adjustment feature attempts to approximate the proportions of the old layout in the new layout by doing the following:

* Repositioning margin guides, but maintaining margin widths, if the page size changes moving column and ruler guides to maintain proportional distances from page edges, margins, or column guides.
* Adding or removing column guides at the right side of the page, if the new layout specifies a different number of columns.
* Moving objects already aligned to any margin, column, or ruler guide, or to any two guides perpendicular to each other, so that the objects stay with those guides if the guides move during layout adjustment.
* Proportionally resizing objects already aligned to two parallel margin, column, or ruler guides or to guides on three sides, so that the objects stay with those guides if the guides move during layout adjustment.
* Moving objects to keep them in the same relative position on the page, if the page size changes.

The Layout Adjustment feature produces more predictable results when a layout is tightly based on a framework of margins, page columns, and ruler guides, and where objects are snapped to guides. Results are less predictable when objects don't adhere to margins, columns, and guides, or when extraneous ruler and column guides clutter a page. Layout adjustment is not affected by the document grid or the baseline grid.

Note: Layout Adjustment affects columns inside a text frame differently than it does page columns. If the frame itself is resized by Layout Adjustment and the Fixed Column Width is not selected in the Object > Text Frame Options dialog box, text frame columns are resized proportionally. If the Fixed Column Width option is selected, columns are added or removed as necessary.

source:
Adobe Indesign CS Help