Redesign

This post marks the transition of Styles in Styles from Tumblr to a new Jekyll-generated, self-hosted home. Tumblr is great, but it was time to create a unique identity for this site and I took the time to build it on a system I have more control over. You can read a little more about what when into it in the colophon.

Transforming Multiple Matching Objects

If you’re working on a layout with multiple objects of the same size (e.g., a series of portraits in a directory), changing the dimensions of each object can be incredibly time-consuming if done one at a time, especially if it’s a large document.

Luckily, the Transform Again commands let you transform a single object then apply that transformation to any number of other objects.

For example, change the width on the first object, then select the remaining objects and click Object > Transform Again > Transform Again Individually, which transforms the objects to match the width of the first. If you need to change both the width and height, follow the same process except select Transform Sequence Again Individually, which, as the name implies, transforms objects based on the most-recent series of transformations instead of the single most-recent.

Use Non-breaking Spaces and Hyphens

Instead of manually inserting line-breaks to ensure phone numbers, proper names and other pieces of information don’t get broken into multiple lines, replace spaces and hyphens with non-breaking spaces and hyphens.

For example, the phone number (800) 123-4567 can be represented this way:

• (800)[space]123[hyphen]4567

Change that to:

• (800)[non-breaking space]123[non-breaking hyphen]4567.

Now, when there’s only enough room to fit (800) 123- on the first line, the whole text block will wrap to the second.