Feature Request: Custom Compound Column/Modular Grids

[Mark Oehlschlager]

I'm writing to request an enhancement to the existing "Column Guide" feature in Publisher and it's sister applications: the ability to set up irregular, non-symmetrical, and compound column/modular grids for page composition. 

Presently, it's quite easy to set up regular, symmetrical Column/Modular grids. Dial in four columns, five rows, and a gutter width of 12 points, and you're off to the races.

But what if one wanted to customize that 4 x 5 modular layout grid such that the span of the bottom four rows were divided into thirds? That is three rows over the space of what were four rows like the illustration below. Presently, the Column Guide dialogue box doesn't allow for such a configuration.

I have found a work around, which I will describe, but the request here is that the "Column Guide" feature be extended to allow for custom grids.

My hack, or work around, involves drawing custom shapes on a Master Page layer and ensuring that the "Snapping Candidates" option in the "Snapping" dialogue box is set to "All Layers". This works, but it can be tedious to make the calculations and to place the multiple shapes.

The other drawback is that one must remember to set the "Snapping Candidates" to "All Layers". It would be more elegant if the entire custom grid and its visibility were controlled by the View > Show Column Guides command.

Below are a few additional illustrations to demonstrate the idea of irregular, non-symmetrical, and compound grids that one might establish for a publication layout.

[000]

Hmmm ... certainly useful, but might become a quiet complicated to use feature, especially when juggling several grid layouts in one file.

I believe a good way to achieve this would be one layer on each page that is set to "no print" (which would require the software to distinguish between "objects" and "layers", respectively find a different term for one of them)?

[dominik]

2 hours ago, Jens Krebs said:

Hmmm ... certainly useful, but might become a quiete complicated to use feature, especially when juggling several grid layouts in one file.

I believe a good way to achieve this would be one layer on each page that is set to "no print" (which would require the software to distinguish between "objects" and "layers", respectively find a different term for one of them)?

I agree, it's a good idea but I am hesitant on how to accomplish this with column guides.

My take on this would be the introduction of 'guide layers' that can have any kind of shape in them and act as guides (snapping, color, non print). This would solve any request for guides different from horizontal and vertical lines.

d.

[000]

21 minutes ago, dominik said:

I am hesitant on how to accomplish this with column guides

Exactly my thought, put in clearer words  by you  ... "Guide Layer" is a nice term for it.