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Advanced Interactive Media/Design Team/InDesign Basics

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InDesign was first created as a competitor to QuarkXPress in the Print Media world. As a desktop publishing application produced by Adobe Systems, it initially had difficulty in converting users to its format. However, in 2002 InDesign was first to release a version for the Mac OS-X system. Packaged with programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat in the Adobe Creative Suite, InDesign has offered its users many high-end advantages without the high-end price.
This is the Basic information from Adobe's tutorials found in the InDesign Help box.

One document, three destinations When you need to publish the same content in print and online, do you find yourself creating a separate document for each? Using Adobe InDesign, you can publish in a variety of different formats using a single document. As you select different output formats, InDesign adjusts its print or export settings to match the capabilities of each format. We published a full-color events brochure on the web, as an Adobe PDF document, and in a glossy printed format. For the PDF document, we added interactivity with movies, sound files, hyperlinks, and bookmarks. On the web, we included links to related websites as well. To produce the printed brochure, we used a digital master to create a high-quality composite proof, and then handed off a print-ready PDF file to a commercial printer for in-RIP separations.

Create an interactive document. Hyperlinks, movies, sound files, and other interactive elements enrich online content and make it easier to navigate. Using InDesign, you can add interactivity for online viewing without disrupting the quality of your printed document. For our Adobe PDF brochure, we added rollovers to a table of contents to give readers additional information. Entries in the table of contents will also appear in Adobe Acrobat’s Bookmark pane. A short movie replaces a static graphic and animates the content. For more information, see About interactive features.

Prepare for publication. Regardless of which publishing format you use, InDesign’s Preflight feature helps you spot problems before outputting your document. When you run the Preflight utility, InDesign checks the current document or book for problems that might affect output quality, such as missing fonts or graphics, duplicate inks, or transparent objects. Most problems, such as duplicate inks or missing files or fonts, can be fixed from within the Preflight dialog box. (See To perform a preflight check.)

Publish an interactive PDF document. InDesign comes with a collection of Adobe PDF presets designed for different output formats, as well as a number of other options that let you tailor the PDF document to your output needs. If you included movies, sound clips, or other interactive items in your document, make sure that you select the Interactive Elements option when you export the document to PDF. Select the eBook Tags option to make sure the PDF document maintains a logical structural flow. We created an Adobe PDF version of our brochure to include in press kits and on the event website for readers who prefer to read and print online content using Adobe Acrobat. (See Preparing a document for on-screen viewing.)

Publish an interactive web page. You may want to use one design for a printed document but another layout on the web. InDesign’s Package For GoLive feature makes it easy to repurpose graphics and text from an InDesign document for use in Adobe GoLive web pages. With Package For GoLive, stories and graphics in InDesign can be optimized for the web, and then dragged onto a GoLive web page. You can duplicate the design of the InDesign document or match the look of a website instead. We used Adobe GoLive to flow content from our brochure into our event website template. We used Package For GoLive’s optimization feature to convert TIFF and EPS graphics to GIF and JPEG files for viewing on the web. For the most part, we let GoLive translate text formatting to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets); however, we dragged drop caps to GoLive as graphics, since CSS doesn’t support them. For more information, see About working with InDesign and Adobe GoLive.

Prepare the document for printing. When you print an interactive document, you can convert hyperlinks to normal text and exclude bookmarks or other interactive elements. Sound files, of course, are excluded. Movies can be omitted or replaced with high-resolution images instead. For the brochure, we replaced a movie by relinking the graphic frame to a high-resolution “still” taken from the original movie. We omitted interactive elements using two Adobe PDF presets designed for printed output. (See steps 6 and 7 below.) Create a high-quality proof using a digital master. Before printing separations, it’s a good idea to proof your document to verify bitmap image resolution, colors, and the overall page design. One way to do this is to create a digital master—a compact, reliable PDF document that you or your service provider can view, edit, and proof. To create a digital master, export the document as a PDF file using the High Quality Print preset. When the High Quality Print preset is selected, InDesign uses compression and downsampling to keep file sizes down; leaves colors unchanged; embeds subsets of all fonts used in the file; and prints at medium resolution to create a reasonably accurate rendition of the original document. (See About the Adobe PDF workflow.)

Hand off a print-ready PDF file for in-RIP separations. When you hand off a file for commercial printing, you can save it as an InDesign document, a PostScript file, or a print-ready PDF. We chose to save the brochure as a print-ready PDF to prevent output problems, such as missing fonts and images, corrupt files, or PostScript compatibility problems.You create a print-ready PDF file using the Press Quality preset in InDesign. A print-ready PDF file includes all of the information that a service provider needs to produce high-quality output on an imagesetter or platesetter: colors are converted to CMYK (with spot colors preserved); fonts are embedded in the file; and high-resolution images are either embedded or linked. Your service provider can make last-minute changes to a print-ready PDF file to create traps, impose pages, or perform other prepress tasks. (See To produce a print-ready Adobe PDF file.)

STEPS

Organizing your first document How you set up your work area and document directly affects how efficiently you can design and produce pages. The InDesign work area is designed to help you focus on design and production, rather than on the tools. The work area is customizable so that when you first open or create a new document, everything you need is immediately visible. InDesign provides all the necessary tools to set up your documents and ensure consistency. Preview the work area. Open InDesign. The Control palette, toolbox, and several other palettes are displayed. The Control palette displays different options depending on the type of object you select. The toolbox contains tools for selecting, editing, and creating page elements, as well as tools that help you create and choose type, shapes, lines, and gradients. By default, palettes are displayed in stacked groups on the right-hand side of the application window. To bring a palette into view, click the palette tab. To unstack the palettes in a group, drag the palette tab outside the group to create a floating palette. We dragged the Pages palette out of its group to make it a floating palette. (See About palettes, tools, and menus.)

Create a new document. Choose File > New > Document. For Number of Pages, type a number. For documents containing more than one page, make sure that the Facing Pages option is selected so that left and right pages face each other in a double-page spread (a set of pages seen together). We selected Letter for Page Size and left other options as is. Click OK. The document window opens and displays the first page. In the Pages palette, the first page is highlighted, indicating that the page is selected. The other pages appear as sets, indicating left and right pages. The Pages palette provides information about and control over pages, spreads, and master pages. Master pages act as a background that you can quickly apply to many pages.

Create a new master page. To create a unique look for secondary pages, we’ll create a new master page. Choose New Master from the Pages palette menu. For Based On Master, choose A-Master. Changes you make to the A-Master will also apply to the B-Master. If you want to change the Master page name, type a name. Click OK. In the Pages palette, double-click the new master page. Because guides help you position and align objects precisely, we’ll add some to the Master page. Choose Layout > Create Guides. Specify the number of rows and columns. We have chosen four rows and three columns with a 1p0 gutter. For Fit Guides To, select Margins. Click OK. Guides added to the master page appear on all document pages to which the master is applied. You can also add guides to master pages or document pages by simply dragging them from the rulers. In addition to guides, you can use the Grid feature in InDesign, which allows you to easily snap graphics and text frames into place.

Apply the master page to a document page. Drag the new master page from the top half of the Pages palette to a page icon in the Pages section of the palette. A black rectangle indicates which page you have selected. After applying the master page, you will notice the letter B in the page icon. This letter indicates the master page that has been applied. All changes to a master are automatically applied to all pages that use that master. Here are some tips for working with master pages: Use masters for a repeating logo or artwork that appears in the same position on many pages. Use masters for adding page numbering at the top or bottom of pages. Use the Type tool to create a text box on the master page and choose Type > Insert Special Character > Auto Page Number. For best results, apply a master to a spread that contains the same number of pages. If you place an image on a master page, that image will appear on the document pages to which the master is applied. If you click that image on a document page, the image won’t be selected. That’s because it belongs to the master page. If you want to edit or delete the image, do so from the master page. If you want to edit or delete the image on a document page, you can override the image by holding down Ctrl+Shift (Windows) or Command+Shift (Mac OS), and clicking it. (See To override master objects.)

Navigate the document. InDesign includes a number of tools to let you navigate documents. To jump to a page, double-click a page icon in the Pages palette to jump to a page; double-click the numbers below the page icon to jump to a spread. To move from page to page, click the page icons at the bottom of the document window. Use the commands on the View menu to zoom in and out of the document, or use the Zoom tool to focus on a specific area of the document. Use the Hand tool and scroll bars to move to different areas or pages within the document. Use shortcut keystrokes to move around quickly. (See Keys for viewing documents and document workspaces.) You can also use the Navigator palette to navigate a document (choose Window > Object & Layout > Navigator). Drag the Zoom slider to increase or decrease magnification. The red outline increases or decreases in size relative to the area being displayed.

Flowing and formatting text Understand the basics of adding text to your document, and pick up a few tips along the way. In this tutorial, you’ll learn to import and flow text into your document in a set of threaded text frames. You’ll also learn how to manipulate text frames and format the text inside. Import text. With your InDesign document open, choose File > Place. Select Show Import Options to give you control over how the file is imported, and then locate and double-click the Word, RTF, or text file. If you want to import text without formatting, select Remove Styles And Formatting From Text And Tables. If you want to keep the formatting from the imported document, select Preserve Styles And Formatting From Text And Tables, and then change the settings. For example, if imported styles from a Word document have the same name as the styles in your InDesign document, you can determine whether the Word styles or InDesign styles are used. You can even map Word styles to InDesign styles. When you’re finished, click OK. A loaded text icon appears. Click or drag to flow text. (You’ll learn how to flow text in the next step.) Note: If some or all of the imported text appears in InDesign with pink highlighting, the font was missing and a different font was substituted. Choose Type > Find Fonts to locate the missing font.

Flow text into frames. To create new text frames, click the loaded text icon on the page, or drag across the area where you want the text frame to appear. If a plus sign appears in the frame’s out port, it means that not all the text fits in the frame. To place the rest of this overset text, select the frame using the Selection tool , click the out port, and then create another text frame. Here are some tips for flowing text: To create frames one by one, without having to click the out port, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) when you click or drag the loaded text icon. To flow all text into the document, Shift-click the loaded text icon. InDesign creates additional frames and pages as needed. If you hold down Shift+Alt (Windows) or Shift+Option (Mac OS) when you click, InDesign flows the text only to the end of the last page, without creating extra pages. When you hold the loaded text icon over an existing frame, parentheses appear around the icon . Click to flow the text into the existing frame, replacing any existing content.

Add and delete threaded text frames. To add a frame to the thread, select the text frame using the Selection tool , and click an out port in a frame to get a loaded text cursor. Turn the page if you need to, and then click or drag to create another frame. The text flows from the frame you clicked into the new frame. To delete a frame, select it, and then press Backspace or Delete. Don’t worry about losing text when you delete a text frame in a thread. For example, if you delete the second of three frames, the text flows from the first frame into the last. No text is lost. (See Threading text frames.)

Move and resize text frames. To work with text frames while the Type tool is selected, try this: hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) to temporarily switch to the Selection tool. Click the frame and, with the key still held down, drag the frame to move it, or drag any edge or corner of the frame to resize it. When you release the key, the Type tool reappears. When you resize a text frame, the type size doesn’t change (unless you use the Scale tool). If you want to change the shape of the text frame, select it using the Direct Selection tool , and then drag to change its shape. Use the Pen tool to add points.

Change text frame options. Select the text frame, or place the insertion point inside the text frame, and then choose Object > Text Frame Options. Change the number of columns, the vertical alignment of text within the frame, or the amount of inset spacing between the text and the frame. (See To change text frame properties.) To create columns, you can thread separate text frames side by side, or you can change the number of columns within a single frame.

Experiment with text formatting. To change paragraph formatting options, select text or place the insertion point in the paragraph, and then click the Paragraph Formatting Controls icon on the left side of the Control palette. To change character formatting options, select the text you want to format, and then click the Character Formatting Controls icon on the left side of the Control palette. Additional options appear when you click the palette menu icon . If you need to apply the same formatting to multiple paragraphs, use the Paragraph Styles palette to create and apply styles. To repeatedly use the same style to format characters within a paragraph, use the Character Styles palette.

Be creative with graphics Using the Place command, you can easily add graphics, such as pictures and drawings, to enhance the look of any document. Add a graphic. With your InDesign document open, choose File > Place. Select Show Import Options to control how the file is imported. Select the file you want to add. Click the loaded graphics icon anywhere in your document. When you place a graphic in an empty area, InDesign automatically creates a frame for it. If you place a Photoshop (.psd), Illustrator (.ai), or Acrobat (.pdf) file, you can determine which of the image’s layers are visible. (See Placing graphics.)

Modify a graphic. Using the Selection tool , select a graphic and drag to a new location. To move multiple objects, using the Selection tool, select one or more objects, and then drag the graphics to a new location. Now let’s rotate a graphic: Select a graphic, select the Rotate tool , and select the point of origin (center point). Position the Rotate tool away from the point of origin and drag to rotate the graphic. Press Shift and drag to constrain the movement to multiples of 45°.

Resize a graphic. Using the Selection tool, select the placed graphic. Drag one of the handles to enlarge the graphics frame bounding box (hold down Shift to maintain proportions). The content inside the frame remains the same size. With the frame selected, choose Object > Fitting > Fit Content to Frame (or Fit Content Proportionally to avoid skewing the image). The content is automatically resized to fit within the frame. It’s important to understand that the content and the graphics frame are separate items, each with its own bounding box. When you dragged the handle to enlarge the graphic, you may have expected the graphic to be resized as well. Being able to modify the frame apart from the contents adds flexibility, but it may take some time to get used to it. Experiment with using the Direct Selection tool and the Selection tool to select, move, and resize the frame and its contents: To resize the content and frame simultaneously, use the Selection tool and hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS). Add the Shift key to resize the object proportionally. (When using modifier keys, make sure you release the mouse button before releasing the modifier keys.) To reduce the frame size and hide portions of the content, simply drag any of the handles. To resize the content of a graphics frame, use the Direct Selection tool , select the graphic, and then drag any of the graphic frame handles. Crop and resize graphics using the Position tool, which is a hidden tool under the Direct Selection tool.

Combine graphics into a group. With the Selection tool, select a graphic, hold down the Shift key, and select the other graphics. Choose Object > Group. Notice that one bounding box now surrounds all the objects. When you combine objects into a group, the objects are treated as a single unit. You can then move or transform the objects without affecting their relative positions or attributes. (See Grouping objects.)

Manage imported graphics. Choose Window > Links to open the Links palette. The Links palette maintains a list of all linked graphics or text files contained in your InDesign document. Double-click a file in the Links palette to view information related to the file, such as its modification date, size, or file type. When you import a graphic or text file into your InDesign file, you can modify the file either in InDesign or in the program used to create the file. For example, you can select a Photoshop image you want to modify, click Edit Original in the Links palette, and then modify and save the image. Or, if you edit the image in Photoshop, a yellow triangle in the Links palette indicates that the image has been modified. You can click Update Link to use the most recent changes. (See About links and embedded graphics.)

Drawing lines and polygons Adobe InDesign provides a variety of tools for creating basic geometric shapes, and additional tools for drawing freeform shapes. Follow along and learn how to use shapes, colors, gradients, and curved line segments as building blocks for artwork. Draw a shape. Hold the mouse down on the Rectangle tool in the toolbox, and select the shape tool (Rectangle, Ellipse, or Polygon) you want to use. Then drag in the document window to draw the shape. Holding down the Shift key constrains its proportions; for example, you can use the Shift key with the Rectangle tool to draw a square, or with the Ellipse tool to draw a circle. The Polygon tool makes a great starburst. You can double-click the tool in the toolbox, specify the number of sides (we entered 25), and set a percentage for the star inset (we chose 50%).

Fill the shape with color. Use the Selection tool to select the shape that you just drew. Click the Fill proxy in the toolbox. This tells InDesign that you want to apply color inside the shape rather than to its stroke (or outline). Then click any swatch in the Swatches palette to fill the shape with color. (If the Swatches palette isn’t showing, choose Window > Swatches.) If you don’t like any of the default colors in the Swatches palette, you can create or select a color in other ways. For example, double-click the Fill or Stroke proxy in the toolbox to display the Color Picker, or use the Eyedropper tool from the toolbox to copy colors from imported graphics. You can also add colors to the Swatches palette from any color library. (See To create a new color swatch.)

Change the shape’s stroke weight. If the Stroke palette isn’t showing, choose Window > Stroke. In the Stroke palette, type a different value in the Weight text box, and press Enter or Return to apply the change. Although you can use a black stroke, you can also change the stroke color by clicking the Stroke box in the toolbox and selecting a different color. (See To apply color.)

Add a gradient. Instead of using a solid color on the starburst, you can add a graduated blend between two or more colors. Choose Window > Gradient to show the Gradient palette—a familiar palette if you also use Adobe Illustrator. Click the Fill box in the toolbox again, and then use the Selection tool to select the starburst. To define the starting color of a gradient, click the leftmost color stop below the gradient bar. Drag a swatch from the Swatches palette and drop it on the color stop. To define the ending color of the gradient, click the rightmost color stop below the gradient bar, and then choose the color you like. Choose either Linear or Radial from the Type menu of the Gradient palette. Adjust color and midpoint positions. (See To create a gradient swatch.) You can also define a gradient using the Swatches palette.

Draw curved segments with the Pen tool. The Pen tool draws straight lines and smooth, flowing curves; it will be familiar if you use the Pen tool in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. To draw a simple curved segment, select the Pen tool in the toolbox, and click in a blank area on the page. Release the mouse button. Move the pointer to the right. Click and drag a line, rotating as you drag to create a curved segment. This creates an anchor point for the next segment. Click again, releasing the mouse button. Then click and drag. Notice how the two direction lines pivot together around each anchor point. If you don’t like a segment you create, choose Edit > Undo. Select the Selection tool in the toolbox and click a blank area on the page to deselect the path. As their names imply, the anchor points anchor the curved segments, and the direction lines control the direction of the curves. You can drag the direction lines or their endpoints, called direction points, to adjust the shape of the curve.

Create a shape with curves and straight lines. Now that you’ve learned how to draw curved segments, you can combine them with straight ones to create a shape called a closed path. To control the straight lines, choose View > Grids & Guides > Show Document Grid and View > Grids & Guides > Snap To Document Grid. Select the Pen tool in the toolbox or type P to activate the tool. Click an intersection in the grid, and then click again to the right of the first click to create a straight line segment. Click one more time in the grid to create a second straight line segment. You’ll draw a curved line next, so instead of releasing the mouse button, drag the next line segment. To close the path, position the pointer over the first point. When you see the pointer icon appear with a small circle , click the point.

Clear steps to transparency A soft, feathery edge on vector text and graphics adds character to your Adobe InDesign document. A shadow makes text appear to float above the surface. These effects—alone or in conjunction with blending modes and opacity settings—can create a spread with rich, three-dimensional effects. Shown here are just a few of the many transparency effects you can use to enhance your artwork. Draw and overlap solid-color objects. Use any of the basic drawing tools (Ellipse, Rectangle, or Polygon) to create several basic shapes, overlapping them as you draw. Choose Window > Swatches to open the Swatches palette, and then Shift-click to select all the objects you drew. Select the Fill box in the Swatches palette to apply a fill color to the objects. (You can also select Fill in the toolbox.) Click the color you want in the Swatches palette. We used C=75, M=5, Y=100, K=0 in the example.

Apply blending modes. Adobe InDesign offers many ways to blend colors between overlapping objects. If you’re familiar with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, you’ll recognize the blending modes. Choose Window > Transparency to open the Transparency palette. With at least two objects selected, choose a blending mode from the menu at the top of the Transparency palette. Experiment by using different blending modes. (We applied Multiply, Screen, and Difference to the objects shown below.) When you’re finished, select the Selection tool in the toolbox and click a blank area of the page to deselect the objects.

For more information about the different blending modes, see Blending mode options. Add a drop shadow to text. If you’re new to InDesign and want a quick type effect for your artwork, make a drop shadow. In your InDesign document, create some text. Select the Type tool in the toolbox, draw a text frame, choose a font and type size in the Control palette (we chose Adobe Caslon Pro Bold Italic and 140 pt), and type a short word. Use the Selection tool to select the text frame and choose Object > Drop Shadow. (You can apply a drop shadow to a text frame, but not to selected text.) Select the Drop Shadow option to enable the other options, and then specify your drop shadow settings. Select the Preview option so that you can see the results in the document as you change settings. Experiment with different settings, and then click OK. Because the object is vector-based type, you can edit the text while retaining the drop shadow effect.

Apply feathering to the margins of a graphic. Draw or import a colored vector graphic. Select it with the Selection tool and choose Object > Feather. Select the Feather option to enable the other options, and then specify your feather settings. We used a high feather width to create a smoky effect. Use good design judgment when applying transparency effects. For example, if you feather small type with fine strokes or serifs, the resulting text may not be legible.

Adjust the opacity of an imported graphic. With your InDesign document open, choose File > Place. Select Show Import Options to give you control over how the file is imported, and then double-click the graphic you want to import. A graphic icon appears. Click to place the graphic. We placed some type. Place another graphic (such as our flower) on top of the first one, and enlarge it to cover the first graphic. The second graphic will be 100% opaque over the first one. With the second graphic selected, change the Opacity value in the Transparency palette so that the first graphic shows through the top graphic. The Transparency palette is only one way to adjust transparency in imported graphics. For example, you can import objects created with existing transparency properties and compound the effect with InDesign. And, when you export to PDF 1.5 (Adobe Acrobat 6.0) or higher, transparency is preserved and fully editable.

6. Create an object style. Choose Window > Object Styles to display the Object Styles palette. Select an object to which you’ve applied transparency settings, and then choose New Object Style from the Object Styles palette menu. Click Transparency. Notice that the settings for the selected object are applied. Select (or deselect) other items that you want to appear in the style, type the style name, and click OK. You can then apply these settings to other objects in your document. To save time, you can create object styles for text frames or graphics frames, and then apply these styles to objects in your document. (See About object styles.)

These notes were found at http://desktoppub.about.com/od/indesign/a/id_class.htm and detail the basics of InDesign, mostly what everything is and where it is. It describes the workface.
You have a Menu Bar on top, the tools and the palettes. Palettes are little windows which have specialized functions, e.g., you have got one that handles colours, one that handles paragraphs, one that handles pages, etc. By default, there is a special palette just under the Menu Bar called Control Palette. This one changes depending on what tool you are using or what you are doing while you are working with the different items of your layout.

You can get access to all of the functions of InDesign through the Menu Bar

However you will see that, as you become more proficient and faster at using InDesign, you will want to learn shortcuts so you don't have to drag your mouse around in search of the option you want. If you want to learn the shortcuts, just look next to the command you are interested in and you will see the shortcut if there is one.

If you want to open a new document go to File > New > Document, and, when the New Document window shows up, choose your document size and press OK.

                • New Document and Page Settings

Open a new document: File > New > Document. Now have a look at your New Document window. The first thing you see is the Document Preset section.You will see that in Page Size you have several page settings (letter, legal, tabloid, etc.) You can choose the size of your page from that menu or you can enter a custom size yourself.

A master page is a special page which will not print, unless you tell InDesign to do so. It's a page where you can set a basic layout and then all of the other pages that you will add to your document and which are based on that master page will look the same.

You can add or take off items from any page that is based on your master page and you can have more than one master page.

Using the Pages Palette

To set up Master Pages we work with the Pages palette. If you read the Work Area tutorial, you will know how to find it. So open your Pages palette now if it isn't open already.

You can see that the Pages palette is divided in two. The upper part is where your master pages are, while the lower part is where the actual pages of the documents are.

Let's have a look at the upper part. • You have a master page called A-Master • You have a page above the A-Master called None. • If you were to drag a page from the master page to the lower part of the palette, you would get a new page based on that master. • If you drag from the page called None, you will have a totally blank page which isn't based on any master. • If you drag the page called None to the New Page button, what do you get? Surprise! You get a new master page called B-Master. • If you carry on doing that, you will get a C-Master, D-Master and so on. • You can also get a new master by clicking on the arrow on the top right of the palette to open the Pages palette menu and then choose New Master...


More Ways to Add Pages There are other ways to add pages. • Instead of dragging the master pages down to the lower part of the palette, where the normal pages are, you can either just click on the New Page button or you go to the Page palette menu and choose Insert Pages.

• You can then choose the number of pages you want to select, where to put those pages (after or before which already existing page) and which master to base them on.

• If you have multiple masters, and you are adding pages by clicking the New Page button instead of the Insert Pages option in the Page palette menu, the new pages will be based on the last master chosen in the Insert Pages option.

For example, let's say that you have Master A and Master B. You just went to the Insert Pages option and you have added 10 pages based on Master B. If you now want to add another page by using the New Page button at the bottom of the Page palette, your new page will also be based on Master B.

Changing Items on Master Pages Now let's say that you only have one master, the A-Master. You have a box for a picture in each page and the picture will be different in each page (even though it's placed in exactly the same position and that is why you have put it in your master page). If you just click on that box on any of the pages in the document, you will see that you cannot edit it (unless you are working on your master page). So what's the point? You say. Well you have several options here that allow you to make changes to all of these twin pages. • If you want to change just one item on any page that is based on a master page, press Control+Shift (Windows) or Command + Shift (Macintosh) as you select the item on the page. You can now do what you want with that item.

• If you want to be able to change all of the items on a spread, click on a spread first and then go to the menu of your Pages palette and choose Override All Master Pages Items.

BASIC WORKFACE

CONTROL PALETTE By default the Control Palette docks at the top of the screen. Drag, float, or dock it on the bottom of the screen if you want. Palette contents change depending on the tool in use or what you are doing.

Your item measurements are in this palette. X and Y, are the coordinates for the box on the page. The values are important to know for precise positioning. H and W, give the height and width of an item. • The little chain icon allows you to constrain the proportions of your object. Type a smaller W value and your H value decreases proportionally. • A broken chain,icon means that if you type a different value for W or H, the other one won't change, because the "constrain proportions" option is not active.

You can also change the size of any item on a page by typing a different percentage in the next two measurements. Here again, the chain icon has the same function.

To understand how the rest of the functions work on the Control Palette, just move your mouse over the icons in the palette and wait for a couple of seconds. The name of the functions will appear. Then try typing some values and see what happens to your box so you understand what they do. The control palette also allows you to change the stroke and the colour of the stroke of your black box. Some of the things that you see in the Control Palette you will see on other palettes as well. That's just a way to give you more options to do the same thing.

On a side line, if you right click on an object or anything on your page (or Control+click for Mac users) another menu will appear. That is a contextual menu, that is, a menu that changes depending on what you are clicking on, a bit like the Control Palette. The options you will get in that menu will be different from the ones of the Control Palette. A Few Words on Contextual Menus Contextual Menus show up when you right + click (Windows) or Control + click (Mac Os) on objects in your layout. They change depending on which object you have selected. They are very useful as they show you options that are related to what you are doing, for example the Drop Shadow option when you click on a shape or an image, and they also save you the time to go all the way up to the top of your screen to the Menu Bar.

The (Other) Palettes, Part 1 If you look at the Work Area screenshot you see that there is a floating palette and one that is docked on the right hand side of the screen. You will also notice a few tabs just above the palette on the right. These are other palettes, but they are collapsed.

You can also collapse a floating palette. If you click on the name of the palette it will only partially collapse. If you click on the top of the palette, it will collapse completely showing you only a tab with the name of the palette(s). Palettes can also be grouped together. You just need to drag one palette on top of the other and InDesign will group them together.

Palettes in InDesign are all under the Window Menu. You will find some that the palettes palettes related to type are also under the Type Menu.

You will find the following palettes both under the Type Menu and the Window Menu: • Character • Paragraph

These palettes are only under the Window Menu: • Align • Colour • Control (which is the same Control Palette I covered earlier) • Gradient • Info • Layers • Links • Navigator • Flattener (Window > Output Preview) • Separations (Window > Output Preview) • Pages • Stroke • Swatches • Tools (which I will take up later on in this lesson) • Transform • Transparency • Character Styles (Window > Type & Tables) • Paragraph Styles (Window > Type & Tables) • Table (Window > Type & Tables) • Text Wrap

And we obviously also have the black sheep: the Library palette, which is under File > New > Library.

Each palette has got its own menu. If you click on the arrow shown in illustration (below), their menu will pop up and you can then choose any of the options that are available.

TOOLS PALETTE

You will use this palette quite a lot. If you move the cursor of your mouse on top of each tool their name will appear.

If you use Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, you will be familiar with the little arrows on the bottom corner of some of the icons in the Tools Palette. If you click on them and keep your mouse button pressed a little menu will pop up. That menu shows you some "hidden" tools which you can choose from. This little menu is called flyout.

Now look further down in the Tools Palette. These are the swatches — you can assign colours to items on your page through these. You can see the fill colour and the stroke (outline) colour. The little arrow on the top right will allow you to swap the two colours. If you have just been working on the fill colour, you can now work on the stroke colour by clicking on the stroke colour icon or by pressing you can just press X (make sure no text is selected). This also works in reverse — if you were working on your stroke colour and now you want to work on your fill colour, click on its icon or press X. You can set your swatch to the default colours by clicking on the very small icon on the bottom left or just by pressing D (again make sure you haven't selected any text). Just under the two bigger icons with the swatches, you will see two smaller icons. One shows a square and the other one shows a T. If you have selected the icon with the square, then the colours will be applied to boxes and objects. If you have selected the T then the colours will be applied to the type itself. As type is within boxes, you can choose to apply colour to both type and the boxes that contain them or just to one or the other.

Under those two icons there are three more. The first icon allows you to apply single colours to objects, the second one allows you to apply gradients and the third one applies "no colour", i.e., if you had already applied colours to an object and then you click the on this icon, you will be taking the colour away.

The very bottom icons of the Tools palette allows you to view your document in several ways.

SETTING UP A DOCUMENT

If you have ever dealt with a word processing application you are familiar with the document page. However, desktop publishing applications differ from word processing applications as they also have a pasteboard (among other differences). The pasteboard is that white area around the page where you can put objects that you might need while you design, but that will not be printed.

You then have the margins within your document's page. Now we are getting to the harsh part ... the bleed and slug.

Bleed: "When any image or element on a page touches the edge of the page, extending beyond the trim edge, leaving no margin it is said to bleed. It may bleed or extend off one or more sides."

Slug: "Usually non-printing Information (such as a title and date) used to identify a document.”

You can change these settings or not have any bleeds or slug at all. If you are printing to your desktop printer you do not need any bleed allowance.

RULERS

InDesign has rulers which are located right on the top and on the left of the document's window. You have the horizontal ruler (x axis) and the vertical ruler (y axis). They they can help you to measure what you see on screen. If you don't see them you just need to go to View > Show Rules. If you don't want to see them but they are turned on, you go to View > Hide Rules (or press F7 to turn them on or off).

The origin of rules can be changed. There are different ways to do this:

1. Go to the top left corner of your work area where the rules start. Now click on it with your mouse and drag diagonally towards the right. When you release the mouse button, you will see that your 0, or origin of the rules, will be where you released the mouse. 2. Go to InDesign > Preferences (Mac OS) or Edit > Preferences (Windows) and select Units & Increments. Look at the section Ruler Units. You will see that there is a setting called Origin. You can choose between Page, Spread or Spine. While the Page and Spread option are quite obvious, the Spine option isn't really descriptive. The spine is the point where you would be binding your pages. In actual fact Adobe calls it Binding Spine.

To reset your rules as they were before, just double click on the top left corner.

SPINE

This is how I have made this spread. 1 I have opened a new document with the Facing Pages option checked. Page 1 was already there.

2 I then dragged the 2 pages that you see just under page 1 in the Page palette. At this point the spine was in the middle of the two pages.

3 I selected the two page spread and then I went to the Page palette menu and I have activated the Keep Spread Together option.

4 I then added the third page to the two pages spread to make it a three pages spread, to obtain what you see. You can add pages anywhere on the left or on the right of the original two pages spread. You can have a maximum of 10 pages in 1 spread.

Master Text Frame All objects placed on the page or the pasteboard in a desktop publishing software application have a sometimes invisible bounding box or frame around the object - frames designed to hold text are called text frames

So let's get back to our New Document window. If you check the Master Text Frame option, you will have a text frame (or text box) on your master page. This frame will have the column and margin attributes specified in the New Document window.

More Options Now you can click on the More Options button if you want, but that is at your own risk. I know you are tempted... Ah-ah, I caught you, you just clicked on it! Well now you saw them: here are the extra options which allow you to set bleed and slug. Well, if you need to outsource your artwork to a printshop, make sure you set these right, otherwise you will get a black eye ... from your printer!

Usually bleeds are set in a symmetrical way, that is the bleed allowance is the same on all sides. The usual bleed allowance is 3 mm or 0.125 inches, while slugs tend to be just in one place. Just enter the sizes of bleed and slugs in their respective fields and you are set to go.

MARGIN SET-UP So how do you set up margins in InDesign? There are several ways.

The first one and the most simple one is by opening an document and then setting up the margins in the New Document window. Here it is step by step: 1 Go to File > New > Document.

2 There is a section called Margins. By default, margins in InDesign are all the same. But, didn't we just read that they shouldn't be that way? Exactly! You have paid attention. Aahh! These DTP software producers! Why do we have to teach them everything! You will have to enter different values.

PERFECT MARGINS

Guidelines for determining margins Some "rules of thumb" governing margins can help the designer break away from the defaults while still providing all the functions required of margins.

Margin Rule of Thumb #1 Avoid using the same margins on all sides of a publication. In facing-page documents, the inside margin should be smaller than the outside margins. The bottom margin is usually larger than any other margins.

Margin Rule of Thumb #2 In publications with facing pages, the outside margin of each page should be double the inside margin.

Margin Rule of Thumb #3 For best appearance, margins should be sized progressively from smallest to largest: inside, top, outside, bottom.

Putting all these "rules of thumb" together might give us a set of margins such as those shown in the image at the top of the sidebar.

These proportions can produce many different looks.

EX: Make sure that Facing Pages in your New Document window is checked. 1 Let's make the inside margin 12 mm (or 0.5 inches). 2 The outside margin is supposed to be double the inside margin. So we will type 24 mm (or 1 inch) in the outside margin. 3 The inside margin is also supposed to be 1/3 of the bottom margin. So we type 36 mm (or about 1.5 inches) in the bottom margin. 4 The top margin is 1/2 of the bottom margin, so we type 18 mm (or 0.75 inches) in the top margin.

Et voilat! You have just set up your perfect margins. Don't forget to press OK when you have finished.

Changing Margins and Defaults Let's say you have now have your new document and you feel that you need to change the margins. You can still change them without having to open another new document. Just go to Layout > Margins and Columns... A new window named (guess what?) Margins and Columns will open up and you can then change your margins from there.

COLOR


The illustration shows the colour palette in two different colour modes. On top is the palette in CMYK mode and the second one shows you the palette in RGB mode. You can choose which mode to use from the Colour palette's menu (which pops up when you click on the arrow on the top right of the palette, remember?). InDesign allows you to choose a third colour mode, but it is rarely needed and I won't take it up in this course. So ignore it for now.

The way you determine a colour is by either typing percentages on the left of the sliders, or by dragging the sliders with your mouse. Like for the Tools palette, you have your fill colour and your stroke colour which can be applied to objects and/or to text. You will notice that when you change a colour that way, also the colour swatches in your Tools palette will change. So you now have different ways to apply colours to your objects. • If you did not select any object and you change your colours in the Colour palette, then any object you will draw from that point on will have that colour.

• To the contrary if an object was selected and then you changed your colours in your Colour palette, then the colour you made will be applied to that object only.

• If there was an object in your layout already and you made up a colour without selecting the object, you can still apply your new colour to that object. Just select the object now, and click on on your new colour either on your Colour palette or on your Tools palette.

The Swatches Palette in InDesign CS

The Swatches palette goes hand in hand with the Colour palette. Let's say you have just made this nice blue that you need to use throughout the whole document. Yes you can type the percentages of that blue in your Colour palette every time you need to use it, or you can make your life easier by recording that colour into a swatch which will then go to your Swatches palette. That is the main use of the Swatches palette. You can record spot colours, CMYK colours and RGB colours.

Gradient: 1 Open your Gradient palette. 2 Drag one or more colours from either the Swatches palette or the Colour palette.

External Links:
Online InDesign Basics Course
Quark VS InDesign
InDesign Tutorials
InDesign Secrets
InDesign Magazine
InDesign Central

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