Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesign is a powerful layout tool for editing and creating single and multi-page documents, such as brochures, newsletters and flyers. There are 3 different types of InDesign files: Documents, Books, and Libraries. Books are collections of documents and Libraries are collec tions of Books so we will focus on creating individual documents.

Document Setup

To create a new Document:

Choose File > New > Document.
A dialogue box will appear, prompting you for the number of pages, the page size, columns, and margins.
First, choose the number of pages in your document. The default is a single page.
Then, choose a page size. The standard 8x11 sheet of paper is represented by the Letter option. If you use this setting you do not need to edit the width or height.
Next, select a number of columns. This option allows you to evenly section off text and images in a newspaper-style format.
- To create a standard document without columns, just set the number of columns to 1.
Finally, select the margin sizes you want. You will be unable to print any text or images in the margins so choose them carefully.
When you have specified all your settings, click OK.

To open a file:

Select File > Open.
A dialogue box will appear. In the pull-down menu at the top, navigate through the folders until you find your document.
Highlight it, and click on Open.

Controlling Pages

Once you have created your document, you can still add or delete pages from it.

To add a page:

Open the Pages palette by selecting Window > Pages. Make sure that Pages has a check mark next to it. If there is already a check mark, you do not need to select it because the palette is already open.
On the Pages palette, click the Create new page button which looks like this:
In the Pages palette, you will see a new page icon appear.
- The pages are distributed into "spreads" which represent facing pages of a book or magazine. The pages are numbered underneath.
- The letter within a page icon represents the template that is applied to that particular page. For more information on templates see the templates section.

To delete a page:

In the Pages palette, select the page you want to delete by clicking on the page icon (see above).
Then, in the palette, click the Delete selected pages button which looks like this:
If there are objects on the page, InDesign will warn you that these objects will all be deleted as well.

DO NOT delete a page if there are objects (text, images, etc.) on that page that you need! They will be deleted along with the page.

If you do not need the objects on that page, click OK.
The pages will be reordered into spreads and renumbered accordingly.

Master Pages (Templates)

InDesign allows you to create templates called Master Pages, which carries every element of the master page to each page to which it is applied.

To create a master page:

If it is not already open, open the Pages Menu (pictured below), press the arrow button in the too left corner , and select New Master.
You can then choose a prefix for your Master page, a name, and a layout consisting of one page or a double page spread.
Your new master page will now appear on the screen, and you will notice a new master page tab in the Pages menu.
Everything you place on the master page will appear on all pages to which you apply it. You will not be able to edit these objects on the individual page, only from the master page.
To apply your master page to a created page, just drag the page icon for your master page onto the desired page in the Pages Menu.
The prefix for your master page should then appear within the Page Icon.

The Pages Menu:

To remove an applied template, drag the icon for the None template onto the Page Icon. Applying the None template will remove any other applied.

Page Numbers

InDesign allows you to number pages both by section and absolute position in your document. You can also choose between placing page numbers on every page and on only select pages.

Numbering every page:

First, you must have a Master Page applied to each of the pages you want to number. For these purposes, it must be the same master page.
Bring up your master page from the Pages menu and create a text box large enough to accomodate the largest page number you plan to have. In this box you may also add text that will accompany the page number, such as the titl e.
Drag this box to the position on the page in which you want the page numbers to appear
Select your text box with the text tool and make sure that the cursor is blinking within the frame.
Now select Type > Insert Special Character > Auto Page Number. This will cause the page's Absolute Number within the document to appear. You may also create a section marker which will divide up your document.
The page numbers should appear on each page to which your template is applied.

Numbering and Individual Page:

To number an individual page, you do not need to have a master page applied.
Create a text box large enough for the page number and accompanying text on your page.
From this point follow the same instructions as above to add the page number and position it on the page
For numbering several consecutive pages, you can use the Next Page Number or Previous Page Number commands found under the Type > Insert Special Character menu.

Placing and Editing Text

In addition to creating and editing text within a document, InDesign allows you to insert text from another document without have to suffer from formatting problems involving cut and paste.

Placing Text:

Placing text requires a frame in which the new text will be displayed. You can create this frame after you have placed the text but for simplicity, we will create the frame first.
To create a frame, click the frame button in the tool pallette and drag the mouse within the page to create a frame in the space where you want to display the t ext.
To insert the text into the frame, go to File > Place and then browse for the file containing the text you wish to insert. InDesign recognizes most standard text formats including TXT, RTF, and Microsoft W ord files.
You may continue to resize the frame once the text has been inserted by clicking on the blue dimension squares and dragging them in or out.

Continuous Text:

Sometimes, you will not be able to fit all your text in a single text box. If there is extra text that you want to continue within a new text box, you can creat e linked boxes that will continuously carry your text, even as you edit it, from page to page.
If there is extra text that cannot be viewed in your text box under its current dimensions, a red resize box will appear in the bottom right corner of the text box.
To create a continous text box, single click on the red resize box. The red box should now become a blue box with a single arrow in it . You can now use the mouse to drag and create a new text box, which will continue text from the previous frame. Changing the content of the previous frame will adjust the content of your new text box accordingly.

Inserting Tables

You can use a table in InDesign to arrange and manage data, much like most text editors such as Word.

To Insert a Table:

Create a new text box using the text tool . Make sure the cursor is blinking within your text box.
Select Table > Insert Table and choose the number of rows and columns. You may also add a number of header rows and header columns.
To add rows or columns to your table, select the table in the text box and then choose Table > Insert > Row/Column. Use the Table > Delete menu to remove a row or column.
To format your table or individual cells, select Table Options or Cell Options from the table menu.

Drawing

While Adobe InDesign is primarily a layout program, it does have some limited drawing features. Using InDesign you can create lines, squares, circles, and polygons filled with a single color or a gradient.

To Create a Shape:

Select the drawing tool menu from the toolbar by clicking and holding on the rectangle tool. A menu with 3 options should then appear.
Select the tool you wish to use and click and drag in the document to produce your shape.
Note: to produce perfectly proportioned shapes ie. square, circle, equilateral triangle, etc. hold down Shift while you drag to create your shape. Holding shift will maintain perfect proportions.

Additional Shapes:

You can create more shapes than a hexagon when you use the polygon tool. To change the number of sides in your polygon, double-click on the polygon tool. A new menu will prompt you for the number of sides and the star inset . If you want a normal polygon, leave the star inset at 0%. If you're curious, try it and see what happens.
To create a single straight line, use the Line Tool located in the main toolbar.
To create a custom path that is not a particular shape, use the Pencil Tool also located in the main toolbar. Other options for the pencil include the Erase Tool that will eliminate a part of the path and the Smooth Tool which will reduce the number of anchor points in a path to smooth it out.

The Shape Control Palette:

Border and position options for both shapes and paths are located in the Control Palette, which can be viewed by selecting Window > Control if it is not already visible.
The X and Y Coordinates on the left-hand side determine the position of the shape within the document. If you drag the shape with the mouse these coordinates will be adjusted automatically.
The Width and Height options next to the X-Y Coordinates determine the actual size of your shape. You can alter or distort your image using these controls.
The Width and Height percentage options allow you to alter the size of your image by relative size. Decreasing these values to 50% will make your image half-size etc. The chain-link icon ensures that the dimensions of your s hape are adjusted proportionally. If you wish to decrease only one dimension, deselect the chain by clicking on it.
The final options control the Stroke or border of the image. The number represents the size of the stroke and the line option allows you to alter the border style. The next section will discuss changing the color of your stroke.

Color and Gradients:

The color options for a shape's Fill and Stroke are located in the main toolbar.
To change the color of the fill or stroke, first click on the approprate box in the main toolbar to bring it to the front, then chose a color from within the Color Palette:

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Once you select a color, you shoud see your shape's fill or border change immediately.
Gradients work much the same way. To use a gradient rather than a solid color, click the gradient box on the main toolbar in the color section (pictured above).
You can use the Gradient Palette to adjust the colors and spans of your gradient. Once you are satisfied, select the box for either fill or stoke and drag your gradient on the figure in the document window. The gradient sho uld then appear.

Images

Adobe InDesign allows you to import images much like any other document program, however, it stores them in a different way. InDesign does not save a copy of the image, instead, it makes a link to the file which contains your image. For more discussion on this see the links section. For now we will only suggest that you keep your images in a subfolder where you store your document so as to keep them all in one place.

To import an image:

You can place an image in the same way you place text (see section on Placing Text); however, it is usually faster and more accurate to si mply drag your image file into the document.
To Review Placing:
1. Use the Place tool to create a Frame in which your image will be placed.
2. Choose File > Place to bring up the browser.
3. Select the image you want to place in the browser window and it will appear in the frame.
If you need to resize your image frame click on one of the blue frame boxes and drag to the appropriate size.
Note that resizing the frame will not resize the image contained in the frame. To resize the actual image hold Ctrl while resizing. To resize the image to scale (resizing while mai ntaining the image's current dimensions to prevent squeezing or stretching), hold Shift + Ctrl while resizing.

Managing Frame Content:

Depending on how you want to present your image, you might want to manipulate how the image appears within its frame.
You can remove parts of your image from view by dragging the frame in to exclude the external area. Likewise, you can drag the frame out again to reveal the w hole image.
You can also manipulate how the image fits in the frame by right clicking on the image within the frame and selecting Fitting. This menu will give you the options of:
1. Fitting the content to the frame, expanding or contracting the image until it exactly fills the frame size.
2. Fitting the frame to the content, resizing the frame to match the borders of your image.
3. Centering the content of the frame, placing the image in the center both horizontally and vertically.
4. Fitting content proportionally, expanding or contracting the image to fit the frame size proportionally, without distoring the image. It will match the frame size either horizontally or vertically, depending on the proportions of the image.

Links

Adobe InDesign allows you to import images much like any other document program, however, it stores them in a different way. InDesign does not save a copy of the imported image or text, instead, it makes a link to the file which contains your image. These links can be easily broken if the source file is moved. This section will describe how links are managed and offer tips on maintaining them.

Links and Placing Images:

When you place an image in Adobe InDesign, the program does not import the image file into the documet as is the case with such programs as PowerPoint or Word. Instead, InDesign creates a link, much like a web address, to the image wherever it may be located on your drive, or in relation to the document file.
For your convenience, all images that you include in an InDesign file should be placed in a subfolder, in the same folder as the document folder, or in the same folder as the document itself.
Links to images displayed in your document will be listed in the Links Menu:
If an image file contained in the document is relocated, the broken link icon will appear next to the link name. If you double-click on this icon it will bring up the link's properties, and allow to relink to the image's new location.
If an image file is modified using a paint program or by other means, the modified link icon will appear. Once again, you can double-click on this icon to view the link's properties and to verify the location . Once you verify the image's location, the image will be updated.
When you move a file and/or reorganize your images, you may have to update a large number of files. This is the reason for keep all your images within one subfolder. After you update the first link, InDesign will automatica lly look within the same folder for the source of other image files. If your images are all together, updating will take only a few seconds.

Layers

Like Photoshop, InDesign allows you to store objects in various Layers to control visibility, position and other properties. Layers are not as crucial in InDesign as they are in Photoshop but they do provide a easy means for arr anging your objects.

Arranging Within a Layer:

All objects within a layer are ordered by the point at which they were created, however, you can reorder them however you like to control their relative positions.
To manage an object, select it and right-click. Select the Arrange option and choose between the given options:
1. Send to Back
2. Send Backward
3. Send Forward
4. Send to Front
An objects position in the arrangment has little effect beyond visibility. Obviously, an object in front will be visible over other objects behind it.

Arranging Layers

A large InDesign document can have a very large number of objects, and keeping the order of them may be difficult. Layers will aid you in the task of organizing a large number of objects.
Each InDesign document starts with one layer of objects. To create a new layer press the New Layer button from the Layer Menu:
Each object in layer on a higher level will be visible over an object from a lower layer. You can rearrange the layers by dragging them within the Layer Menu.

Text Wrap

Like most layout programs, InDesign allows you to wrap columns of text around an image in a variety of ways.
Wrapping Text:

Once you have your image and text in place, open the Text Wrap menu by choosing Window > Type & Tables > Text Wrap. The menu should then appear as below:
Now select the Image you want to wrap the text around and click the button the text wrap menu indicating how you want the text formatted. The text should then automatically wrap around your image.
If you want to remove the text wrap, click the first button, where the lines cross over the image box

Saving and Exporting

Once you have finished laying out your document and are satisfied that all the text and images are to your liking, you have several saving options. Standard Save:

The default option for InDesign will save your file and an InDesign document with the file extension .ind. This will save all the image links, text boxes, layers, etc. that you have added and edited in your document. For any item that m ight require future editing, save your file as an InDesign document first.
To save as an InDesign document simply select File > Save.

Exporting:

Depending on your purpose with your document, it might help to save your InDesign document as another type of tile. InDesign allows you to export your document to a wide variety of filetypes for this purpose.
To export your document select File > Export.
InDesign will then prompt you to select a type of file from some of these options:
1. Adobe PDF (.pdf)
  Good for transfering documents to other users.
2. EPS Vector File (.eps)
  Good for resizable images--tshirts, logos, etc.
3. JPEG Image (.jpg)
  Good for web or print presentation as an image.
4. XML Web File (.xml)
  Good for advanced web presentation as a webpage.

Once you have selected your filetype you may have to select certain export options. Afterwards your page will be saved as your desired filetype.

Undoing Errors

Unlike Adobe Photoshop, InDesign does not keep a listed history of your actions in a window; however, the actions are stored internally and you can undo multiple errors.

To undo an error:

Select Edit > Undo to undo a single error. To undo multiple errors, repeat the process. InDesign will backtrack through your actions each time you Undo.
As a shortcut, you can also use the command Ctrl + Z.

To redo an action:

Select Edit > Redo. Like Undo, you can use this feature multiple times consecutively.
As a shortcut, you can also use the command Shift + Ctrl + Z.

Further Assistance

For further assistance using InDesign, please visit the Digital Media Center or ask a DMC Specialist.

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