Classroom buildings
Happy Easter
Happy Easter
Star command
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.
Slide!
Cousins + Penguins
Happy Siblings Day! My kid sister posted this to Facebook. No filter necessary…
Kids who read…
Bronzed cocky.
Change the size of the pasteboard in InDesign
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.
Horseshoe
Chinook overhead.
Customizing an underline
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.
Top of Carolina
Campus
Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
This post was originally posted on March 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.
I had one of those geek out moments with a client this week. I mentioned that I typically drink a cup of Earl Grey tea each morning. To which he responded: “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.” After we stopped laughing, we had to explain Captain Picard’s obsession with Earl Grey tea to some confused coworkers.
Afterwards, I had to come to the realization that a TV show that aired in 1987 affects my behavior today.
I was in middle school when the fictional Star Trek captain first ordered his beverage of choice from the replicator. At the time, we had hot tea in the house, but it was Mint or Lemon-flavored. I mostly would drink it when I was sick. But there was no Earl Grey that I remember.
Star Trek: The Next Generation ran for a long time and still runs in syndication today. I’m not sure when I started to drink Earl Grey, but it was sometime during or just after college. I’m sure I decided to buy some tea and when faced with too many options, I simply went with the option I “knew.”
It makes me wonder just how many other choices I’ve made are directly or indirectly traced back to television and media. I know I have a slight Nike bias because I grew up in Chicago during the Michael Jordan years. But other than Earl Grey and an affinity for Nike, I can’t think of any other long lasting influence that a show or movie has made on me. I’m sure there are many more but I can’t piece them together right now.
That said, I really like my Earl Grey tea. And I’ll happily have a cup every morning. But I’ll probably never think of it the same way again.
Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. His blogging journey started in 2008 with a Squarespace hosted blog.
Hall
Bagpipes
Cocky in the new #UofSC tartan.
Custom strokes in InDesign
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.
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.
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.