Adobe InDesign Basics Craig Polanowski 1. Begin by creating a new document. Chances are pretty good that you will want to turn off the facing pages setting and create single pages instead of spreads.
One of the first opportunities to increase your productivity is the to define presets for your page layout. If you make a newsletter each month, you won t have to set the page size, margins, and other layout features every time. Next month, you would create a new document, and select the appropriate layout from the jump menu on the new document window. Note the information at the lower left hand corner of the page. You can select pages, and viewing size from these jump menus. There are usually three ways to do any task in graphics software. There is no one correct way to proceed. The software is designed to be flexible in handling. You will discover your own combination of jump menus, pull down menus, keyboard shortcuts, and palettes. Remember to save your file early, and save it often. Each time you have done work that you don t want to repeat...save the file. Use Control+S or Command + S (Mac) to save quickly.
Horizontal X axis The upper left corner of the page will display the file name. Beware of untitled. You need to save the page, but you also need to save it with a logical name. The percentage refers the current screen magnification. Vertical Y axis Ruler origin point tool. Drag this on the page to reset the zero point of the ruler. Double-click the tool to reset the zero point to default value. In this example, the rulers have been activated. Use Control + R or Command +R (Mac) to toggle ruler display. The document will display a red outline indicating the margin you have set. The black outline represents the page size. The area around the page is a metaphorical layout table. You can arrange items on the table and drag them into position on the page.
Palettes are conveniently stored at the righthand edge of the window. Click a tab to display it. The palettes are spring loaded to pop out of the work area. You can also access the palettes from the window drop down menu. With the ruler guides activated, you can drag a blue guideline from any white part of the ruler. This can be done repeatedly, from either the x or y axis. You can toggle the visibility of ruler guides. I like to assign them to their own layer. It is possible to lock the guides so you don t accidentally reposition them. You can select a guide with the pointer and press delete to remove it. Use the black pointer to drag ruler guides out of the vertical or horizontal ruler
Remember to save early, and save often. Once the file is closed, you will lose any work that hasn t been saved! Select either a template or document file-type Once you have saved the file, you will see the file name displayed at the top left corner of the window. Bringing attention back to the ruler, Notice the origin point tool in the upper left hand corner. It looks like a set of dotted lines forming a cross at the ends of the ruler. Set the display preference for high quality. In an effort to increase speed, the default is typical. Photographs will be very disappointing in the default view. Remember that this is a page layout program, not an image editor. As such, your concern is more for position then image appearance.
current zero position ruler origin tool (creating a new zero position) By default, the rulers are set for zero at the top left corner of the page. Note the black outline of the page aligns with 0,0. In this screen capture, I have begun to drag the ruler origin tool onto the page. It is represented by a large cross hair that can be moved where desired. When you release the mouse, the zero point of both x and y scale will be set to the new location. This is very much like taping a piece of paper to a table, and moving a ruler around on top of it. Note the new zero location
The tool bar Selection tool - select, re- size, and move Pen tool - create bezier points Pencil tool - free form lines Picture Frame - create image frames Rotation tool Reflect tool Eyedropper - Sample/apply colors Button tool - (interactive projects) Hand tool - move paper around Direct-Selection tool - select individual points, lengthen strokes, reshape frames Text tools - work with type, create frames Straight line tool Shape tools - rectangle, ellipse, polygon Scaling tool Free Transform tool Gradient tool Scissors tool Zoom tool Fill Color Stroke Color restore default colors formatting container normal view formatting text apply color, gradient, none views-preview,bleed,slug
2. Drag an image frame. Select a rectangle and click-drag a frame on the page. The frame must be selected in order to apply any styling to it. This is the same technique used in word processing. If you draw a frame, it will remain selected unless you deselect by clicking the mouse or drawing another shape. Use the black pointer to select the frame if necessary. Selection points appear as small frames indicating the object has been selected. Image frame...with frame edges showing Image frame...with frame edges hidden ( view menu ) properties for the selected frame appear at the top of the screen. Note the proxy reference point at the left edge of the properties panel. You can select a point on the frame to use as a reference with the rulers.
Another way to make a frame is simply to click the tool on the page. That will bring up a dialogue frame to establish size. 3. Apply fill/stroke. While the frame is selected, you can use the tool bar to affect changes to the fill and stroke color. You would select either the fill or the stroke, then select a color from the swatches. You could also create a new swatch color. By the way...any frame can have a fill and/or a stroke. This applies to text frames and image frames. An image frame can t support text and a text frame can t carry an image. 4.Create Text frames. Select the text tool and drag a frame on the page. Still using the text tool, either import text using the place command, or just type in the frame. For those people who are happier typing in a note pad style rather than live on the page, you could work in story editor once you have a text frame. When you select a text frame, the properties reflect type and paragraph properties. Two choices, either type or paragraph specs.
Right-click the page to bring up a contextual menu. Select options as desired. Right-click on the text frame to bring up a contextual menu. Select text frame options. In this case, the text frame was divided into two columns.
5. Working with pages. The page palette offers control over master pages and document pages. You can add pages by dragging a master below the horizontal bar separating the two types of pages. Another way to create a page is to click the icon at the bottom of the palette, next to the trash can. Yes, you can select a page and click on the trash can to dispose of it. fly-out menu horizontal bar There is also a fly-out menu that offers a variety of options for working with pages. The current page is displayed in the page palette and also at the lower left corner of the window. At the moment, I am working on Master Page A. Note the black selection box on the page palette and the words A-Master. add pages You can select pages from the fly-out menu at the bottom of the window. fly-out menu
So...what is a Master Page? Any item that appears on a Master page will appear on subsequent document pages based on that master. This is great for repetitive items like a logo, header, footer, or page number. You could include your name in the header of each page, as I have in this document. You could build a layout of image frames and text frames on a master page, then use that to create document pages. Naturally, you can have multiple master pages. This way, you can design several layouts and mix/match them up in your document. Take a look at a magazine. The pages are not all built the same. There may be four different layouts in use. Master pages provide continuity of design. Yet another way to add pages to the document. Anything on a Master page will appear on a document page, but it is not editable. You must overide the settings in order to actually use the various frames you have made. Master A applied to both document pages... page one and two. Master B applied to document page two. To apply the master, just drag it on top of a document page icon.
6. Step and Repeat Let the computer do the work. You can make perfectly registered duplicates of your frames. By the way, the term comes from the world of print technology. With a frame selected, perform a step and repeat from the pull-down menu. Enter your desired values in the dialogue box, realizing that you already have one copy on the page. The computer does what it does best: math.
7. Align Use the computer to do more math. Select all of the frames you want to position and choose align from the drop-down menu. As in the other Adobe programs, there are multiple alignment possibilities. I usually distribute objects equally. Imagine, it is perfectly positioned without wasting any time?
8. Auto Page Numbering You can include a special character on a Master Page that will automatically create a page number on each document page. Going back to set-up ideas, you should probably enable Layout Adjustment. That way, if you change margins, everything adjusts automatically.
9. Library This is a very nice productivity enhancement. You can create a library file, and drag items into it. When you want to use them, just drag them back to the page. I used a library for all of the text frames in this handout. I had one for italic type, one for body copy, one for this box using a bold stle, and one for each of the arrows you see. Oh yes, you can style the contents of the frame that you drag into the library! Create a new library and save it with an appropriate name. The empty library palette appears.
For the demonstration, I made a simple frame with a 10%K fill. Drag the item into the library and provide an appropriate name. You should name it very specifically and descriptive. The item now appears in the library. If you want to use it on a document page, just drag as many copies as you wish. This is very much like working with symbols in other programs.
10. Workspace. InDesign allows you to view or hide various palettes. Rather than re-inventing the wheel each time you work, you can save your palette arrangement. That will appear in a fly-out menu under the Window drop-down. One of the handy Adobe tools is the navigator. There is a sliding zoom scale at the bottom, as well as the ability to type in a desired magnification. You can drag the page around inside of the red box to reposition it on the screen. If you zoom in, the red box becomes smaller, relative to the page. Note that this palette also has a fly-out menu at the upper right hand corner. You might want this palette displayed routinely as part of your standard workspace. I ll walk you through the workspace settings next. Choose Save Workspace from the Window drop-down menu. Name the configuration with something memorable. Note that it is now a choice from the sub-menu.
11. Style Sheets. No introduction to page layout software would be complete without the best productivity enhancement of all: Stylesheets. InDesign offers paragraph styles, character styles, and object styles. In a nut shell, you define a style. Then, you tag text and objects with the style. This forces continuity of design, but better still, allows changes to be made very rapidly. If you decide all headlines should be blue, the entire document is changed in one click of the mouse. A character style is useful for changing the appearance of a word (or just one letter) whereas the paragraph syle is applied to the entire paragraph. notice the many options available when you set up a style sheet.