Layers Magazine » InDesign http://www.layersmagazine.com The How-To Magazine for Everything Adobe. Quick tips and tutorials for the entire Adobe Creative Suite. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:26:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 A Fitting Idea http://www.layersmagazine.com/a-fitting-idea.html http://www.layersmagazine.com/a-fitting-idea.html#comments Thu, 30 Aug 2007 20:09:52 +0000 Jeff Witchel http://www.layersmagazine.com/a-fitting-idea.html I’m designing a catalog that will have the client’s logo centered in a dark blue Frame at the bottom of quite a few pages. Is there a way to Place the logo so that it will automatically fit centered within the Frame as large as possible while maintaining its proportion with at least a ¼” inset from the edge? That’s a mouthful of specifications, but InDesign CS3 has a fitting answer.

Select the dark blue Frame and go to Object > Fitting > Fitting Options. When the dialog opens, in the Crop Amount section, type -.25 in for Top and click the Link button to set up an equal “inset” (instead of a crop) all the way around the Frame. For Alignment, press the Center Reference Point so that the logo is placed from its center out. In the Fitting on Empty Frame section, choose Fit Content Proportionately and click OK. To use this “style” of Fitting again and again, select the Frame and save it as part of an Object Style under the Option menu of the Object Styles panel (Window > Object Styles).

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.

]]> http://www.layersmagazine.com/a-fitting-idea.html/feed 0 Oops! I Applied an Effect to the Fill Instead of the Stroke http://www.layersmagazine.com/oops-i-applied-an-effect-to-the-fill-instead-of-the-stroke.html http://www.layersmagazine.com/oops-i-applied-an-effect-to-the-fill-instead-of-the-stroke.html#comments Tue, 28 Aug 2007 20:26:08 +0000 Jeff Witchel http://www.layersmagazine.com/oops-i-applied-an-effect-to-the-fill-instead-of-the-stroke.html In case you were wondering what happened to the Transparency palette in CS3, it’s been replaced by the far more powerful Effects panel. This new panel gives you better control in that it allows you to choose whether you’d like to apply Transparency and Effects to the whole object or just parts of that object (Stroke, Fill and/or Text) simply by selecting its listing in the panel. Very cool!

In playing with this new panel, I applied a variety of Effects to a whole object, or to just the Fill, or the Stroke or the Text. At one point, I mistakenly applied an Effect to just the Fill of an object instead of the Stroke. Is there a quick way to move an Effect from one part of an object to another? Sure! Click-drag the Effect you’d like to move in the Effects panel and drop it on the correct listing in the panel.

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.

]]> http://www.layersmagazine.com/oops-i-applied-an-effect-to-the-fill-instead-of-the-stroke.html/feed 0 Saving Custom Workspaces Makes More Sense than Ever http://www.layersmagazine.com/saving-custom-workspaces-makes-more-sense-than-ever.html http://www.layersmagazine.com/saving-custom-workspaces-makes-more-sense-than-ever.html#comments Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:22:18 +0000 Jeff Witchel http://www.layersmagazine.com/saving-custom-workspaces-makes-more-sense-than-ever.html Menus) to limit what is shown in each, plus you can highlight various commands in [...]]]> The workspace in InDesign is more customizable than ever in CS3. You can change the positions of panels, how panels are docked in groups and whether they’re in panel view or icon view. You can also customize menus (Edit > Menus) to limit what is shown in each, plus you can highlight various commands in a color to make them stand out. Depending on how I’m using InDesign for a particular project the workspace may look entirely different. So instead of spending a lot of time tweaking panels and menus manually, I saved custom workspaces for print design, print production, and interactive design (Window > Workspace > Save Workspace). So if I need to put on my print production hat while designing an ad, I can switch to the perfect workspace for the task as fast as Window > Workspace > “Print Production.”

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.

]]> http://www.layersmagazine.com/saving-custom-workspaces-makes-more-sense-than-ever.html/feed 0 Line-By-Line Leading http://www.layersmagazine.com/line-by-line-leading-2.html http://www.layersmagazine.com/line-by-line-leading-2.html#comments Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:18:43 +0000 Jeff Witchel http://www.layersmagazine.com/line-by-line-leading-2.html Leading is one type of formatting feature that’s entirely different in InDesign than in Quark. In InDesign, each line within a paragraph can have a different amount of Leading. This is why Leading controls are in the Character panel instead of the Paragraph panel. In Quark, every single line in a paragraph has to have the same amount of Leading. This difference in Leading is the cause behind most of the support calls I get from Quark switchers, other than Text Wraps.

The top question asked is, “What happened to my Leading? It’s totally inconsistent throughout my copy.” After explaining line-by-line Leading, I tell them how to avoid unwanted inconsistencies by clicking four times in a paragraph to select the whole paragraph before applying the desired Leading. The next question that follows is usually, “Why would I ever want inconsistent Leading in a paragraph?” Isn’t it just bad typography? I answer, “Yes! Except in one instance. With large type, such as a headline, differences in ascender and descenders from line to line, can make evenly spaced Leading look unequal optically. The ability to correct this is the major reason Leading has been set up line by line in InDesign. This will usually lead to the following inevitable response. “I see. But how can I turn it off?” I answer, “Look under the InDesign menu > Preferences > Type (Edit > Preferences > Type on PC) and check “Apply Leading to Entire Paragraphs, and click OK.”

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.

]]> http://www.layersmagazine.com/line-by-line-leading-2.html/feed 0 Reordering Your Panels Within a Panel Group http://www.layersmagazine.com/reordering-your-panels-within-a-panel-group.html http://www.layersmagazine.com/reordering-your-panels-within-a-panel-group.html#comments Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:15:16 +0000 Jeff Witchel http://www.layersmagazine.com/reordering-your-panels-within-a-panel-group.html One thing that was a problem in earlier versions of InDesign was changing the order of the palettes in a palette group. If you weren’t happy with the order, you usually had to pull the entire group of palettes apart and start building the group from scratch. With the huge improvements in InDesign’s interface, the fact that you can now easily reorder panels within panel groups barely gets a mention. In Panel view, click-drag on any panel’s tab to move it to the left or right in the panel group and release your mouse. In Icon view, simply click-drag the icon up or down until you see a blue insert line at the position you’d like it to be within a group and release your mouse. It’s incredibly easy and intuitive.

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.

]]> http://www.layersmagazine.com/reordering-your-panels-within-a-panel-group.html/feed 0 Links Panel Buttons Have New Icons http://www.layersmagazine.com/links-panel-buttons-have-new-icons.html http://www.layersmagazine.com/links-panel-buttons-have-new-icons.html#comments Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:06:32 +0000 Jeff Witchel http://www.layersmagazine.com/links-panel-buttons-have-new-icons.html The command buttons at the bottom of the Links panel have all changed except for the Edit Original button with its pencil icon. Don’t let this confuse you because the buttons still perform the same tasks and each is in the same position that it had been in the past. Adobe just changed the icons to more clearly communicate their function. Mission accomplished!

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.

]]> http://www.layersmagazine.com/links-panel-buttons-have-new-icons.html/feed 0 Edit Original Shortcut http://www.layersmagazine.com/edit-original-shortcut.html http://www.layersmagazine.com/edit-original-shortcut.html#comments Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:02:02 +0000 Jeff Witchel http://www.layersmagazine.com/edit-original-shortcut.html When I first switched to InDesign from QuarkXPress, there was one feature that I missed terribly. In Quark, you could double-click on an image with your Content tool and a dialog would open with an Edit Original button, which would open the image in its default application. In InDesign, I always thought you had to go to the Links palette to press the Edit Original button to open the image. Recently I stumbled upon a back door to opening Links that actually had existed for quite a while. (Never stop learning!) Hold down the Option key (Alt on PC) and double-click on the image using any Selection tool and the original image will open automatically with no dialog. Now that’s efficient.

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.

]]> http://www.layersmagazine.com/edit-original-shortcut.html/feed 0 Kuler than Cool Color http://www.layersmagazine.com/kuler-than-cool-color.html http://www.layersmagazine.com/kuler-than-cool-color.html#comments Thu, 09 Aug 2007 15:36:05 +0000 Jeff Witchel http://www.layersmagazine.com/kuler-than-cool-color.html Adobe Labs. The second Adobe Labs panel, found in the same submenu, is called kuler, which is a feed from Adobe’s kuler website. Kuler is an amazing website community that’s a great resource for color exploration, inspiration, and experimentation, [...]]]> In a previous tip, I discussed “knowhow,” one the panels found under the Window menu > Adobe Labs. The second Adobe Labs panel, found in the same submenu, is called kuler, which is a feed from Adobe’s kuler website. Kuler is an amazing website community that’s a great resource for color exploration, inspiration, and experimentation, as well as sharing of color combinations with other members – http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/kuler If you’ve used Live Color, you’re already familiar with many of the kuler tools. Any of the color combinations listed in the kuler panel in Illustrator (highest rated, newest, most popular) can be saved to your Swatches panel as a Color Group simply by clicking the Swatches button at the bottom of the panel. You can also join the website to participate in the kuler community and download your favorite color combinations to load into Illustrator, InDesign and other Creative Suite applications.

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.

]]> http://www.layersmagazine.com/kuler-than-cool-color.html/feed 0 More Control in My Control Panel http://www.layersmagazine.com/more-control-in-my-control-panel.html http://www.layersmagazine.com/more-control-in-my-control-panel.html#comments Mon, 06 Aug 2007 14:15:42 +0000 Jeff Witchel http://www.layersmagazine.com/more-control-in-my-control-panel.html When I first saw the new and very improved Control panel in InDesign CS3, I was amazed at how many more settings it contains to help speed work along. Here’s a quick example. In CS2, if you’re formatting text and the Character Formatting Controls button is selected, you’ll see only Character Formatting controls. In CS3, the left side of the panel is filled with all the Character controls, but the right side of the panel also shows the most used Paragraph Formatting Controls.

I just started preparing for my first InDesign CS3 training session and noticed a major difference between the Control panel on my laptop screen as compared to the Control panel on the larger screen that I use for freelance. All of the extra controls for formatting type (and other controls in this contextual panel) were missing. What’s up with this? A different version of InDesign? No! A bug? No! Different Preferences? No! It seems that the contents of the Control panel depends on the resolution of your monitor. The higher the resolution, the more “extras” the panel contains. I increased the resolution of my laptop, problem solved!

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.

]]> http://www.layersmagazine.com/more-control-in-my-control-panel.html/feed 0 Finding Glyphs, Simplified http://www.layersmagazine.com/finding-glyphs-simplified.html http://www.layersmagazine.com/finding-glyphs-simplified.html#comments Thu, 02 Aug 2007 14:43:31 +0000 Jeff Witchel http://www.layersmagazine.com/finding-glyphs-simplified.html With thousands of Glyphs available in some OpenType fonts, finding exactly the one you need could be a time consuming task. In CS3, these’s been some major improvements to the Glyphs panel which make it a lot easier to find and insert the right Glyphs into your copy. The “Show” pop-up menu goes a long way in helping to solve this problem by allowing you to view a font by various preset categories. So, if you need to find the “Not Equal To” Glyph, choose the Math Symbols category from the Show pop-up menu, and only math symbol Glyphs will be shown in the palette. My favorite category is Recent Glyphs, because the chances of having to locate the same Glyph more than once are quite high. This category can be added to the top of the panel for permanent view by selecting Show Options from the panel’s option menu. All Recently Used Glyphs will be shown in this section until you quit the application.

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.

]]> http://www.layersmagazine.com/finding-glyphs-simplified.html/feed 0 Common Wrap Problem Solved in CS3 http://www.layersmagazine.com/common-wrap-problem-solved-in-cs3.html http://www.layersmagazine.com/common-wrap-problem-solved-in-cs3.html#comments Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:27:23 +0000 Jeff Witchel http://www.layersmagazine.com/common-wrap-problem-solved-in-cs3.html There’s one problem with Wraps that almost everyone has had at one time or another. You position a Wrap object between two columns of copy and, on some lines, the text jumps over the object and continues on the other side of the object on the same line. This, of course, can make the copy impossible to read and is a very definite typographic “No No.” In a previous tip, I mentioned that you could edit a Wrap Path with both the Direct Section tool (A) and the Pen tool (P), which can be used to solve this “text jumping” problem. But, in CS3, there’s an easier way.

In the Text Wrap panel (Window > Text Wrap), after you click on either the “Wrap around bounding box” or “Wrap around shape” button, there are new Wrap options available in the “Wrap To” popup menu. The last of these options, Largest Area, will solve the problem instantly by making the text run around the side of the Wrap object with the most width within the column. This stops the text from jumping over the wrap and continuing on the other side.

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.

]]> http://www.layersmagazine.com/common-wrap-problem-solved-in-cs3.html/feed 0 You’ll Flip for this “Placing Multiple Images” Tip. http://www.layersmagazine.com/youll-flip-for-this-placing-multiple-images-tip.html http://www.layersmagazine.com/youll-flip-for-this-placing-multiple-images-tip.html#comments Tue, 31 Jul 2007 14:48:52 +0000 Jeff Witchel http://www.layersmagazine.com/you%e2%80%99ll-flip-for-this-%e2%80%9cplacing-multiple-images%e2%80%9d-tip.html Place, and locate the folder that contains your images. [...]]]> One of the new time-saving features that everyone is talking about in InDesign CS3 is the ability to Place multiple images at one time. If you haven’t discovered it yet, here’s how it works. Set up some Graphic Frames in your layout, go to File > Place, and locate the folder that contains your images. Select the first image, then Command-click (Control-click with PC) to select additional images you’d like to Place, and then click the Open button. This loads all the images to be Placed. A preview of the first image is seen in the loaded brush. If you click on a Frame, the image is Placed in that Frame and the next image is previewed in the brush.

But what if you want to place the images in a different order than they are previewed? No problem! If you want to skip a particular image, use the Down Arrow on your keyboard to skip to the next image preview. Both the Up and Down or Left and Right Arrows can be used to flip through the Previews of all the loaded images. If you loaded extra pictures that you later decide not to Place, simply click on any tool in the Tools panel to unload the brush of all remaining images.

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.

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