Datasheet

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 measure-

ment of 81⁄2 picas. (A pica contains 12 points.)

Discovering the Document Window

In InDesign, you spend lots of time working in document windows — the

“containers” for your documents. Each document, regardless of its size, is

contained within its own document window.

The best way to get familiar with the InDesign document window is by

opening a blank document. Simply choosing File➪New➪Document (Ô+N or

Ctrl+N) and clicking OK opens a new document window. Don’t worry about

the settings for now — just explore.

Figure 1-1 shows all the standard elements of a new document window. I

won’t bore you by covering interface elements that are standard to all pro-

grams. Instead, the rest of this section focuses on InDesign-specific elements.

Rulers

Document windows display a horizontal ruler across the top and a vertical

ruler down the left side. As shown in Figure 1-1, the horizontal ruler measures

from the top-left corner of the page across the entire spread, and the vertical

ruler measures from the top to the bottom of the current page. These rulers

are handy for judging the size and placement of objects on a page. Even expe-

rienced designers often use the rulers while they experiment with a design.

Both rulers display increments in picas unless you change the measurement

system for each ruler in the Units & Increments pane of the Preferences

dialog box. Choose InDesign➪Preferences➪Units & Increments (Ô+K) or

Edit➪Preferences➪Units & Increments (Ctrl+K) to open the Preferences

dialog box. Your choices include inches, picas, points, pixels, decimal inches,

ciceros, agates, millimeters, and centimeters.

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