InDesign Tutorial - How to create Rounded Corners on a Table in InDesign

In my current role I work on 300 page plus booklets that have a lot of tables (for example, the annual report for JB HI-FI – a publicly traded company in Australia). Because of the amount text used in these documents the tables need to be able to move up and down with the text should the client change it.

As the style these days is shifting more towards rounded edges on just about everything, rather than square, the need for tables in InDesign with rounded corners came about.

Here is an example of what I’m talking about:

The question is how would you do this in InDesign, given that tables only have a square edge.

Well, hopefully my tutorial below will help solve the mystery of Rounded Edges in InDesign, once and for all.

Step 1 – Create the text box

Create a text box in InDesign, to whatever dimensions you need, e.g. 100mm x 100mm.

Step 2 – Create the table

Create your table, e.g. 3 Body Rows and 3 Columns.

Step 3 – Set your Row Height

Set your Row Height to an Exact Measurement, e.g. 6mm.

Step 4 – Draw your Rounded Corner in Adobe Illustrator

Go into Adobe Illustrator and use the Rounded Rectangle to create your box, e.g. with a width of 100mm (the same width of the table). Ensure that you have set the fill to none, and the stroke width is the same as the box (eg. 1 pt).

Step 5 – Remove the edges

Using the white arrow tool select the top four points of the box you have just created and press delete.

Step 6 – Copy it into InDesign

Use the black arrow tool and select the image and copy and paste it from Illustrator.

Step 7 – Paste it into InDesign

Go back to InDesign and select the text box of where the table is located. You will need to place the cursor after the end of the table (as circled below). You may need to put a return in to force it go to the next line.

As below, this is what you should see once you have pasted it.

Step 8 – Cleaning up

As you will see the edges do not line up, zoom into 4000%.

Using the white arrow tool select the top two points of the round edge.

Use the measurements panel, type in 99.999mm as the width

You should notice that the box will still not line up. Place your cursor after the image and select the whole line by double clicking on it so that it is highlighted (as below).