Indesign has a few tools for creating shapes like the green footer box pictured here. We explore all these in our Adobe Indesign courses.
The toolbox in Indesign features a few commonly-used shape tools: the Rectangle tool, the Rounded Rectangle tool, the Ellipse, and Line tools. In addition you can create shapes using the Pen tool, which works in exactly the same manner as in Illustrator.
You can also manipulate existing shapes using the Add Anchor Point, Delete Anchor Point and Convert Anchor Point tools, also as in Illustrator. Or you can convert a shape from the Image drop-down menu as shown above.
Once drawn, the shape can be rescaled using the Selection tool (black arrow). If you need to adjust a single anchor point, use the Direct selection tool (white arrow). You can also change the line weight or the type from the drop-down list. This is how you could add a frame to a placed image. And of course you can change the shape’s colour.
There are three methods of changing colour – first make sure that either the Stroke or Fill colour is selected, ie. overlapping the other either at the bottom of the Toolbox or in the Swatches panel. You can then choose new Colour Swatch from the Swatches options fly-out list, or click on a colour on the bar on the Colour panel. The third method is to double-click on either the Fill or Stroke icon at the bottom of the Toolbox. On doing so the Colour Picker dialog box will open.
You then enter RGB or CMYK values, or simply adjust the colour bar then click in the colour field to specify the exact colour you want. Other options are the hexadecimal colours at the bottom of the panel. You may also add a colour gradient to a fill – see another blog post on this subject.
More tips can be found at the Sydney Indesign User Group which meets regularly in the city, and is a free forum for designers to discuss topics and the latest Indesign features. See many examples of our own clients’ work on our Facebook page.
Other related Indesign Blog Posts:

• Indesign images and text
  
• Indesign workflow
• Indesign templates
• Indesign page numbers
• Indesign add hyperlink