CS 73.41B Adobe InDesign 2

Transcription

1 CS 73.41B Adobe InDesign 2 At the beginning of the semester, you ll feel like you re bombarded with details information overload! This Q&A guide covers the nuts and bolts of making this class successful. What is a typical week like? 1. On Monday, an goes out from the instructor with the week s specific assignments and information. 2. The weekly schedule at the class website lists the topics covered that week. 3. InDesign 2 consists of four lecture hours/ week. The first two hours of class lecture are held in the classroom on Thursday. The third hour will be a hands on lab on Thursday. The last lecture hour consist of an Elluminate recorded webcasts or other online activities that will be posted on Friday. 4. After watching in the class lecture and webcasts, visit and navigate to the class website for InDesign 2 to download the PDF of the lab. Special files necessary to complete the lab are located here instructions for downloading homework files are on page Work on the InDesign document as described in the lab assignment. When finished, export the InDesign document as a smallest file size PDF. On occasion, work will be submitted as a native.indd document, such as the Midterm exam or the sample chapter of your book submitted at the end of the semester. 6. Upload the required elements by midnight Thursday using the TURN IN links at the class web page, or bring a print to put in your folder to the Thursday class. 7. Check the CATE Gradebook for recorded work. Labs will be graded within 1 week of submission. CS5? CS5.5? CS6? As mentioned in the course syllabus, this class focuses on CS6, the current version of InDesign. You can use CS5/5.5 because for creating the book, CS5/5.5 is adequate. Because InDesign files aren t interchangeable between CS5 and CS6, I have to prepare separate demo files for lecture and labs. Many of the changes have to do with liquid layouts and that will be covered in InDesign 3. The webcasts will cover CS6. Quiz and test material will also cover CS6. If CS5 demo InDesign files aren t posted at the class website along with CS6 demo files, you will need to open an InDesign 6 demo file in the SRJC computer lab and then File..Export as an InDesign Markup (.idml) file which can be opened in InDesign 5/5.5. As long as you realize all of these issues, you have my permission to work in CS5/5.5. Consider downloading a 30-day free copy of InDesign CS6 from the Adobe website! Some students feel comfortable with the class system as they have already taken CS classes For others this is new territory. Ask questions! 1

2 How do I buy Adobe software? There are three ways to purchase the current software. I recommend buying the CS6 Suite Design and Web Premium. You save money and as an InDesign user, you ll want to use the set of programs in the future. The most current information on purchasing Adobe software for SRJC students: 1. Buy CS6 at the SRJC Bookstore. This is the best deal. The bookstore sells copies on campus and online at its website. 2. Buy an academic version of CS6. There are many retail stores (like the Academic Superstore) that offer special pricing of CS6. 3. Buy or lease the full retail version of the software. The CS6Design Premium has a value of $1899. Is there anything wrong with academic software? No! It s the same as the regular retail software. There may be a few minor things missing, like a small clipart collection, but the software is full-featured. The academic software is not to be used for professional use. In other words, if you are working and making money from InDesign consulting, you should purchase the regular retail software. The big difference is in upgrades when a new version of the software comes out. Adobe typically has a 24 month turnaround for a new version to be announced. There are typically no official upgrades with academic software. But when you consider your options, as a SRJC student you could purchase another academic version of the new software and still save money. Adobe offers an upgrade from the academic software to the commersion version. Contact the Adobe Store for more information. What if I don t have fast internet access? My sympathies. You might want to visit the Petaluma or Santa Rosa campus once a week (or wherever you can find a fast connection) if possible to download your files and watch my webcasts. And, this class works with big files. It s normal for an InDesign document to download at close to 2MB. An important element of the class is working with both high quality and low quality images. My webcasts are enormous streamed video files through Elluminate. I don t mean to be discouraging, but I have to state the expectations of class participation. DSL or Cable internet access is strongly recommended! What if I m repeating the class? There are several students who have successfully completed this class in a previous semester and are repeating it. The course was designed with a Repeat Code for this very purpose some students finish InDesign 2 and want to re-visit the curriculum to really master the advanced material and create another book. These students have one additional requirement their book project must contain more advanced features and it can not be a simple re-do of their first book. And trust me, I will know about everyone s book! 2

3 What s the CATE website? The CATE website at edu (notice that there s no www in the URL) is a SRJC management system. It delivers quizzes and tests, has a system for messages, and includes a gradebook to check recorded scores. Remember your username and password when you check in for the class. You ll need this information when you enter some of the secure areas of CATE, like taking a quiz. When you view the CATE section page for this class, you ll access the following areas: Home: a simpler version of my class website with links to your section. Instructor: limited information about me. If you want more, visit the About page at the class website. Messages: the Message Center is where you can post information and questions to the instructor or class. Lab In Box: where your homework gets submitted. Tests Quizzes & Surveys: where you answer homework questions and take quizzes and tests. Gradebook: a posting of your scores in the class. Elluminate? Elluminate, now blackboard, is provided by the state as a method of presenting online classes. It works OK, and is getting better. I will record our 3rd hour of class, and present a new topic. If the week s topic is difficult, I may reinforce the weekly lecture in this hour. This is required viewing, but you have the week to view it when you have the time. Once the recording starts, there are controls at the bottom of the screen to pause/play, advance through the recording, and adjust the volume. If you can t finish a webcast in one session, mark down the time that you stop and use the slider to resume back to this location at a later time. How do I submit homework? You have 2 choices for most assignments. You can either print out the document and put it in your folder and turn it in the following week after assigned, or submit it electronically, by Midnight, Thursday, of the week it is due. To do this, 1. Finish your InDesign lab, create a PDF copy of your work by choosing the File>Adobe PDF Presets..[Smallest File Size] menu. This PDF embeds the fonts and graphics used in your file, plus resamples any photographic images to 100 ppi. Sending me an InDesign file will deduct 2 points from your score because it will be a bigger file, I ll probably have font substitution issues and will get a message about missing graphics. Some fonts are copyrighted and do not embed in a PDF. If you get a warning message about a font when you create a PDF, reformat with a different font. 2. Your PDF filename should be in the format Lab# with no spaces (for example, Lab1). Your name will be automatically added to the PDF file later by CATE. 3. Submit your lab through the CATE Lab In Box for this section using your username and password. The Turn In section of each weekly section of the class website has a link to get you there. Browse to locate your PDF file, then choose the Upload File button to submit. If you need to resubmit the homework because you found a mistake before the due date, change its name to Lab1b as you can only submit a file once. I ll only look at the most current version with the highest letter. The CATE Lab In Box has separate turn in areas for both sections. 4. Some labs require additional questions to be answered using the CATE Tests Quizzes & Surveys button, or postings to the class Message Center 3

4 How do I Windsor? is the best way to reach me. I will answer public and private posts to the CATE Message Center within 24 hours Monday through Friday. The best system is to use CATE. If you must send me a regular , include the appropriate subject line in the format InDesign 2 #0567 your name. When you post to the Message Center, you create either a private message to me or a public message for everyone in the class. If you have a question about a lab assignment, check the Message Center first to see if there is an existing post related to your question. You can post a question here to see if fellow classmates will be kind enough to reply I ll check messages regularly and answer questions, also. When I reply to a private message, it is available only at CATE and not your . If you have any desktop publishing, font, or InDesign news to share, post it! I ve set up CATE so that public and private postings are viewed only at the CATE web archives. Message Center etiquette is important to me. Refrain from comments which can be considered demeaning to other students in the class. Profanity is not allowed. Postings must be related to class events and activities. How do I download instructions and files to do the homework? The InDesign class website links to informational PDF files (like the weekly lab instructions) and additional files necessary to complete a lab assignment (such as a graphic image that needs to be put into an InDesign document). There s an overload of information here, some of which will come into play later in the semester. PDF files are supported by most browsers. Either Acrobat or Reader will automatically launch to display the PDF, or your browser might have its own built-in PDF viewer. Adobe Reader is the free PDF viewer. Acrobat is a much more advanced program that extends the capabilities of a PDF. If your browser is not configured for PDF files, you can save the file using the method below and then open it using Reader or Acrobat. Once opened, you can read, print, and save the PDF file. PDFs are universal they open on both Macs and PCs, don t require the installation of InDesign or special fonts, and embed the graphics. It s everything rolled into one. Other types of linked files, such as native In- Design documents, graphics (Photoshop files, gif images, Illustrator artwork, and clipart) and text files need to be saved to your hard drive before importing into InDesign. You don t need Photoshop, Illustrator or Word installed on your computer to work with these files in InDesign. Just store them on your disk and import them. 4

5 Here are the instructions to download a single InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop or clipart image: 1. Mac: control + mouse click on the link to the file (use control not the apple key) for a 1-button mouse PC: right click on the link (I highly recommend that Mac users work with a 2-button mouse) 2. When a menu appears, choose your browser s option to save the file as described below. There are different browsers on both Mac and PC, and I did my best to find many popular options. Note: the word Image appears for photographic images; otherwise an option will appear to save the Link for other filetypes. Firefox: Save Image/Link As Safari: Save Image To / Download Linked File Explorer: Save Target As Netscape: Save Image As / Save Link to Disk 3. Choose a location to save your InDesign document on your hard drive. Macintosh users using Safari may have to change the inappropriate 3-letter.txt extension at the end of the filename to.ai for Illustrator files or.indd for InDesign files. On the PC, vector graphics may be downloaded as a PDF or.ps file format don t worry as these graphics will still import into InDesign. Your other choice is to open PDF and PostScript files in Illustrator and re-save as a native (.ai) file. 4. Start Adobe InDesign. File>Open the InDesign document (.indd) or template (.indt). Later you will learn to import an Illustrator, Photoshop, or clipart graphic into an InDesign layout using Bridge or the File..Place menu. Tell me more about the project The ongoing theme in this class is that you are going to create a long document, a book project of your own content. It is actually a series of documents that are combined into an InDesign book. You work on your project throughout the semester, and many of the assigned labs create essential elements of your project. Your book must contain substantial text and graphics so that you can demonstrate the skills you have mastered in the class. A common question is How many pages in the book? You are required to have a minimum of three chapters with a minimum of 8-10 pages per chapter. Once you get started, you ll find that the content just starts flowing and that it s easy to meet the minimum number of pages. On occasion, I get a book with over 100 pages in it from a student who goes content crazy. Other students may have ambitious initial intentions, but wisely regard the book project as a wonderful start to the process, complete three chapters to meet course requirements, and then finish the book after the semester ends. The topics in the class are set up to provide you with the necessary skills to create a book. After you learn to create a template, you ll be able to start creating each chapter with text and graphics. When the topics of booking, table of contents, and indexing are completed, you ll be able to finish your project and submit it to either lulu.com or blurb.com for online printing. Throughout the semester, I will provide several opportunities to work on InDesign sample book files. Putting together a series of InDesign documents involves a lot of planning and advanced skills. Don t wait until the last minute to work on your project. Give yourself several weeks of leeway. The last class will be reserved for project presentations. It s the funnest class of the semester! 5

6 There are two different online printshops that I recommend for printing your book, either in soft cover (perfect bound or spiral bound) or hardcover. You may choose either printshop based on your needs for the project. My job is to guide you through the process of making a book that is compatible with the requirements for the online printshop that s why I ve limited it to two different companies. I ve used both companies with good success and students seem to be quite happy with the finished result. What about quizzes and tests? Class quizzes are available in this area of CATE. 1. Navigate to the CATE Tests Quizzes & Surveys area using the link at the InDesign 2 class website. 2. Locate the desired assignment 3. Enter your username and password. 4. Select the correct answer for each question. 5. You can only submit a quiz once. It s not permitted to start and stop a test or quiz. You have to finish in one session or points will be deducted. Click on the Submit button when done. How much time do you have to answer quiz questions? Quizzes are timed. You ll need to study beforehand. While there is ample time allocated to answer the questions and look up a few questions, anyone attempting to learn as you go and look up each question will probably be unsuccessful. Quiz and test results will be posted in the gradebook later after everyone in the class has taken the exam. The gradebook will also include a link so that you can review the correct answers. The midterm exam is a take-home test. You will be asked to complete a series of InDesign tasks and will submit the InDesign document to me at CATE for grading. Do I have to take the final? After the take-home midterm, I will let you know your standing in the class. Right before the final exam, you ll be able to see your total points at the CATE gradebook, including the final project grade. Some students taking the class pass/no pass may not have to take the final exam in order to pass the class because they are already at a C grade. 6