[Graphic] eBook - Adobe InDesign - Page Design

8/4/2019 [Graphic] eBook - Adobe InDesign - Page Design

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EVERY DESIGNER KNOWS THAT HOW ELEMENTS are put together on a page communicates a powerful

message. What may not be as obvious is how the page layout tools available before the release of Adobe

InDesign have limited your vocabulary. Adobe InDesign is a next-generation software tool designed and built

from the ground up using cutting-edge technology. InDesign delivers page layout tools that both expand

your creative horizons and streamline your production process. This document introduces some of the most

useful and important of the page layout capabilities in Adobe InDesign softwarefrom layers and master

pages to text and graphics frames.

When youre in the flow of designing pages, you dont want to suddenly run into an arbitrary software-based

obstacle, like a pasteboard too small to accommodate an image you want to rotate. With InDesign, youre

limited only by your imagination. You can nest a frame within a frame, take advantage of undo and redo

capabilities, and use tools like automatic Layout Adjustment to see immediately how a design change affects

your entire document. No matter how you look at it, InDesign shortens the distance between inspiration

and reality.

But designing great-looking pages is only part of the story. You also need to produce those pages to exacting

standards, and as efficiently as possible. InDesign delivers tools that streamline every aspect of the production

process, from features like layers that help structure documents intelligently to the ability to display your

pages at views from 5% to 4000%. Master pages can be based on other master pages, which makes short

work of global changes. The user interface is familiar to anyone who has used Adobe Photoshop or Adobe

Illustrator software, and editable keyboard shortcuts mean you can use the same shortcuts in Adobe

InDesign as you do in other applicationstheres even a predefined set that simulates keyboard shortcuts in

QuarkXPress. If you need to produce precise, professional pages quickly, you need Adobe InDesign.

User interface

The Adobe InDesign user interface builds on what you already know. Extending the palette-based metaphor

used in Photoshop and Illustrator, Adobe InDesign puts the tools you use most often at your fingertips.

Palettes can be organized in the way that makes the most sense to you; palette menus contain related commands.

Commands on the main menus are intentionally kept to a minimum, and Control+clicking (Macintosh) or

right-clicking (Windows) anywhere in a document opens a context-sensitive menu with options specific to

the selected element. When InDesign offers tools that are also available in other Adobe products, such as the

zoom tool, you can usually assume that they work the same way. The same goes for other functionality, too.

The Navigator palette was introduced in Photoshop 4.0 where it offered an efficient way to zoom in and out

of an image. In Adobe InDesign, this palette also provides an intuitive, visual way to change the current view.

Windows 98/Windows NT 4.0/Mac OS 8.5

Adobe

InDesign

Contents

User interface 1

Compatibility anddocument setup 2

Pages andmaster pages 3

Grids, guides, margins,and columns 6

Document-wide layers 8

Drawing tools 9Text and graphicsframes 10

Links 11

Graphics 12

Automatic layout

adjustment 12

In Depth: Page Design


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Although the Undo and Redo commands on the Edit menu look unassuming enough, the ability to undo

multiple steps is one of the most powerful and useful features in Adobe InDesign. Youve applied the

wrong master page? No problem. Or maybe you want to try several different design options to take an

idea a few steps further. With the ability to undo and redo multiple steps, you can always get back to whereyou started.

Compatibility and document setup

A new layout tool ought to enable you to take advantage of innovative solutions, not worry about losing

your investment in legacy documents. Thats why Adobe InDesign can open your existing PageMaker 6.5

and QuarkXPress 3.34.04 files, making for a smooth transition from your current tools to InDesign.

InDesign files are compatible across platforms, so you can easily share publications between Macintosh and

Windows computers. With built-in support for font-mapping between platforms and extensible support for

a wide variety of file formats, Adobe InDesign fits easily into environments where designers on Macintosh

computers work closely with clients on Windows computers.

All Roman-language versions of Adobe InDesign share the same file format. In an increasingly global

economy, support for international publishing is essential for many businesses. In addition to features like

language-savvy spell checking and hyphenation (21 language dictionaries are included), you can open files

created in any Roman-language version of InDesign. If youre running a Japanese operating system or have

a Japanese language kit installed, you can also enter, save, and edit Japanese text in any Roman-language

version of InDesign. In practical terms, this language support means that you can open and modify the

brochure designed in your companys Paris office, then forward it to your colleagues in Santiago and Berlin

for further changes.

Top layout features

Adobe common commands,palettes, tools, and keyboardshortcuts

Flexible text and graphics framesthat can be nested

Multiple undo and redo

Document-wide layers

Hierarchical master pages Editable keyboard shortcuts

Navigator palette with zoom from54000%

Automatic layout adjustment

Multiple views of a publication

Gradient fills and strokes for textand objects

But the relationship between InDesign and other Adobe products is much more than skin deep. The products

share a number of core technologies for everything from the way they handle drawn elements and

on-screen display to color management. In practical terms, this means that import filters offer the same

options, colors display consistently, and you can place native Photoshop, Illustrator, and Adobe Portable

Document Format (PDF) files directly.

Keyboard shortcuts are the way most power users navigate through an application, and InDesign makes

it easy for you to get up to speed on this front as well. Keyboard shortcuts in Adobe InDesign are fullyeditable, and the application even ships with two predefined sets. The default shortcuts match those in other

Adobe products where it makes sense, and draw from the shortcuts in other page layout products as well. If

youre migrating to Adobe InDesign from QuarkXPress, you may want to use the predefined set that simu-

lates QuarkXPress keyboard shortcuts for analogous functionality in Adobe InDesign. You can create new

sets based on the InDesign default sets, so its easy to customize shortcuts command-by-command.

Create a custom set of keyboard shortcuts tosuit your work habits, or choose the pre-defined set of shortcuts that are compatiblewith those in QuarkXPress. Custom sets ofshortcuts are saved in a text file for easydistribution to colleagues.


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With a maximum page size of 18 by 18 feet (5.48 by 5.48 meters) and support for up to 9,999 pages,

InDesign doesnt limit your optionswhether youre designing signage or a novel. From the outset, youll

find thoughtfully designed features that make your work flow more smoothly. For example, you can shift-

select multiple files in the Open dialog box, and work with more than 25 InDesign files open at once. In

addition, the last five files you opened appear on the File menu for quick accessa real time-saver when

youre working on projects stored in different directories.

You can also customize InDesign to reflect your working preferences. When the application is running butno publications are open, you can change the default settings; the changes you make apply to all new

documents that you create. You might use standard character- and paragraph-level styles or corporate-

identity colors in your business, or you might prefer working with nonstandard spread and page sizes. If so,

you can add them as application-level defaults, so theyre always available no matter what youre working

on. Whatever your preferences, you can customize InDesign to suit them.

Pages and master pages

Pages are obviously at the heart of using a page layout tool. If youre used to working in other products,

youll find the Pages palette in Adobe InDesign easy to use, and the application more flexible when it comes

to setting up, moving around, and working with pages. Whether youre taking advantage of features such as

enhanced master pages or a pasteboard without constraints, youll soon find yourself thinking more about

your designs, and less about your software.

Navigating through your documents

InDesign software uses a Pages palette and a pasteboard metaphor in its documents. The Pages palette

functions as command central for page-related activity: its where you add and delete document pages and

master pages, apply master pages to document pages, create island spreads with up to ten pages, rearrange

the sequence of spreads, and so forth. Each spread has its own dynamically sized pasteboard, and you can

scroll from spread to spread to see all the pages in your document. Although the pasteboard size is based on

the documents page dimensions, it doesnt constrain your design process in any way. Imagine youre

working with a huge image, and you want to rotate, then crop it, within a graphics frame. Even though the

image is larger than the pasteboard, you can rotate it freely, without bumping into the pasteboard edge.

Let oversized elements overlapthe pasteboard as you place,move, resize, or rotate them.

You can navigate from page to page in several ways. Double-clicking an icon in the Pages palette displays

that page; the current page appears highlighted in the palette. At the lower-left edge of the window are

navigation buttons. The current page number is displayed, and you can click to adjacent pages, as well as

the first and last pages in a document. Or, you can move to a different page by typing its number, or the

name of a master page. You can also scroll from page to page using the scroll bar.


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The Navigator palette has two modes. The View Active Spread mode displays the current view in relation to

the current page, so you have a sense of the big picture even when youre working close up. The red rectangle

on the palette represents whats in the document window. If you move it, you can change what youre

seeing on-screen without having to zoom out and in to locate the next area you want to refine. You can also

use the slider at the bottom of the palette to change your view: moving to the left zooms you out, while

moving to the right magnifies the view. The editable field at the lower-left corner of the palette displays the

current zoom magnification. In View All Spreads mode, you can scroll from page to page visually.Adobe InDesign has a rich selection of zoom options. Use keyboard shortcuts to quickly switch to the zoom

tool or to jump to standard magnifications, such as 200% or 400%; or select one of the 14 standard magni-

fication values on the pop-up menu in the lower-left corner of the InDesign window. Draw a marquee with

the zoom tool to move in closer, or press Command+Option+= (Macintosh) or Ctrl+Alt+= (Windows)

to zoom in and center on a selected item. The current zoom magnification always displays in the lower-left

corner of the document window. Entering a different value here changes your view just as it does in

Photoshop. Plus, four views youll use oftenFit Spread in Window, Fit Page in Window, Actual Size,

and Entire Pasteboardare predefined, so that you can choose them from the View menu or by using

keyboard shortcuts.

Finally, you can open multiple windows showing different views of the same document, and then tile or

cascade them. Lets say youre working on a story in a magazine that spans multiple spreads. You mightshow two spreads in different windows, so you can see how copyfitting changes to one spread affect the

other. Or, for fine-tuning type, you might view the same spread in both a detailed view and at actual size.

Set up multiple views of your documents to view the same page at different magnificationsor to keep your eye on how changes to one page affect another page.

Drag the red view rectangle in theNavigator palette to center your viewon a new part of your page or spread.

Working with pages

InDesign offers dozens of innovations in the way pages and master pages work. Once youve opened a new

document, youll use the Pages palette to add new document and master pages, create sections in your

document, introduce foldout spreads, and establish relationships among master pages.

You can add new document pages by clicking the new page icon at the bottom of the Pages palette, by dragging

master pages to the document page area, or by using the Insert Page command on the palette menu. Creating

new master pages is equally easy: you can drag document pages to the master page area on the palette, or

you can choose New Master from the palette menu. To rearrange the order of pages, all you need to do is


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drag page icons on the palette to a new location. For example, you might shuffle the positions of the second

and third spreads, or move page three to follow page seven. Dragging and dropping regular pages and master

pages between the Pages palettes and different open documents provides more flexibility. Finally, you can undo

almost any page-related action, such as applying a master page.

You can designate spreads as island spreads, making them immune from being split when you add or

remove pages in front of thema real lifesaver when youre designing a spread across a gutter. Island

spreads also enable spreads of up to ten pages. While the default spread size for a document is establishedwhen you set up a document, you can add more pages to any island spread to create foldouts and other

special elements.

Master pages B, C, and D are based on master page A. When you make changes to master page A, those changes areautomatically reflected in the related master pages.

DCB

AA

DCB

NEWS

NEWS

NEWS

NEWS

.com

.com

.com

.com

Use the Pages palette to add new pages,apply master pages, and perform otherpage-related tasks.

Using master pages

One of the best things about master pages is that you can establish relationships between them, much in the

same way that you can base styles on other styles. Often, a complex document will use several variations on

a page design. If an element of the base design changessay the background color, or the position of an

identifying logoyou then have to go back and modify each one of the variations, and then double-check

to make sure the changes are consistent across the board. With InDesign, you can establish a master page

design (the parent), then create variations that are based on it (the children). When you change the original

design, the master pages that are based on it reflect the change automatically, as do any pages that use those

master pages. Not only do you save time, but youll find its much easier to maintain production consistency.

For example, you might design several master pages with different margins and frame configurations that

share the same footer information. By basing all of those master page variations on a single parent page, you

only have to change the footer information once for it to update automatically across all of the related

master pages.

Text and graphics frames on master pages act as content containers on regular pages that use that master

page. Any empty text frame that appears on a master page can be used to thread a story from page to

pagetheres no limit to the number of master page frames that can be threaded. This is useful if, for

example, youre publishing a multilingual document: you can create one threaded story for the English


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copy, one for French, and a different one for Spanish. With InDesign, the workflow is simple. After youve

drawn your text frames on the master page and returned to a regular page that has that master applied, you

place the text file you wish to import into one of the frames. When you press the Alt or Option key, the

place icon turns into the autoflow icon. When you move the autoflow cursor over the master page frame

and click, the text flows into a local override of that frame, and more pages are added to accommodate text

that overflows. To add a different story to another master-page-based text frame, repeat the process using a

different frame.Youll also find the way master page content can be manipulated on regular pages very flexible. Master page

items can be selected on regular pages by pressing Control/Command+Shift as you click on the frame. Frames

on master pages are linked to regular document pages by attributes such as size, position, and color. If you

change any one attribute, such as the frames color, the other attributes remain linked. If you then move the

frame on the master page and change its color, the position of the frame on the regular page changes, but

its colorwhich you had already overriddendoes not. Other changes, such as resizing the frame on

the master page, are reflected on the document page. Margins and column guides behave similarly. This

attribute-by-attribute linking between master page items and how those items appear on regular pages

means you can easily customize your master page designs for a particular page without sacrificing the pro-

duction gains that master pages offer.

Origina l ma ster page Ori ginal document pa ge

Modified master pa ge Modified do cument page

In this example, the designer set up a master pagewith the word Communique at a 90-degree angle.Then, on the regular page, the designer changedthe location of the word.

Cmmuq

Cmmuq

Communique

Communique Later, the designer updated the original masterpage, applying a color to the word Communiqueand moving it to a new location. The color changeaffected the regular page, but the location changedid not, because the position of the master elementhad been overridden.

Sections

Sections can help you break a document into smaller parts. This is handy if you want to include front

matter in your file, but want the page numbering to start in the body of the document. In that case, you

could create separate sections for the front matter, any back matter, and the body of the document. Page

numbering is flexible too: you can restart numbering with each new section, or numbering can continue

from the previous section. If you restart page numbering for a section, you can also specify a prefix for the

number, or change the number style. For example, a document might include a front matter section thatused lowercase roman numerals for the page number style, while the document body and back matter

sections used arabic numerals.

A triangle above a page in the Pages palette indicates a new section; you can double-click on the marker to

open the Section Options dialog box. Additionally, you can choose whether absolute numbers or section-

specific page numbers are displayed on the palette and throughout the user interface. Specify a new section

by selecting a page, choosing Section Info from the Pages palette menu, and then clicking Start Section.

When you create sections, you can take advantage of section markers. This innovative feature places a

unique text string on every page of a section. Heres how it works: On the master page, you create a text

frame and insert a section marker by right-clicking (Windows) or Control+clicking (Macintosh), choosing


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Special Character, and then choosing Section Marker from the menu. After you create a new section, you

can enter text in the Section Marker field of the Section Options dialog box. Whatever you enter in the

Section Marker field appears on each page of that sectionbut other sections that use the same master page

have different marker text, or none at all. (You can also insert section markers on individual document

pages if you want them to appear on some but not all of the pages in a section.) For example, you might

break a long Desserts chapter in a cookbook into smaller sections for Cakes, Pies, and Cookies, using the

section marker text as a supplement to the other information in the master pages footer.

Grids, guides, margins, and columns

In almost every page design, an invisible system of grids and guides establishes the coherent formal structure

that underlies a compelling composition. Like gracious butlers, a documents grid, guides, columns, and

margins must work to anticipate your needs unobtrusively. With innovations that are convenient and

intuitive, Adobe InDesign builds on the tools offered in other products. In addition to columns and margins,

InDesign supports three distinct guide systems: a document grid, a baseline grid, and ruler guides.

InDesign offers two types of columns: frame-based columns, which can be either fixed-width or adjustable,

and page-based columns, which act much like margins. When you specify fixed-width columns in a text

frame, the columns are always the same user-specified width and the frame shrinks or expands in column-

width increments to accommodate the specified number of columns. With adjustable-width columns, theframes width remains constant; changing the number of columns causes the columns to shrink or expand

to fill the available space. Text frames are covered in detail later in this document.

Like margins, page-based columns provide a structure into which automatic text frames are placed. Although

the initial setting for margins and columns applies across a document, you can specify different margins or

column settings for any page by using the Margins and Columns command on the Layout menu. You can also

manually adjust the relative widths of page-based columns.

A document grid, like that in Adobe Illustrator software, applies a grid over the entire page and pasteboard,

providing a quick and convenient way to align page elements. The document grid is also handy as a guide if

youre using the pen tool to create Bzier shapes. A baseline grid is a document-wide series of guides at

increments that usually reflect the leading value of the body text. You can avoid sloppy-looking text by

ensuring that text baselines in multiple frames align to the documents baseline grid, regardless of the lead-ing value assigned (use the Align to Baseline Grids button on the Paragraph palette).

To minimize visual clutter on-screen, both baseline grids and ruler guides use view

thresholds, so they disappear when they arent useful and appear when youre most

likely to need them. For each one, you specify a threshold above which the grid is

visible. For example, you could specify that the baseline grid only displays at views

of 200% or higher for fine-tuning the alignment of multiple text frames.

The baseline grid isnt visible at 50%view because a higher view thresholdhas been specified.

However, when zoomed in to a 200% view(the view threshold for this particulardocument), the baseline grid appears tohelp you make fine adjustments.

Toggle the baseline grid options on theParagraph palette to control whether ornot paragraphs align to a documentsbaseline grid. Clicking A turns off baselinegrid alignment. Clicking B aligns yourparagraphs to the grid.

A B


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Using ruler guides

Ruler guides in Adobe InDesign are characterized by their flexibilityfor one thing, you can place as many

horizontal and vertical ruler guides as you need for your layout. When you add guides to a spread, you

choose between page-specific guides (handy if you want to use different guides on either side of a spread)

and guides that span the entire pasteboard for that spread (useful if you want to organize elements across a

spread or on the pasteboard). Ruler guides behave much like regular page elements, so you can select several

of them at once, copy and paste themeven assign them to different layers. (Layers are discussed in the

next section.)

In the Ruler Guides dialog box (choose Ruler Guides from the Layout menu), you can specify a guide color,

as well as a view threshold below which guides arent visible. If you often view your documents at 50% to

see how adjacent spreads work together, you can set the guide view threshold to 60%, so that guides only

display when youre designing, not when youre trying to get a clear sense of the bigger picture.

There are lots of options for aligning guides, too. Add pasteboard-wide guides at specific locations by

double-clicking a ruler increment, or press Command or Control as you drag a guide from the rulers. You

can select any guide, then enter a new location using the Transform palette. You can also use the Align palette

to precisely position selected guides. The Create Guides command provides controls for specifying rows and

columns of guides, providing a user-defined alternative to the document grid.

Once youve got your guides in place, you can prevent them from being moved. If you select the LockGuides command on the View menu, you can add but not move guides. If youve assigned guides to layers,

you can lock the guides on a specific layer by double-clicking the layer name and checking Lock Guides in

the Layer Options dialog box. The advantage of using layers for guides? You can create sets of guides, and

then only show the layers with the guides you need. To remove guides, either select individual guides or use

the keyboard shortcut for selecting all guides (Command+Option+G/Control+Alt+G), and then press the

Delete key.

Document-wide layers

If youve ever used the Layers palette in Photoshop or Illustrator software, you know how powerful it is

and youll find that layers are every bit as useful for both design and production in Adobe InDesign. Layers

open up all sorts of possibilities in the context of page layout. You might use them to present different de-sign ideas to a client, hiding and showing layers that display a range of visual possibilities. Or you might use

them in a more production-oriented way, with distinct layers for text and graphics, or individual layers for

editorial comments and notes from the projects art director. Either way, youll soon find them indispensable.

The Layers palette in Adobe InDesign looks and works similarly to those in Photoshop and Illustrator.

Unlike Photoshop or Illustrator documents, InDesign documents generally contain multiple pages. As a

result, layers span all pages in an InDesign document.

The pen icon to the right of a layer name indicates the active layer, while icons to the left of the name indi-

cate whether a layer is visible (the eye icon appears if it is) or editable (if it isnt, youll see a pencil with a red

line through it). You can hide or show layers, and you can lock layers to prevent items on them from being

edited. If you press Option/Alt and click a layers name, all items on that layer are selected; if you press Shift

at the same time, you can select objects on multiple layers. Each layer has a user-specified identificationcolor. When you select an object, its selection handles reflect the layers color, and a small colored square

appears near the layer name in the palette. Move the selected item to another layer by dragging the small

square to a different layer, or move a copy of it by pressing Option/Alt as you drag.

Changing the stacking order of layers moves entire sets of items in front of or behind other elements.

Within a layer, the Send to Front, Send Forward, Send to Back, and Send Backward commands give you

precise control over the stacking order of individual elements. Master page elements may also be assigned to

layers, and appear behind other document page items on each layerthough theyll appear in front of

document page items on layers lower in the stacking order. Individual layersand everything on them

can be deleted by selecting them and clicking the trash icon. Or use the Delete Unused Layers command to

clear your palette of extraneous layers.

Precisely align and distributeguides and other page elementsvertically and horizontally usingthe Align palette.

Assign guides and other page elementsto layers to help organize your produc-tion or to prepare multiple versions ofpublications within a single file.


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Drawing tools

With the introduction of pen and scissors tools similar to those in Illustrator software, you can create

simple graphics right in your layouts. While Illustrator software remains the tool of choice for complex

illustrations, it can be inconvenient to switch to another application to create simple logos and other basic

drawings, or to make minor edits to the graphics you created elsewhere. Having the tools to create these

elements right in Adobe InDesign makes your creative process more immediate.

Use the pen tool to draw Bzier shapes. Then modify the shapes youve drawn by manipulating the handlesfor each point you create, or use the scissors tool to cut shapes apart. Reverse the direction of any path to

change the transparency of a compound path, the direction of arrowheads, or the direction of a linear fill.

You can also select multiple paths and create compound elements. Since any text can be selected and con-

verted to paths, you may also find Bzier tools handy for customizing those graphics.

Clipping paths are used to mask parts of an image. You can preserve clipping paths saved in Photoshop,

TIFF, and EPS files when you import those files. When you import a clipping path, InDesign converts it to

an editable frame. To create a clipping path in Adobe InDesign, select the graphic you want to add the path

to and choose Clipping Path from the Object menu. After you set options for the Threshold, Tolerance, and

Frame Inset, InDesign automatically creates a clipping path inside the frame. This opens up interesting

design possibilities, such as creating custom text wraps. Using the direct-selection tool, you can adjust the

shape of the path.

Other illustration-like effects can be created using the gradient options. You can create gradient swatches

that specify transitions between multiple colors in either a radial or a linear pattern. You have complete

control over the midpoints of those colors. Gradient swatches can then be applied to almost any element in

an InDesign publication, from the fill or stroke on a drawn object to the fill and stroke on text. Text even

remains editable after you apply a gradient. You can also apply a single gradient across multiple objects with

the easy-to-use gradient tool.

Apply a gradient toseveral objects atonce with thegradient tool. Forthe childrens bookcover on the left,the designer

applied gradientsseparately to eachrooftop. Then, inthe version on theright, the designeradjusted thegradient so that itmoves across allthree rooftops.

In addition to drawing curved lines with the pen tool, you can constrain line creation to 45- or 90-degree

angles by pressing Shift as you draw. Any open path or line can have arrowheads applied. There are eleven

built-in styles to choose from, and third-party plug-ins can easily add more. You can also create customdashed lines by entering values for three different dash and gap combinations. And, for fine control over

how stroked lines display and print, you can specify cap and join options for any selected object.

Modifying drawn elements

As youd expect, Adobe InDesign software offers a rich set of tools for manipulating the elements on your

pages. The Transform palette displays the position, height, and width of items on your page. Using the

proxy points on the palettes icon, you can gather information about any of nine points on the selected

elementnot just its upper left-hand corner. You can also use fields in the palette to move, rotate, or skew

elements numerically based on the selected proxy point, making it easy to spin an element from its center or

from any corner. The Transform palette menu offers additional options for flipping objects horizontally,

vertically, or both, as well as for rotating them in specific increments.

Use the bzier tool to draw basic graphicson-the-fly or to create shapes for graphicsframes.

A Silly Night in Googletown A Silly Night in Googletown


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Other useful options include the ability to lock an element in place and to align elements precisely with the

Align palette. Choosing Lock Position from the Object palette prevents the object from being moved in any

way, but does not prevent you from changing its frame type or from adding content. Locking frames can be

a useful way to ensure that templates dont get modified. The Align palette offers rich options for aligning

and distributing page elements. With multiple elements selected, you can adjust the position of objects

relative to other selected elements. Even handier, the feature applies to guides as well. Finally, the scale tool

lets you resize any element; when you scale a text frame, the type in the frame is scaled as well.

Text and graphics frames

The text and graphics frames in Adobe InDesign offer unprecedented flexibility: virtually any item can act

as a frame, and text and graphics frames are easily changed on the fly. You can place items on a page and

create a frame as you go, or you can define a pages geometry with frames and then add content to the

frames later. However loose or structured your workflow, InDesign can accommodate it.

In some page layout products, you have to create a frame first and then select it before you can import

either text or a graphicand you cannot import text into a graphics frame, or vice versa. None of these

limitations apply in Adobe InDesign. When you a place a file, click-dragging the loaded place icon creates

a frame, or you can simply click on the page and place the content into a frame automatically. Placing text

into a graphics frame converts the frame, and the same goes for placing a graphic into a text frame. Thisflexibility means you spend less time changing tools, and more time designing intuitively.

Frames provide a powerful design option: the ability to create nested frames by pasting a frame inside a

frame inside a frame, as many levels deep as you like. Instead of holding a single piece of content, frames

can contain other nested frames, which can in turn contain other frames or grouped elements. Whats more,

you can subselect any nested frame or its contents and rotate, resize, and otherwise manipulate it to fine-

tune the look. This opens up a world of possibilities. You can layer images easily, combine text and graphics,

and create complex assemblages that are easy to work with. The same kind of flexibility also applies to

groups: you can create multiple levels of nested groups, while retaining the ability to subselect either the

nested groups or the elements contained in them.

Any drawn page item can become a frame. Create frames using the type, ellipse, polygon, or rectangle tools.

Or, draw a free-form Bzier shape with the pen toolits automatically available as a frame. When youconvert text to a path using the Create Outlines command, the resulting graphic becomes a frame as soon as

you place content into it. Any frame can easily be modified using the direct-selection and pen tools. With

the direct-selection tool, you subselect and move existing points, while the add-anchor-point tool adds new

points and the remove-anchor-point tool deletes them. To see what your design looks like without frames,

all you have to do is choose Hide Frame Edges from the View menu.

In addition to changing the shape of a frame, you can customize other at-

tributes. Whether you want to control the stroke weight, the color of the frames

fill, or other visual attributes, doing so is straightforward. For maximum flexibil-

ity, you can move, rotate, scale, or skew the frame, the frames content, or both

together; the behavior you get depends on whether you use the selection or

direct-selection tool. Depending on whether the frame or its content is selected,

the Transform palette displays information about it numerically.

If youre working with a graphics frame, you can use the Fitting options on the

Object menu or keyboard shortcuts to control how the content sits relative to

the frame: You can fit the frame to the content or the content to the frame, cen-

ter the content, or scale the content proportionally to fit the frame. Of course,

you can also make adjustments visually using the direct-selection tool.

The type tool is designed for both editing text and creating text frames. Text frames are visually distin-

guished from graphics frames by their in and out ports, which serve to thread linked text frames to-

gether. To create a text frame using the type tool, just click and drag a shape, and then begin typing. The

Paste a frame inside a frame inside aframe, quickly creating richly layeredgraphics that open up new designpossibilities.


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position of text within a frame is determined by the insets you specify in the Text Frame Options dialog box

(choose Text Frame Options from the Object menu, or press Command+B/Control+B): you can specify

insets independently for each edge of a rectangular frame, or use a single inset for other shapes. You can also

specify the position of the first line in a text frame by entering Leading, Ascent, or Cap Height values.

Frame-based columns are also specified in the Text Frame Options dialog box, where you control whether

the columns have a fixed width or adjust to fit the frame.

Threading text frames in Adobe InDesign is straightforward. If a text frame has overset texttext that

doesnt fit in the current frameits out port displays a plus sign. To thread the text into another text frame,

just click on the out port. With the loaded text icon, you thread the next frame either by clicking insideanother frame (if its a graphics frame, itll automatically convert to a text frame) or by dragging to create a

new frame. The process is clean, intuitive, and because you dont have to switch tools constantly, lightning

fast. Plus, its easy to move between threaded text frames. There are keyboard shortcuts for moving to the

next or previous frames in any story, as well as shortcuts for moving to the first or last frame in a story. You

can see how frames are threaded together by choosing Show Text Threads from the View menu; when you

do, a line connects the out port of one frame to the in port of the next frame.

Links

When you create image-intensive print designs, its likely you will be importing graphics with large file sizes.

And unless you write most of your document, you probably need to maintain links to text files as well, so

you can incorporate the latest drafts of copy as you refine your page designs. For images, you may work on

your pages using low-resolution placeholders, or you may use the original, full-resolution scans. Whatever

your process, you know that the more control you have, the better. InDesign provides a convenient Links

palette (choose Links on the File menu) for managing links to text and graphics with complete control.

The Links palette works similarly to the one in Adobe Illustrator 8.0. Each imported item is listed there,

along with its page number and an icon that indicates whether the link is up-to-date or missing; depending

on your preference, you can choose to display the items in the palette based on the pages they appear on,

their names, or their status. Copies of linked text files and bitmapped graphics smaller than 64K are stored

internally in the document; all other linked graphics are stored externally, though you can choose to embed

the files in the document. Displaying links page by page is useful to confirm filenames as you work, while

displaying links by status provides a quick way for you to confirm that all links are up-to-date (problem

links appear at the top of the list). At the bottom of the palette are four icons for the tasks youll perform

most frequently: relinking, jumping to a linked element in your document, editing the original element inanother application, and updating a link.

Use the Links palette for an at-a-glancestatus about your imported graphicsand text files. A yellow triangle iconindicates that a file is out of date, whilethe red stop-sign icon indicates amissing file. The Links palette can helpfix both problems.

To thread text frames, just click on theout port of the first frame, and thenclick inside the second frame.

If theres more text to place, thesecond frames out port displays aplus sign.

In port

Out port


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There are several ways you can gather information about a linked element. First, you can select a link and

click the Go To Link icon to jump directly to that imported element anywhere in your document. Another

option is to choose Link Information from the Links palette menu. In the Link Information dialog box, you

can see the file name, its link status, file size and type, color space, and other useful information. The Location

field displays very long file paths in a scrollable field.

As you work, you may notice a detail in a graphic youve placed that should be changed. Clicking the Edit

Original icon on the Links palette launches the application that created the file (if its installed on yourcomputer), so you can make and save changes, and then return to your layoutwhen you update the link,

the changes display on-screen.

Other times, youll make changes to several graphics, then return to your document. When you open the

file, youll be alerted if any links are missing or not up-to-date. You can use the Update Link or Relink icons

to update or relink to different files; you can select multiple links on the palette if you have several files you

want to modify at once. And if you no longer want to maintain an external link to a graphic, you can choose

Embed from the palette menu, which removes the link and stores a copy of the file in your document.

Graphics

You can work with most types of graphics in Adobe InDesign. Standard graphic formatsPDF, EPS, TIFF,

DCS, Scitex CT, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PCX, WMF, and PICTcan be imported. But the products import capa-bilities go well beyond the standard file options. You can place native Photoshop and Illustrator files directly,

without having to save them to a different file format. Any clipping paths included in Photoshop files are

imported, and can be used for contoured text wraps or for a new text frame. If you copy a graphic from

Illustrator and paste it into an InDesign document, the graphic is fully editable using the pen and scissors

tools. You can also import Acrobat PDF files, either by placing them as graphic images or by opening them

as editable InDesign files (for more information, refer to the InDesign In Depth paper on printing and PDF

support). When it comes to importing graphics, your creative options are virtually unlimited.

The way graphics appear on-screen is controlled by the options you select as you place the file and the set-

tings you choose in the General panel of the Preferences dialog box. If you select Show Import Options in

the Place dialog box, you can specify the resolution for the proxy image created for all bitmap image files. By

default, the proxy or preview images associated with an imported graphic displays on-screen. However, youcan adjust document-wide display preferences by changing the Image Display option in the General panel of

the Preferences dialog box. For example, you may want to choose High Resolution to see images at their best

on-screen, or Gray Out to prevent the images from displaying for speedier redraw with complex files.

Automatic layout adjustment

Once a design is well underway, making global changessuch as changing the page sizecan seem pretty

daunting, because of all the manual tweaking thats sure to be involved. InDesign includes a feature called

Layout Adjustment thats designed to eliminate the drudgery. When this feature is activated, InDesign auto-

matically adjusts the position of guides or moves and resizes frames to change your page layout in response

to certain global changes, such as changing your page size or document orientation.

The way individual elements are handled by automatic Layout Adjustment is determined by the settings youchoose, the extent to which youve used ruler guides in your document, and the rulebase built into the

application. Whether youre repurposing a document for online distribution, responding to last-minute

client feedback, or simply trying out a different design approach, youll be able to see the effects of the

change immediately. You activate this feature by choosing Layout Adjustment from the Layout menu and

checking the Enable Layout Adjustment option. You may also want to customize settings, such as deselect-

ing the Ignore Ruler Guide option or checking Allow Ruler Guides to Move.

Depending on the complexity of your design, you may not have to touch a thing after InDesign adjusts your

layout, or you may choose to make manual adjustments to further refine the look of the page. If youre

unhappy with the results, you can undo the layout adjustment, and then undo the change that triggered it.


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This document was created with Adobe software and font software from the Adobe Type Library.

Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Illustrator, InDesign, PageMaker, Photoshop, and PostScript are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Macintosh, Mac OS, and Power Macintosh

are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. Microsoft, Windows, and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks ofMicrosoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

1999 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. 3/99

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World Wide Webwww.adobe.com

Text and graphics frameschange size and movebased on the relativepositions of guides,margins, and the edgesof the page.

Changing the orientation for this document triggeredautomatic Layout Adjustment.

Making changes to master pages can also trigger Layout Adjustment. For example, lets say you changed the

margins for a master page, and made a three-column design into a two-column layout. If automatic Layout

Adjustment is enabled, these changes effect the master page, any master pages based on that master page,

and any regular pages with these masters applied. Note that this only applies to page-level columns; frame-

level columns are unaffected by this feature.

The future of professional publishing

Adobe InDesign software offers a comprehensive toolset for creating sophisticated page layouts. With hun-

dreds of features that support both the creative process and the exacting needs of production professionals,

Adobe InDesign is poised to take publishing into the new millennium.

For more information about Adobe InDesign, see Adobes Web site at www.adobe.com/prodindex/indesign.

Youll find In Depth papers on typography, color and color management, printing and PDF support, and

other aspects of Adobe InDesign, as well as additional useful product information.

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