Datasheet

Chapter 1 ✦ What InDesign Can Do for You

page, InDesign creates a frame automatically for each element. The difference is

that the frame InDesign creates is based on the amount of text or the size of the

graphic, rather than on your specific specifications. Of course, in either case, you

can modify the frames and the elements within them.

The free-form metaphor

Under a free-form (pasteboard) metaphor, you draw the pages’ content as if you’re

working on paper. Depending on how long you’ve been in this business, you may

well remember having paste-up boards with strips of type, camera-ready line draw-

ings, halftone pictures strewn about, sticking to pasteboard thanks to the wax on

their backs. You would then assemble all those pieces until you got the combina-

tion that looked right to you. The free-form metaphor encourages an experimental

approach, which is particularly well suited to one-of-a-kind documents such as ads,

brochures, annual reports, and marketing materials.

In a frame-based approach, you can certainly experiment by using the frames as

placeholders for actual text and graphics. But visual thinkers like to work with

actual objects, and that’s why the free-form metaphor works much better for

them. With InDesign, you pick the metaphor that works for your style, your current

situation, and your mood. After all, both approaches can lead to the same design.

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 letting you cus-

tomize each step of the process according to your needs. This duality of structure

and flexibility — implemented via the dual use of the frame-based and free-form layout

metaphors — carries over to all operations, from typography to color: You can use

global controls to establish general settings for layout elements and then use local

controls to modify those elements to meet specific publishing 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 3)

✦ Master pages (see Chapter 7)

✦ Style sheets (see Chapter 20)

✦ Sections of page numbers (see Chapter 5)

✦ Color definitions (see Chapter 8)

✦ Hyphenation and justification (see Chapter 18)

✦ Libraries (see Chapter 7)

Note

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