Adobe Tips on Bob Wertz

Quick Tip: InDesign out of order

Tue, 15 Mar 2016 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on March 16, 2016 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

NOTE: While this page may have useful insights, be aware that it was published more than 10 years ago and may not be relevant for current software versions.

I wanted to create a PDF of some pages in an InDesign document, but I needed them in a different order in the exported PDF — page three followed by page two. I know, weird. So I was going to make the PDF and then rearrange the pages in Acrobat.

But as I was exporting the PDF, I wondered what would happen if I typed exactly what I wanted in the page range field. I typed “3,2” and hit the export button expecting an error message…

Magically, my PDF outputted correctly with page three first, followed by page two. Mind. Blown.

To export these in order, type “2-4, 1” in the page range field and the exported PDF will be in the correct reading order.

Turns out the range field has other tricks, too. I tried “3,2,4,3,2” expecting it to give me an error message. Nope. The resulting PDF had all five pages, in that order… including the multiple pages.

The most practical use for this little trick is when you’ve set up a brochure with the back cover and front cover on the same spread and want to export the pages in the order a viewer will see them. Typically page 4 is first, followed by 1-3. So type “2-4, 1” in the page range field and the PDF will export in the correct reading order.

It’s a nice touch. And I had no idea the feature was there.

Split PDFs in Acrobat by file size

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on November 18, 2015 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

NOTE: While this page may have useful insights, be aware that it was published more than 10 years ago and may not be relevant for current software versions.

I don’t think I’ve ever posted a tip for Adobe Acrobat, but I found something this week that was amazingly helpful.

I had a large file with many pages that I needed to email. (Dropbox and other sharing services weren’t an option for this client. Only email.) I needed to divide the PDF into several smaller PDFs. There are many ways to do this, but most require some trial and error.

I stumbled across a feature in Acrobat that lets you split a PDF into multiple files and allows you to set a maximum file size for each resulting file.

NOTE: I’m writing this tip about the current version of Acrobat that is included with Creative Cloud. The Adobe Acrobat DC (2015) interface is wacky and a radical departure from everything else Adobe makes.* It’s closer to the current version of Microsoft Office than Creative Cloud.

Open your massive PDF and then click “Tools” at the top of the open window. You’ll come to a page with lots of icons for editing functions. Select “Organize Pages” from the “Create & Edit” grouping.

Select “Organize Pages” from the top row.

At the top of the window, you will now have an button for “Spilt.” Clicking “Split” opens up a row below with more options. By default, Acrobat will split your document into multiple files with an equal number of pages, but if you select the “Number of Pages” combo box, you get additional options: “File size” and “Top level bookmarks.”

The toolbar for “Organize Pages” has the “Split” command.

Choose file size and then set your maximum file size. Click the split button and the separated files will be saved to your desktop.

The options button for the “Split” row gives you complete control of how and where the files are saved. So if you need to use a particular naming convention or have Acrobat save the new file to a specific directory, you can make those changes there.

If you absolutely need to email a PDF and compressing or downsampling the file isn’t an option for you, then “Split” will absolutely save you time.

* I’ve been told the Acrobat team and the Creative Cloud team are completely separate. It looks like it.

Moving an InDesign page to a different document

Tue, 10 Nov 2015 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on November 11, 2015 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

NOTE: While this page may have useful insights, be aware that it was published more than 10 years ago and may not be relevant for current software versions.

This week, I needed to copy pages from one InDesign file to another. Thankfully, it’s super easy.

Select the page you want to copy from the pages palette. Choose “Move Pages…” from the flyout menu on the pages palette. (Or Layout > Pages > Move pages…)

You can then choose which pages* you want to move and where you want to move it. The default is to move the pages to another spot in the same document, but you can select any document that is open.

Select the destination with the “Move to:” combo box.

And you are done. As a bonus tip, there’s a similar trick in Photoshop, too, that I’ve written about in the past.

* In case you were wondering, it doesn’t matter if the documents you are merging are different page sizes.

The definitive guide to rounding corners in InDesign CC 2015

Tue, 27 Oct 2015 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on October 28, 2015 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

NOTE: While this page may have useful insights, be aware that it was published more than 10 years ago and may not be relevant for current software versions.

Over the last two weeks, a 2010 post of mine on rounding corners has suddenly become very popular.* I wrote it for CS4 and posted an updated version for CS5. But I wanted to revisit the tip and update it for Creative Cloud 2015.

The process for rounding corners is actually more complicated than I expected and is different depending on what shape you are working with.

Rounding corners on a square or rectangle

Rounding the corners** on a rectangle is straightforward and there are actually a couple of ways to do it.

The yellow box method: When you click on a rectangle with the selection tool, a yellow box appears near the upper right hand corner. Click the yellow box and diamonds appear at the corners. Drag the corners inward to round the corners equally.

To round only one corner, click the yellow box and then, while holding down shift, click and drag on the corner you want to modify.

(1) Click the yellow box in the upper right hand corner to edit the corners. (2) Drag the diamonds to change the amount of the corner effect. (3) Hold the shift Key to change only one corner.

The dialog box method: If you prefer a little more precision, you can go to Object > Corner Options… and set the rounded corner to a specific value. And it’s easy to round one corner.

Set the amount and style of your corner effects with the corner options dialog box. Uncheck the chain icon to set corners independently.

The control palette method: You can set a rounded corner value for all four corners in the control palette.

View fullsize

The corner controls are easy to find… It’s the only icon in the Control Palette with blue dots.

Rounding all corners on polygons that are not squares or rectangles

So rounding corners on rectangles is easy, but what if you don’t have a rectangle. It’s still easy, but different.

The yellow box method: Doesn’t work. The yellow box appears only for rectangles. Triangle, trapezoid, hexagon… no yellow box.

The dialog box method: Works just like it does for the rectangle with one, major exception. You can’t round individual corners. All of the corners have to be exactly the same.

Try to change the corner size or shape on a shape other than a rectangle and all but one input field is faded out.

The control palette method: Exactly the same as the rectangle method, with no control over individual corners.

Rounding individual corners on a polygon

So let’s say I want to round selected corners on any polygon. None of the normal methods will work, but thankfully, Adobe provides a script for this.

The scripting panel (Window > Utilities > Scripts) contains an Application folder with sample scripts in Applescript and Javascript. Select the “CornerEffects.applescript” or “CornerEffects.jsx.”

The top part of the dialog box essentially provides the same options as the “Corner Options” dialog box. And the offset box allows you to adjust the size of the corner. The Pattern combo box defaults to “all points,” but take a look at the options available: first point, last point, second point, third point, odd points, even points and more…

When applied to a box, it gives you the ability to round or bevel selected corners. Sometimes, it takes a little trial and error to figure out which point the “first” point is. The first point usually seems to be point in the upper left and then selection moves counterclockwise.

Pretty much the only way to make these shapes in InDesign is with the Corner Effects Script.

You can also use the odd and even points patterns on a star shape. “Odd points” effect the inside points. “Even points” modify the outside points.

That should help you round any corner you need. As an aside, Adobe Illustrator has a completely different and superior corner rounding process. Personally, I hope that Adobe adopts the Illustrator method in InDesign.

* Google works in mysterious ways.

** You can do more than just round corners. You can bevel them or create several different effects. But most people just want to round them.

Creative Spelling

Tue, 06 Oct 2015 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on October 7, 2015 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

NOTE: While this page may have useful insights, be aware that it was published more than 10 years ago and may not be relevant for current software versions.

If you’re like me, your clients have all sorts of brand names, executive names, cities and URLs that give InDesign’s spell check fits. But you don’t have to just click “skip” repeatedly during a spell check. Add these to the user dictionary.

Pull up the user dictionary by going to Edit > Spelling > User Dictionary… and add your terms here. If you want a name or URL to be case sensitive, check the case sensitive box.

This is particularly helpful for URLs with creative capitalization. If I want “sketchbookb.com” to always be “SketchbookB.com,” I add “SketchbookB.com” to the dictionary and check the case sensitive box. Now if I type “sketchbookb.com” somewhere, spell check will recommend “SketchbookB.com” instead.

Bonus tip: Using the import and export buttons, you can share your user dictionaries with your coworkers.

InDesign CC 2015: Paragraph Shading

Tue, 16 Jun 2015 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on June 17, 2015 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Adobe has released the 2015 version of Creative Cloud. And that, of course, brings new versions of InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. Lots of blogs are covering the headline features, but I often find that the small improvements often impact my workflow the most. I’m still exploring the applications, but figured I’d start posting new features as I discover them.

The first one in InDesign that jumped out at me is paragraph shading. You can now apply shading to any paragraph… so no more drawing a color block behind a block of text you want to highlight.

The blue box is created using paragraph shading. Here, I’ve ALSO inset the paragraph margins.

A couple of obvious advantages to this:

If you want to shade a paragraph within a long block of text, it will move and resize automatically as you make changes.
It can be completely controlled and modified through style sheets, making it infinitely more powerful.

You can apply basic paragraph shading from the Control Palette or Paragraph Palette, but to gain full control, select “Paragraph Shading…” from the flyout menu on the Paragraph palette. The dialog box provides options to use a tint, set an offset and control how the shading is applied.

The full paragraph shading dialog box offers more options.

There is also an option for “Do not Print or Export*,” which is pretty cool if you want to highlight a passage that needs to be updated, but don’t want it to print. (I often set text that needs to be updated in 100% magenta. Now I have the option to shade it…)

* Not sure about the capitalization here, Adobe…

QR Codes in InDesign

Tue, 07 Oct 2014 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on October 8, 2014 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

InDesign will let you create a QR codes without leaving the application. Go to Object > Generate QR code… You’ll have options for hyperlink, text message, email, business card or plain text.

Once you have all the information filled out, you can then place the QR code like you would an image.

I will freely admit that I tend to avoid QR codes like the plague. I’m not convinced of their effectiveness. But sometimes, you need to use one and generating one without leaving InDesign is helpful.

Optical alignment and the oddball, single-function Story palette

Tue, 30 Sep 2014 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on October 1, 2014 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Tucked away in InDesign’s Window menu is a Story palette. This palette has exactly one function – to turn on and off optical margin alignment.

You can find the Story palette at Window > Type & Tables > Story. There are two settings. The first is a checkbox to activate optical margin alignment. And the second alters the intensity of the alignment.

Optical margin alignment automatically adjusts the positioning of characters on the margin. It’s especially noticeable for punctuation and letters like “A” and “W” which look a little odd lined up exactly on the margin. See the example below.

Optical margin alignment. Off (left) and on (right). Notice how the quotation mark and the lower case “w” move in relation to the margin.

I’m not sure why Adobe didn’t just include it on the Paragraphs palette. Seems odd to hide such a powerful feature on a random single-function palette.

Follow the leader

Tue, 16 Sep 2014 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on September 17, 2014 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Most people don’t know how to use tabs properly. But tabs can be really powerful, especially if you are building a form or table of contents.

Below you see a simple form with the tab ruler above it. Select each tab and type an underscore in the “Leader” box. Whatever character you type in the “Leader” box will repeat all the way to the tab. The underscore becomes the lines on the form. Much quicker and more accurate than trying to draw the underlines yourself. And much, much easier to edit the form later.

If you are building a table of contents, you may want to have a dotted line from the end of the chapter name to the page number. Don’t type a bunch of periods! Just set the “Leader” to a period. You can also use a right-justified tab to line up all your numbers correctly. Faster to build. Faster to edit.

Highlighting bad lines

Tue, 26 Aug 2014 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on August 27, 2014 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

InDesign can highlight lines of text that are spaced badly. By default, the highlighting is turned off for justification issues. To turn it on, go to InDesign > Preferences > Composition… The highlighting options are at the top of the window:

Turning on “H&J Violations” will highlight in yellow any place where InDesign can’t meet your hyphenation and justification settings. Here’s an example of a block of justified text with hyphenation turned off:

The worse the violation, the darker the yellow highlight is. Here is the same passage with hyphenation turned on:

Obviously, allowing InDesign to hyphenate and handle the bad breaks results in much better spacing.

I try to avoid full justification because of the issues that almost always come up with the spacing. But sometimes, you have to justify. And when you do, it’s easier to spot and fix badly spaced lines with the highlighting turned on.

Grouping Colors in InDesign CC 2014

Tue, 24 Jun 2014 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on June 25, 2014 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

The new versions of Creative Cloud are out, and InDesign has picked up a few new features. One of the minor tweaks will be really welcomed by obsessive compulsive designs.

InDesign CC (2014) now lets you group your colors into folders. Just click the folder icon at the bottom of the Swatches palette to make a new color group.

While it’s a small thing, having the ability to group colors will be helpful or large and complex documents.

Measure twice...

Tue, 03 Jun 2014 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on June 4, 2014 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

InDesign has a built-in ruler – the Measurement tool that hides behind the Eyedropper. You can use it in a couple of ways.

Select the Measurement tool and draw a line to measure something. The Info palette should open. Your measurement results will appear in the Info palette.

Below, measuring the left side of the magenta box, you can see the length (D1) and the angle. Also note that the width and height of the shape, the coordinates and the colors are also shown in the Info palette. And once you’ve drawn a measurement line, you can move it around to compare to other shapes.

Distance and angle is easy to find.

But that’s not all. You may need to measure the angle between two lines. If I want to measure the angle between the pink and black boxes, InDesign has a hidden “protractor” measurement mode. Draw your first line. Then, holding down the option key, draw a second line that starts at the endpoint of the first line. Your cursor should change into a protractor that looks suspiciously like a compass. When you draw both lines, your measurements for the first line (D1), second line (D2) and the angle between them is shown.

Protractor measurement mode in action.

Oddly, this ruler is more capable than the one in Illustrator where I would use it more often. The Illustrator measurement tool lacks a protractor mode. Seems like it would be an easy addition for them. (And if Adobe really wanted to improve the ruler in their apps, they should take some tips from the type design app, Glyphs, which has an amazingly functional measurement tool.)

Everyone wants more white space

Tue, 06 May 2014 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on May 7, 2014 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

InDesign offers 14 different types of spaces. Just go to Type > Insert White Space… A very old post on Adobe’s site explains the differences. I don’t use them very often. For me, the Thin Space, Nonbreaking Space and the Figure Space can be quite helpful. It’s nice to know they are there.

Better spacing or fewer hyphens

Mon, 28 Apr 2014 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on April 29, 2014 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

NOTE: While this page may have useful insights, be aware that it was published more than 10 years ago and may not be relevant for current software versions.

Hyphenation can be critical when you’re trying to justify text. Below is a passage with three hyphens:

Lots of people hate hyphens and might ask you to turn off hyphenation. That’s a bad idea because then it will look like this:

That’s some bad spacing. Thankfully, InDesign offers a better way to control hyphenation. Go to the flyout menu on the Paragraph palette and choose “Hyphenation…” A dialog box will pop up:

InDesign checks the entire paragraph and decides the best locations for hyphenation based on your settings. Look for the slider at the bottom of the box. On one side, you have “Better Spacing” and on the other “Fewer Hyphens.” Choosing the “Fewer Hyphens” side will only leave the hyphens that InDesign needs for proper spacing. Below is the same passage with “Fewer Hyphens” selected.

InDesign eliminated one hyphen and changed the hyphenation on “coordinate” to maintain good spacing. I usually adjust the settings with the “Preview” box checked so I can see the changes as I move the slider.

Just know that you have more hyphenation options than “on” and “off.”

Align strokes

Tue, 22 Apr 2014 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on April 23, 2014 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

NOTE: While this page may have useful insights, be aware that it was published more than 10 years ago and may not be relevant for current software versions.

In the middle of the Stroke palette are the Align Stroke options.

InDesign lets you determine where the stroke is located on a box or shape. In the middle of the stokes palette is the “Align Stroke” option. By default, the stroke is centered on the path. So a 2 point line with have 1 point outside the box and 1 point inside the box.

With thicker strokes, the placement of the stroke really matters. Below are three boxes that are drawn to be exactly the same size. The only difference is the alignment of the stroke.

These three boxes are the same size. Only the alignment of the stroke varies. From left to right: Inside, Centered, Outside.

It’s helpful to use these settings when you are trying to get precisely measured shapes. I use the inside alignment option all the time.

Star command

Mon, 14 Apr 2014 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on April 15, 2014 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

NOTE: While this page may have useful insights, be aware that it was published more than 10 years ago and may not be relevant for current software versions.

Stars and polygons are easy to build in InDesign. Most people, myself included, set the angles and number of sides by double clicking on the Polygon tool. Which brings up a dialog box allowing you to set the number of sides and star inset percentage.

But let’s say you want to change the number of sides or the star inset angle while you are drawing the shapes? Easy. Start to draw the shape. Press the spacebar and then use the arrow keys to adjust the shape without opening the dialog box. Right and left arrows change the angle of the star inset. Up and down changes the number of sides.

**But here’s the really awesome tip.**Start to draw a star or polygon. Don’t push the space bar like you did above. Simply push the arrow keys right or left. InDesign creates a horizontal line of identical shapes. If you use just the up and down arrows, the shapes form a vertical line. Or use both sets of arrows and create a grid of shapes.

Even better, the grid tip also works on rectangles and circles, too. It’s magic.

A couple of rows of shapes created with the arrow keys.

A grid of circles created using the arrow keys while drawing.

FYI: The spacebar acts like a toggle. So you can easily switch between the two modes.

Change the size of the pasteboard in InDesign

Tue, 08 Apr 2014 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on April 9, 2014 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

NOTE: While this page may have useful insights, be aware that it was published more than 10 years ago and may not be relevant for current software versions.

The InDesign pasteboard is narrow on the top and bottom and wide on the sides. But it can be changed. Before…

Go to InDesign > Preferences > Guides & Pasteboard… and change the “Pasteboard Options” at the bottom of the preference screen.

Change the horizontal margins to 10 inches and the vertical margins to 2.5 inches and it looks a little different…

I’m not sure how often I’ll change the margins. The defaults have always worked pretty well for me. But especially on large format designs, it will be nice to have the option.

Customizing an underline

Tue, 01 Apr 2014 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on April 2, 2014 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

NOTE: While this page may have useful insights, be aware that it was published more than 10 years ago and may not be relevant for current software versions.

I don’t typically underline much. I usually don’t like the default thickness of the line or the positioning. But in InDesign, you can completely customize your underline styles.

To change the appearance of an underline, select some text. Go to the flyout menu on the far right of the Control palette. (That’s the wide palette docked by default underneath the menu bar.) Choose “Underline Options….” from the menu to pull up a dialog box:

Change the weight, stroke style, positioning and color of the underline.

You can easily change the appearance of the underline – the thickness, positioning, color, stroke style and more.

Two additional tips:

If you have created a custom stroke, you can use it as an underline too. (See last week’s tip for how to create a custom stroke pattern.)
You can save “Underline Options” in a paragraph style to apply it throughout your document. And you can save style sheets and load them into other files.

Custom strokes in InDesign

Tue, 25 Mar 2014 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on March 26, 2014 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Need to build a custom stroke in InDesign? Easy. Go to the flyout menu on the Stroke palette and choose “Stroke Styles…”

A dialog box will open with several options and a list of custom strokes. Choose “New…” to get the stroke editor. You can make dashed, dotted or lined patterns, change the length and pattern of the stroke and preview your designs at different weights.

InDesign provides lots of options for designing custom strokes.

The custom strokes are saved on a document level, but you can save your designs and load strokes into other documents. If you want a custom stroke to be added to all new documents by default, simply add the stroke with no documents open.

Keeping colors in proportion

Tue, 11 Mar 2014 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on March 12, 2014 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

In InDesign, you want to modify a color slightly, keeping it in the same basic hue. Maybe you’ve duplicated a color and need a slightly lighter or darker color to complement your design. You double click the swatch in the palette and you get this:

Moving the sliders individually will radically alter the color. You need to move all the sliders at once, keeping them in proportion. And InDesign has a way to do this. Simply hold down the shift key as you click and drag the sliders. They will all move together:

Look at the numbers in the screenshot above. I simply clicked on the Cyan slider and moved it to the left while holding down the shift key. All of the sliders moved in proportion. Cyan went from 72% to 62%. And the other colors moved, too. Here’s another screenshot where I’ve moved the Cyan slider to 52%:

And the same trick works in Illustrator, too. Just hold the shift key to move the Color palette sliders together. It’s a simple and powerful way to adjust your color palette.

Reshape a path quickly in Illustrator

Tue, 25 Feb 2014 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on February 26, 2014 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Here is my first Wednesday Quick Tip for Adobe Illustrator. Using the pencil tool, you can quickly reshape any path. Select the object that you want to edit. Then using the pencil tool, draw a new shape for the path. You MUST start drawing on (or very close to) the original path AND finish on the path.

Below is an example. I took a normal square and using the pencil tool, reshaped it into some half-blob thing.

Using the pencil tool, reshape an existing path.

If you are having issues with this tip, make sure that your path was selected before you started to redraw the path and make sure that you start and finish redrawing on or very close to the path.

While the example is somewhat extreme, it’s a very handy tip for polishing shapes or cleaning up rough edges.

Indent to Here

Tue, 18 Feb 2014 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on February 19, 2014 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Let’s say you are working on a poster in InDesign and you have something that looks like this:

Wouldn’t it be great to line all that type up under the “S” in “Someplace…” Shown here with “Show Hidden Characters” turned on.

You want the text on the right to align neatly. There are lots of ways to accomplish this, but the easiest is the “Indent to Here” character. You find it under Type > Insert Special Character > Other > Indent to Here. (If you prefer keyboard shortcuts like I do, it’s Command - .) This awesome invisible marker wraps everything underneath it back to that character.

The “Indent to Here” character is signified by the cross symbol when you turn on “Show Hidden Characters.”

It’s handy when there is only one or two lines to do. With lots of lines or complex lists, there are, of course, better ways to handle the indent. I find that I tend to use it most often on posters, fliers or invitations.

Color-coded master pages in InDesign

Tue, 28 Jan 2014 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on January 29, 2014 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

If you use master pages in InDesign, it can be difficult to see what master is applied to each page. But you can easily color code your master pages.

Buried in the Pages palette flyout menu (Page Attributes > Color Label) is a command to color code a page. When it’s applied to a Master page, it’s automatically applied to all of the pages that use that Master page. (Color coding can be applied to individual pages as well.)

Selecting colors for each of your masters makes it much easier to see which master is applied to each page.

Before and after: It’s now much easier to tell which pages have master pages applied.

Customizing InDesign's Links Panel

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on February 5, 2010 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

NOTE: While this page may have useful insights, be aware that it was published more than 10 years ago and may not be relevant for current software versions.

I’m primarily a print designer. So when it comes to linked files in InDesign, I need to know two main things – what is the color space of the linked file and what is the resolution of the file. InDesign CS4 makes it easy to find this info. If you click the arrow in the lower left hand corner of the Links Panel, you’ll see a link information box that gives you all sorts of data about the selected link including color space, actual PPI and effective PPI. (Actual PPI measures what the resolution of the file in its native form. Effective PPI calculates the output resolution based on how it is scaled within InDesign.)

It’s great and very handy, but you can only see one link at a time. And if you are trying to scan a document quickly to find low-res or RGB files, you still have to click on each link. Thankfully, Adobe offers another option. On the Links Panel, go to the flyout menu and select “Panel Options.”

Select “Panel Options” from the flyout menu…

…and you can fully customize the appearance of your Link Panel.

Here you can customize what information is shown in the Link Info Box AND you can add information to show up in the Link Panel itself. Very handy for scanning a document quickly.

Link Panel showing color space and effective resolution.

How GREP can save you time in InDesign

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on October 6, 2009 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

NOTE: While this page may have useful insights, be aware that it was published more than 10 years ago and may not be relevant for current software versions. Sadly, links to other resources might be broken.

I received a file containing 100 pages of information in a table. The table needed to be placed into InDesign. No problem…

Well, of course there was one problem. Randomly, the lines began with spaces. Not every line, but most lines. So the left edge of the table looked ragged. So how do you take out random spaces at the beginning of text? In a table? Without doing it manually? (Because I have much better things to do than going through a 100+ page document line-by-line…)

What is GREP?

In InDesign CS3 and CS4, you can choose to do GREP find and change. GREP is a text search function originally written for UNIX. Basically, it lets you look for patterns and allows you to do find and replace based on those patterns.

So back to the random spaces…

What I had was a pattern. Find all spaces at the beginning of the paragraph and replace with nothing. GREP was the perfect solution.

Next to the find and change fields are flyout menus (marked with “@”) that give you shortcuts to all of the variables. For example, go to “Locations>Beginning of a Paragraph” and InDesign inserts a “^” into the field.

So I typed “^ ” (there is a space after the ^) in the “Find what” field – which tells InDesign to find one space at the beginning of any paragraph. I left the “Change to” field blank, clicked “Change All” and several thousand instances were changed instantly. Without having to go through line-by-line…

EDIT: Above, I set up the search with the ^ (to find the beginning of the paragraph) and a space after it. And while it works, a reader pointed out correctly that a better search would have been “^\s+” which would have found one or more spaces at the beginning of a line.

What else can GREP do?

I’ve used GREP to replace dashes or periods at the beginning of lines. And GREP is perfect for standardizing the formatting of a phone number across an entire document. GREP is amazingly powerful and you can build a GREP search for anything with a pattern. I’ve only scratched the surface…

You can save queries to be reused. (Several sample searches – including a phone number formatting query – are already saved as a sample searches in InDesign. It’s located at the top of the dialog box.)

InDesign also lets you apply GREP-based character styles – for example, telling it to find all prices in a document and apply a particular style.

It’s probably not for everyone.

You aren’t going to need GREP find/change unless you are doing some pretty heavy duty, long document work like magazines, catalogs and directories.

I’m pretty sure most InDesign users aren’t doing that kind of work. But if that type of project comes across your desk, keep in mind that GREP might be a great – and time-saving – solution for your project.

More resources

Want to learn more about what GREP can do for you? If you do a search for GREP, there are lots of resources out there. Two that I have found helpful:

A very helpful and well-written PDF from Michael Murphy at The InDesigner. It’s actually about CS3, but it’s very helpful in detailing how to build a GREP search.
Search using GREP expressions from Adobe’s InDesign help documentation. Provides some great examples of what GREP is capable of doing.

More powerful text placement in InDesign

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on July 29, 2009 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

So let’s say you have a long text to place into InDesign – a magazine article or a training manual. In talking to some friends who are InDesign users, many of them place the text one frame at a time. But it can be so much easier than that…

Enlargements of InDesign’s text placement cursors. The cursors (and functions) change depending on what additional modifier keys are pressed. From left to right: Manual (default), Semi-Autoflow (Option/Alt), Autoflow (Shift) and Fixed-Page Autoflow (Shift + Option/Alt).

Default behavior…

When your cursor is loaded with text in InDesign, you can place the copy by clicking or by drawing a text box. You load your cursor by going to File>Place or by clicking on a text frame’s overset indicator (the red plus in the lower right “out port”).

If you click on the page, a text frame is created to fill either the page margins or a single column. (You set the margins and column settings when you open a new document.) If you draw a text frame, the text fills the new frame.

One more thing to note about the default behavior. When you are done placing the text, the tool reverts back to what it was before you went to File>Place. So if the Rectangle Tool was selected when you loaded your cursor, after you place the text, the tool becomes a rectangle again. Most of the time, that’s exactly the behavior you want.

Hold down the option key…

(Or the Alt key for you Windows users) If you are placing a long piece of text, you may want to draw a few text boxes and have the story flow between them. In this case, the default behavior of reverting back to original tool is irritating because it forces you to keep switching tools.

However, if you hold down the option key, the cursor stays loaded. You can continue to click or draw frames and the copy with automatically flow between them.

Or the shift key…

So let’s say you have a long training document that’s going to be several pages. When you place the copy, you keep having to add pages and link the text frames. If only InDesign would add the pages and frames for you…

Well, it can. Hold down the shift key when your text is loaded and click. InDesign will autoflow the copy, adding pages and text frames for the entire length of the copy.

Note: If you hold down the shift key and try to draw a text box, the default behavior kicks in and the tool reverts to what it was before you placed the text.

Use the shift key and the option/alt key together…

If you hold down the shift and option keys at the same time and click, InDesign autoflows the copy for that spread only, but it leaves the cursor loaded. If you draw a new text frame instead of just clicking, the copy doesn’t autoflow, but the cursor does stay loaded.

The absolute easiest way to control breaks in InDesign CS4

Mon, 04 May 2009 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on May 5, 2009 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that in InDesign CS4, you could use nonbreaking hyphens and spaces to control bad breaks in phone numbers and proper names. And you can, but this week, I discovered an even easier technique.

Step one: Highlight the text you want to keep together.

Step two: Go to Character Palette and from the flyout menu, select “No Break.”

And that’s it. I’ve looked back and this feature is in CS3 as well. It’s probably been there all along and I’ve never noticed…

Vignette effect without leaving InDesign

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:00:00 -0400

This post was originally posted on March 17, 2009 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

I tend to use a lot of solid color blocks in my designs. One of my favorite tricks in InDesign CS4 is to create a type of vignette using the “Basic Feather” effect. (You can actually do this in CS3 as well.)

Sample of boxes with and without the vignette highlight.

Create two boxes, one on top of the other. The top box should be slightly lighter than the one underneath it. For easier editing, make the rear box a little bigger than the one in the foreground.

Apply the Basic Feather (Object > Effect > Basic Feather) effect to the top box… and instant vignette. Adjust the size of the feather, noise, choke and corner types to tweak the look.

The options dialog box for the “Basic Feather” effect. (Click the image to see the box at full size.)

I used Photoshop for this effect for years, but every time you changed the size of the file or area, you had to go back to Photoshop and render a new file. The InDesign method is faster and more flexible.

And in case you are wondering, I’ve sent files to press with this effect many times without problems. Adding a little bit of noise will limit any banding you might see on press. I’ve got a few other variations on this using photos and blend modes that I’ll try to post soon as well.