InDesign Session (Part 1)

Really useful InDesign session with Jo yesterday. I’ve been using InDesign for a couple of years now, so am fairly comfortable using it, but nonetheless picked up some really useful tools and shortcuts which I think will really improve the way I use the software, including:

• Swatches > Load Swatches - to load a swatch palette from another document you’re working on
  

• Edit > Step & Repeat (great tool!)

• Type > Create Outlines – really easy to bring over into InDesign the stuff we’ve being doing with Jo in Illustrator in terms of editing type. A simple but successful way of putting your own stamp onto a project.

• To retain an acceptable resolution when enlarging images, try not to take them above 130% (ideally 100% or less)

• If you embed an image into your InDesign document (Links > Embed file), you overcome problems associated with broken links but obviously lose the ‘update link’ option and greatly increase the file size.

• If you have placed an image into your InDesign document and can’t remember its original file location you can save it to a new location through InDesign by going to Links > Copy link(s) to...

In addition, a few tips I picked up in the all-day pdf workshop last Friday include:

• Make sure pdfs are compatible with Acrobat 5 or later

• To add a hyperlink to an Indesign doc: Window > Interactive > Create new hyperlink

• To add a video to a pdf (in Acrobat):

1. File > Create pdf > From file > Navigate to file
2. Tools > Advanced editing > Movie tool
3. File > Export/Save

(To delete a movie – Tools > Advanced editing > Select object tool)