Asymmetrical Column Guides

When you cre­ate col­umn guides in either the New Document or Margins and Columns dialogs, InDesign even­ly dis­trib­utes the columns between the left and right or inside and out­side mar­gins, result­ing in sym­met­ri­cal columns. If you don’t want sym­met­ri­cal columns, for exam­ple if you want a wide inner col­umn and nar­row out­er col­umn, are you stuck fak­ing it using ruler guides? No.

Like ruler guides, col­umn guides, once added to the page, can be unlocked and moved. They’re locked by default, but a quick trip to View > Grids & Guides > Lock Column Guides cures that. Once unlocked, click and drag a col­umn guide to move it and it’s mate across the col­umn gut­ter (InDesign pre­serves the gut­ter width). Unlike ruler guides, how­ev­er, col­umn guides can­not be pre­cise­ly posi­tioned using the Control or Transform palettes. Thus, you’ll need either a good eye or a ruler guide wait­ing to serve as a marker.