Although wireframes can often reflect very sophisticated interactions, other times all we need is a simple layout with a bunch of boxes with headers and content like lists, paragraphs, images, and links. Using a combination of object and paragraph styles with Adobe InDesign CS3/CS4 makes creating simple frames with headers very easy.

The following video demonstrates how to setup styles so that all the wireframer need do is apply a style, type in the header text, hit return twice, and the frame then has a nice horizontal rule separating the header from content and the cursor is at the ready for more normal formatted content to boot!

The solution? Start with an object style (for the “frame” object) that includes a paragraph style starting point (for the first line of the frame, in this case, the “frame header” paragraph style). Then, set up the “Next Style” of each paragraph style to point to the next line; that is, the next style after “frame header” is “frame horizontal rule”, and the next style after “frame horizontal rule” is “normal paragraph.” With that style sequence, creating the most common display (or starting point) is done in a jiffy!