Chapter 1 In This Chapter ▶ Figuring out global versus local control ▶ Exploring the document window ▶ Surveying the top tools D ▶ Becoming familiar with tools and panels MA ▶ Getting acquainted with the InDesign approach TE RI AL Understanding InDesign Ingredients TE ▶ Discovering what’s in the menus GH S PY RI tarting to use a new software application is not unlike meeting a new friend for the first time.
10 Part I: Before You Begin in the document window, survey the most commonly used tools, and explain how InDesign packages much of its functionality through an interface element called a panel. Understanding Global and Local Control The power of desktop publishing in general, and InDesign in particular, is that it lets you automate time-consuming layout and typesetting tasks while at the same time letting you customize each step of the process according to your needs.
Chapter 1: Understanding InDesign Ingredients Keep your bearings straight A powerful but confusing capability in InDesign is something called a control point. InDesign lets you work with objects from nine different reference points — any of the four corners, the middle of any of the four sides, or the center — such as when positioning the object precisely or rotating the object.
12 Part I: Before You Begin Specifying measurement values Another situation in which you can choose between local or global controls is specifying measurement values. Regardless of the default measurement unit you set (that is, the measurement unit that appears in all dialog boxes and panels), you can use any unit when entering measurements in an InDesign dialog box.
Chapter 1: Understanding InDesign Ingredients InDesign CS5 adds the capability to specify measurements in pixels, as part of its newfound capability to create “Web-intent” documents in addition to the traditional “print-intent” ones, as Chapter 3 explains. You can enter fractional picas in two ways: in decimal format (as in 8.5p) and in picas and points (as in 8p6). Either of these settings results in a measurement of 81⁄2 picas. (A pica contains 12 points.
14 Part I: Before You Begin Control panel Application bar Menus (Mac OS X) Flyout menu Close, Minimize, and Restore/Maximize boxes (MacOS) Adobe Bridge View Options pop-up menu Document tab and title Zoom Level field and pop-up menu Screen mode pop-up menu Quick Apply button Main dock Arrange Documents Adobe Community Search field Panels pop-up Access CS Live button Workspaces pop-up menu window Document window Ruler Panel group Figure 1-1: The document window is where you work on documents.
Chapter 1: Understanding InDesign Ingredients If you change the ruler measurement system when no documents are open, the rulers in all new documents will use the measurement system you selected. If a document is open when you make the change, the rulers are changed only in that document. You can also create your own measurement system by choosing Custom.
16 Part I: Before You Begin Pasteboard The white area that surrounds the page is called the pasteboard. It’s a workspace for temporarily storing objects. The pasteboard above and below each page or spread is an inch deep. The pasteboard at both left and right of a page or spread is just as wide as the page. For example, a spread composed of two 8-inch-wide pages has 8 inches of pasteboard to the left and 8 inches of pasteboard to the right, plus 1 inch of pasteboard above and 1 inch below.
Chapter 1: Understanding InDesign Ingredients ✓ The third element is the View Options pop-up menu, which lets you hide and show frames boundaries, hidden characters, grids, and other such visual aids from one handy location. These options previously existed but only in a variety of scattered menu options (where they also remain). ✓ The fourth element, the Screen Mode pop-up menu, duplicates the Screen Mode feature at the bottom of the Tools panel (explained later in this chapter).
18 Part I: Before You Begin Page controls If you feel like flipping through pages of the document you’re creating, InDesign makes it easy with page-turning buttons and the Page field and pop-up menu. Controls for entering prefixes for the page numbers of sections, and for indicating absolute page numbers in a document that contains multiple sections, are also handy. (An absolute page number indicates a page’s position in the document, such as +1 for the first page, +2 for the second page, and so on.
Chapter 1: Understanding InDesign Ingredients ✓ Display a master page in one window and a document page based on that master page in another window. When you change the master page, the change is reflected in the window in which the associated document page is displayed. Document windows are by default accessed through a set of tabs below the Control panel, though as I explain later, you can also work with them as a series of free-floating windows.
20 Part I: Before You Begin own tab or free-floating window, depending on whether you’ve enabled Open Documents as Tabs in the Interface pane of the Preferences dialog box (InDesign➪Preferences➪Interface [Ô+K] or Edit➪Preferences➪Interface [Ctrl+K]). You can tell that a document window shows a different view of an existing document by looking at the name of the document in the window’s title. At the end of the document name will be a colon (:) followed by a number. Newsletter.
Chapter 1: Understanding InDesign Ingredients InDesign adds two tools: the Page tool (see Chapter 4) and the Gap tool (see Chapter 10). It drops the Position tool. Also, you can get more detail on any tool and how to use it by going to the new Tool Hints panel (choose Window➪ Utilities➪Tool Hints); it shows options for whatever tool you then select.
22 Part I: Before You Begin Using the Selection tools To work with objects, you have to select them. InDesign provides two tools to do that, letting you select different aspects of objects. Selection tool The Selection tool is perhaps the most-used tool in InDesign. With the Selection tool, you can select objects on the page and move or resize them. You may want to think of this tool as the Mover tool because it’s the only tool that lets you drag objects around on-screen.
Chapter 1: Understanding InDesign Ingredients Selection tool, making it easier to select and move graphics in frames that are overlapped by others. ✓ To move a frame but leave the graphic in place, click an edge of the frame and drag it. Using the Type tool A very frequently used tool, the Type tool lets you enter, edit, and format text. The Type tool also lets you create rectangular text frames.
24 Part I: Before You Begin Using the object-creation tools InDesign has a bunch of tools for creating shapes. Part V covers them in more depth, but you should know about a few of them now because they create objects that can contain either text or graphics. Plus, you can also use them to draw your own shapes that you then color or otherwise embellish in your layout. Here’s what you need to know: ✓ Pen tool: With the Pen tool, you can create simple illustrations.
Chapter 1: Understanding InDesign Ingredients ✓ Hand tool: The Hand tool lets you move a page around to view different portions of it or another page entirely. After selecting the Hand tool, click and drag in any direction. You can access the Hand tool temporarily without actually switching tools by pressing Option+spacebar or Alt+spacebar. For a quick way to pan through your document, make sure that the Hand tool is active. Then click and hold the mouse. InDesign will zoom out and display a red rectangle.
26 Part I: Before You Begin Using contextual menus InDesign’s contextual menu interface element is very useful. By Control+clicking or rightclicking the document, an object, elements listed in a panel (such as a list of files or styles), the rulers, and so on, you can display a menu of options for modifying whatever it is you clicked.
Chapter 1: Understanding InDesign Ingredients ✓ Any active panel has a collapse control (the >> icon). For panels in the dock, clicking that icon collapses it back into the dock. For panels not in the dock (that is, for floating panels), collapsing them shrinks the panel to a much smaller size to get them out of the way. When collapsed, these panels will have a << icon to expand them again.
28 Part I: Before You Begin icon to open it from the Control panel and several other panels; you can also choose Edit➪Quick Apply (Ô+Return or Ctrl+Enter). To quickly select a panel, just click its tab from its open panel group. When a panel is active, its controls have the following characteristics: ✓ To display and select an option, click a pop-up menu or an iconic button; the changes take effect immediately.
Chapter 1: Understanding InDesign Ingredients Figure 1-4: The collapsed dock is the default (left), but you can expand it (right). Working with workspaces Although you can rearrange InDesign’s panels to suit your needs, rearranging again and again as you switch from one task to another can be a real chore. For example, you may open several of the table- and text-oriented panels when working on text, but then close them and open the graphics- and positioning-oriented panels when refining layout placement.
30 Part I: Before You Begin Workspace. (Note that this menu option has been called Save Workspace in previous versions.) Give the workspace a name that makes sense, such as Text Panels. That workspace is now available via Window➪Workspace➪ workspace name, automatically displaying just those saved panels in their saved locations. Not only can you save workspaces, but you can also tell InDesign to save any menu customizations made along with the currently opened selection panels into that workspace.
Chapter 1: Understanding InDesign Ingredients you print documents and prepare them for commercial printing; and where you set basic user information. Note that none of these menu items’ functions are available in panels, except for the Preflight feature.
32 Part I: Before You Begin
