Datasheet

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 ele-
ment 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.
What does that mean in practice? That you can use global controls to estab-
lish general settings for layout elements, and then use local controls to
modify those elements to meet specific requirements. The key to using global
and local tools effectively is to know when each is appropriate.
Global tools include
✓ General preferences and application preferences (see Chapter 2)
✓ Master pages and libraries (see Chapter 5)
✓ Character and paragraph styles (see Chapter 13)
✓ Table and cell styles (see Chapter 18)
✓ Object styles (see Chapter 9)
✓ Sections and page numbers (see Chapter 4)
✓ Color definitions (see Chapter 6)
✓ Hyphenation and justification (see Chapter 14)
Styles and master pages are the two main global settings that you can expect
to override locally throughout a document. You shouldn’t be surprised to
make such changes often because although the layout and typographic
functions that styles and master pages automate are the fundamental com-
ponents of any document’s look, they don’t always work for all the specific
content within a publication. (If they did, who’d need human designers?!)
Local tools include
✓ Frame tools (see Part III, as well as Chapter 16)
✓ Character and paragraph tools (see Chapters 14 and 15)
✓ Graphics tools (see Part V)
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