Part I
Before You Begin
In this part . . .
You have your copy of InDesign, and youâd like some basic information on how to get started, right? Well, youâve come to the right place. This part helps you sail smoothly through InDesign and gives you a general idea of what InDesign can do. I explain the layout approaches you can take, as well as how to set up InDesign to work the way you work.
Along the way, you find out how to navigate the plethora of panels, menus, tools, and shortcuts that can seem overwhelming at first, but which soon become second nature as you gain experience using the program. Welcome aboard!
Chapter 1
Understanding InDesign Ingredients
In This Chapter
Getting acquainted with the InDesign approach
Figuring out global versus local control
Getting up to speed on the InDesign vocabulary
Exploring the document window
Surveying the top tools
Becoming familiar with tools and panels
Discovering whatâs in the menus
Starting to use a new software application is not unlike meeting a new friend for the first time. You take a long look at the person, maybe ask a few questions, and begin the process of becoming acquainted. (If youâre not new to InDesign but are new to the CS4 version, itâs like seeing a friend you havenât seen in a while â you observe any changes and catch up on whatâs happened in the meantime.)
Just as itâs worthwhile to find out the likes and dislikes of a new friend, itâs also worth your time to wrap your head around InDesignâs unique style and approaches. When you do so, youâll find it much easier to start using InDesign to get work done.
This chapter explains where to look in InDesign for the features and capabilities you need to master. (For a quick look at whatâs new to version CS4, check out Chapter 25.) I introduce you to the process that InDesign assumes you use when laying out documents, explain some of the terms youâll encounter throughout the book, describe the unique interface elements in the document window, survey the most commonly used tools, and explain how InDesign packages much of its functionality through an interface element called a panel.
InDesign CS4 has an annoying new feature of hiding menu options from you. The goal is to be less intimidating, but it also means if you donât know what InDesign can do, you wonât find out by looking at the menus. Fortunately, you can tell InDesign to show you all the menus all the time, so no features are hidden. Hereâs how: Choose WindowâWorkspaceâShow Full Menus. This book assumes that youâve turned the menus all on.
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 establish 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 19)
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 shouldnât be surprised to make such changes often because although the layout and typographic functions that styles and master pages automate are the fundamental components of any documentâs look, they donât always work for all the specific content within a publication. (If they did, whoâd 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)
Keep your bearings straight
A powerful but confusing capability in InDesign is something called a control point. InDesign lets you work with objects from nine different reference points â any of the four corners, the middle of any of the four sides, or the center â such as when positioning the object precisely or rotating the object. You choose the active reference point, or control point, in the Control panel or Transform panel, using the grid of nine points arranged in a square.
By default, InDesign uses the central reference point as the control point, which is great for rotating an object, but can lead to confusion when you enter in the X and Y coordinates to place it precisely. Thatâs because most people use the upper-left corner of an object when specifying its coordinates, not the center of the object. Be sure to change the control point to the upper-left reference point whenever entering X and Y coordinates in the Control or Transform panels.
How do you change the control point? Thatâs easy: Just click the desired reference point in that preview grid. The control point will be black, whereas the other reference points will be white.
Choosing the right tools for the job
Depending on what youâre trying to do with InDesign at any given moment, you may or may not immediately know which tool to use. If, for example, you maintain fairly precise layout standards throughout a document, using master pages is the way to keep your work in order. Using styles is the best solution if you want to apply standard character and paragraph formatting throughout a document. When you work with one-of-a-kind documents, on the other hand, designing master pages and styles doesnât make much sense â itâs easier just to format elements as you create them.
For example, you can create drop caps (large initial letters set into a paragraph of type, such as the drop cap that starts each chapter in this book) as a character option in the Character panel, or you can create a paragraph style (formatting that you can apply to whole paragraphs, ensuring that the same formatting is applied each time) that contains the drop-cap settings and then apply that style to the paragraph containing the drop cap. Which method you choose depends on the complexity of your document and how often you need to perform the action. The more often you find yourself taking a set of steps, the more often you should use a global tool (like character and paragraph styles) to accomplish the task.
Fortunately, you donât need to choose between global and local tools while youâre in the middle of designing a document. You can always create styles from existing local formatting later. You can also add elements to a master page if you...
