Indesign tutorial 1 2015

InDesign Tutorial 1 “Different purpose demands different style” Lucian Bernhard

© Shaun Minahan 2015

CONTENTS

3 4 6 12 16 20 22

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Introduction The InDesign Workspace The Toolbox The File Menu Creating a New Document The Panel Dock Creating Text

InDesign Tutorial 1

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” Leonardo Da Vinci

INTRODUCTION This is the first in a series of InDesign Tutorials that will allow you to learn InDesign at your own pace. InDesign is the industry standard layout application for magazine design worldwide.

In this tutorial, you will learn some basics of InDesign and familiarise yourself with the workspace, toolbox, panel dock and some design elements. There are also several exercises for you to do which will help you get a grasp of using InDesign.

Follow them carefully and save the files in the ‘Tutorial 1’ folder which is located in your personal folder.

I hope you enjoy learning and using InDesign. Once you have become familiar with it, you will be able to think beyond simple layout. InDesign will help you be creative in ways you never thought possible. You’ll find yourself being able to design newsletters, business cards, invites etc.

Shaun Minahan August 2015

Further tutorials will have a continuous exercise format. That is, you will start with one file that you will work on throughout the tutorial, using new tools and design features that you will learn as you progress through the tutorial.

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THE INDESIGN WORKSPACE Menu Control Panel Document Tab Rulers

P Toolbox

M

C

Current Page Page 4

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Page Border Panel Dock

Margin Guide

Column Guide

Pasteboard

“The big problem is most contemporary design practiced today is not really graphic design, but graphic decoration�

Art Chantry

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THE TOOLBOX Toolbox Mode Selection Selection Tool Direct Selection Tool Page Tool

Although all tools have been identified in the diagrams to the right, not all of them will be used in the tutorials.

The following pages will describe only the tools used in both the tutorials and for most magazine layouts.

Gap Tool Content Tools Type Tools Line Tool Pen Tools Pencil Tools Frame Tools Shape Tools

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Scissors Tool Transformation Tools Gradient Swatch Gradient Feather Note Tool Navigation Tools

This is a view of the two column Toolbox.

It expands the Fill and Stroke area and below making them easier to use.

Hand Tool Zoom Tool Fill and Stroke Apply to Container Graphics Frame Tools Screen Views

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THE TOOLBOX Flyout Menus Some tool buttons have more than one function. A flyout menu appears when the tool button is clicked.

Toolbox Mode Selection When the double arrow is clicked, the toolbox toggles between single and double column formats.

Selection Tool This lets you select single or multiple objects. Adding objects can be achieved by choosing one object then choosing extra objects while the SHIFT key is pressed.

Multiple objects can be chosen at once by holding the left mouse button down and sweeping across a selection of objects.

Direct Selection Tool This lets you select points on a path or contents within a frame.

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Type Tools (Flyout menu) Use to create text boxes, edit text and create text on a path.

Line Tool Allows you to draw a line segment.

Pen Tools (Flyout menu) Allows you draw straight and curved paths, add or delete anchor points to an existing path and lets you convert corner points and smooth points.

Frame Tools (Flyout menu) Frame Tools create boxes (or frames) for graphics. They will allow you to draw squares, rectangles, circles, ovals and polygons which you then import (or link) picture files into.

Shape Tools (Flyout menu) They will allow you to draw squares, rectangles, circles, ovals and polygons which can be filled with colour, gradients and transparencies.

Transformation Tools (Flyout menu) Rotate, scale and shear objects around a fixed point.

Gradient Swatch This will fill selected objects with the current gradient. It also works on strokes.

It works hand in hand with the Gradient Palette.

Gradient Feather Allows the selected object to fade gradually from opaque to transparent.

Hand Tool Moves the page view within the document.

Zoom Tool Adjusts the view magnification in the document.

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THE TOOLBOX Swap Fill and Stroke Colour

Fill Colour Defaults to no Fill and black Stroke

Stroke Colour

HANDY HINT When using an application such as InDesign or other Adobe products such as Photoshop or Illustrator, it is important to remember this: Keep one hand on the keyboard and the other on the mouse.

Formatting affects container

Formatting affects text

Apply none

Apply colour Apply gradient

Normal view

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Toggles between views

As the majority of commands in InDesign have shortcuts and can be accessed quickly from the keyboard, it is wise to remember and use them.

You will increase your productivity by taking less time to execute a command, instead of using the mouse and the main Menu. Furthermore, both hands will be moving at once.

With practice, you’ll notice you’ll be doing a lot more in a shorter amount of time.

EXERCISE 1 Open InDesign and identify all the items in the Workspace as described on pages 4 & 5.

Using the mouse, click on the items in the toolbox. If a tool has a flyout menu, click the tool and hold your mouse button down for a second and it will appear.

“Nothing’s impossible” The Doorknob, Alice in Wonderland

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THE FILE MENU The Pull-down File Menu This menu appears when ‘File’ is chosen from the Menu. Items marked with a red dot will be discussed in this section of the tutorial.

Opening Documents

Opening documents with InDesign is pretty much the same as opening documents with any program.

Simply choose File then Open or press Ctrl+O. Locate and click the document you want to work on, and then click Open.

Another way is to locate the file on your computer or network, then double click on it. This will also launch InDesign if it is not already active.

InDesign can have several files open at once and will display them with individual tabs like this: Closing Documents

Choose File then Close or press Ctrl+W. This closes the active document. If the document has never been saved or if it has been changed since it was last saved,

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a dialog box appears that lets you save, close without saving, or cancel and return to the document.

Another way to close a document is to click on the ‘x’ on the right hand side of the document tab as illustrated below.

Saving Documents

Choose File then Save or press Ctrl+S. This saves changes you’ve made to the active document since you last saved.

If you choose Save for a document that hasn’t yet been saved, the Save As dialog box appears. This dialog box lets you name and choose a storage folder for the document.

Revert

As the naming suggest, this function will revert to the last saved version of the document. Unfortunately, all changes from then will be lost, so use with care.

Exit

This will close down InDesign. Either choose Exit from the File Menu or press Ctrl+Q. Another method is to click the ‘X’ on the InDesign window in the top right hand corner.

All active documents will then close and you will be presented with the opportunity to save any unsaved documents.

Similarly, with yet unsaved documents you can choose File then Save As... or press Ctrl+Shift+S which will also bring up the Save As dialog box.

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THE FILE MENU Unsaved Files

When a file has had any changes to it since the last time it was saved, the Document Tab will have an asterisk ( ) in front of the file name.

EXERCISE 2 Open the file “The Good Herb” in the Tutorial 1 folder using any method you like.

Save the file in the Tutorial 1 folder using the Save As function (either method).

The Golden Rule

Name the file “Exercise 2”

Many designers will tell you stories of losing hours of work when an application has frozen, a power failure has occurred and their computer has turned off or some other catastrophe has happened (Catastrophe is an apt word. Cats are usually involved when you leave a keyboard unattended).

Close the file then Exit Indesign.

The solution; Save early. Save often.

Pressing Ctrl+S every minute or so is a very good habit to get into.

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Common Sense NOMENCLATURE In a nutshell, naming things.

The way we organise ourselves when using multiple files is important. And it must be a process that is understood by all those involved. Naming files correctly and explanatory when saving is vital so that errors can be minimised and files can be located quickly.

If, for example, you are saving a document you have created that consists of business cards for Peter Johns of DKR Computers, then instead of naming the file ‘BCards’, it would be better if you named it: ‘Peter Johns DKR Computers BusCards’ I have worked in many print, design and advertising companies where the organisation and naming of files has varied from outstanding to ridiculous.

Once, I had to retrieve a picture of a City Mayor for a design job. I found the original layout file and found the picture. It was named ‘Man1’. A search on the system revealed over 100 instances of files with this name. It took over an hour to find the picture that was required.

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CREATING A NEW DOCUMENT Before you begin a new document, you must answer several fundamental questions about the publication you are producing: What are its dimensions? How many pages will it have? If it will be a multi-page publication, will it have facing pages like a book or a catalogue, or will it be singlesided like a flip chart?

How many columns will each page have?

How wide will the margins be?

These and many other considerations must be taken into account when creating a new InDesign document.

To create a new InDesign document, choose File, New, Document or press Ctrl+N.

Using the dropdown menu to create a new document.

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New Document dialogue box

When you create a new document, the New Document dialogue box appears.

It is here that you implement many of the decisions you arrived at during the planning stage, including page size, number of pages, number of columns, and margin width. Although you’re free to change your mind later, you save yourself time and potential headaches by sticking with the basic page parameters you establish in the New Document dialogue box.

To our example; We have been given the task of producing a four page A4 brochure.

This will be printed on both sides of a sheet of A3 (two pages per side) and then folded in half to give us the final product.

Some pages will have two columns and there needs to be a 10mm gap between them. We will also have a non-text area at the edge of the brochure of 15mm.

In the figure above we can see the information entered in the New Document box reflected in the requirements. We have

chosen a ‘Print’ document of four pages with numbering starting at page one.

The Facing Pages box has been ticked which means that the two centre pages will appear together (this will be explained later).

We have chosen a page size of A4 with a ‘Portrait’ Orientation and two Columns with a 10mm Gutter. The Margins have been set equally to 15mm. This was automatic as the box has been switched on which links all Margin sizes. Note the terminology of the Margins. Top and Bottom are self explanatory. The Inside Margin refers to where the pages meet and Outside to the Margin on the outer of the page. If the box ‘Facing Pages’ had not been ticked these would then be Left and Right Margins.

This document will have pages that look like the figure on the next page.

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CREATING A NEW DOCUMENT 15mm

15mm

15mm

Portrait vs Landscape Orientation

You can choose whether your document is portrait or landscape orientation.

210mm

Portrait

10mm 210mm

When you set up your new document, choose the orientation in the New Document window.

Portrait 15mm

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Landscape

Landscape

EXERCISE 3

HANDY HINT

Open InDesign and create a new document with the following specifications:

You can use the shortcut key W to switch between Preview and Normal modes. In Normal mode, you will see all frames, guides margins and columns. Preview mode hides these elements so you can view the document with just the printable objects.

Intent: Print Number of pages: 1 Facing pages: Off (not ticked) Orientation: Portrait Page size: A4 Number of Columns: 2 Gutter: 10mm

WARNING: Make sure you have no text selected when doing this.

Otherwise you will end up with text with a lot of “W”s in it.

Margins: All 15mm Your document should look exactly like the figure to the left.

Save this file as ‘Exercise 3’ in the Tutorial 1 folder.

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THE PANEL DOCK Document Control

Fills and Strokes

Typography

Transformations The figure above is a personalised Panel Dock the Author has. As per the illustration on page 1 (The InDesign Workspace) it is permanently located on the right hand side of the workspace. The Panels stay docked (collapsed) and are accessed when required.

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Panels provide a more interactive method of working with features because the screen is not obscured by a large dialogue box and you can access the controls quickly.

InDesign places a set of panels in a dock at the right edge of your screen to keep them in a self-contained area. When an item in the panel group is selected, a flyout panel will appear as in the following illustration.

Here, the Pages panel has been selected.

The flyout also includes the other three panels in the group which are visible as tabs (Links, Layers and Info).

To collapse the flyout, click on the double arrow shown here circled in yellow.

Each Panel has its own sub-menu which is accessed by clicking on the Menu icon, shown in the illustration circled in red.

HANDY HINT Made a mistake? Just press Ctrl-Z or choose Edit then Undo from the Menu.

EXERCISE 4 Open the file called ‘Numbers’ from the Tutorial 1 folder and select the Pages panel. You will see the single page in the panel and a large “1” on the page. From the sub-menu, select ‘Insert Pages’. Insert two pages after page one. You should see the three pages in the Page panel like this: Click on each of the page icons and watch them highlight in light blue.

Double click a page and you will go to that page. Click the double arrow to close the Pages panel.

Save this file as ‘Exercise 4’.

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CREATING TEXT All text blocks, called stories, in an InDesign document are contained in text frames. Unlike a word-processing program, which lets you just start typing text on a blank page, InDesign requires you to create a text frame before you can add text to a page.

the selection tool and select the new text frame you have created. You will see the text frame with its various attributes which are explained in the following figure.

Note: If you want a square text frame, hold the Shift key down while you draw the frame.

To create a text frame, choose the type tool. Your mouse pointer will change appearance to this:

Use this to draw a text frame. Click and hold the mouse button, and while holding down the mouse button, drag in any direction. As you drag, a cross-hair pointer appears in the corner opposite your starting point; a blue rectangle indicates the boundary of the frame. Also, the height and width of the frame will follow the cross hair in a grey box. Release the mouse button to complete the frame. Click Page 22

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Anchoring Handle Port In (for linked text) Sizing Handles

Rounded Corners Handle Port Out (for linked text)

Choose the type tool again and click inside the text frame. You will see a small flashing line cursor. You can now begin to type.

Sizing the Text Frame

Drag the handles to resize the frame. This may require a bit of practice. Draw a Text Frame on a new document and practice resizing. Remember, there are eight handles that resize on all dimensions.

Placing Text from a Word File

Sometimes you may be supplied with a Word file that you have to use for your publication. The easiest way is to Place the Word file into your InDesign document.

From the File menu, choose Place, or you can press Ctrl-D. This opens the Place window where you can choose the file you require. Once chosen and OK is pressed, you will see your mouse pointer become something like this:

EXERCISE 5 Create a new document and draw a text frame. Type in a few lines of text to get the feel of using the type tool. If you have used a word processing tool like Word before, you’re probably used to doing this.

Mental blank? In a few sentences, type down what you did this morning, or what you plan for this weekend. Save this file as ‘Exercise 5’.

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CREATING TEXT Choose a location for the text by clicking on the page. If necessary, use the handles to resize the placed text frame. The text can then be formatted as you wish.

Either press Ctrl-A or select Edit then Select All from the Menu.

Copy & Paste

Click off the ‘Hyphenate’ box. This will rid the selected text frame of any automatic hyphenation and stop any occurring in the future. The Hyphenate check box has been highlighted in yellow in the figure below.

This is useful when you need to bring in text from a web page, an email or an application other than Word.

Highlight (choose) the text that you need to copy. Either press Ctrl-C or use the application’s Copy feature. Draw a text frame in InDesign then press Ctrl-V or choose Edit then Paste from the Menu.

Click the Paragraph Panel in the Panel Dock so the flyout appears.

Hyphenation

Hyphenation is rarely used these days, looks a bit messy and can make some text harder to read. If your new text frame has text that is hyphenated you can switch it off using the Paragraph panel.

Select all text within a text box by choosing the type tool and clicking onto the text.

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Text Overflow

Text frames are finite in size and can only contain so much text. When there is too much text in a text frame, a special symbol will appear where the Port Out box is.

EXERCISE 6 Create a new document with the following: If you click on this red symbol, your cursor will change to something like this.

This allows you to place overflow text in another text frame when you place it on the page. The two text frames will be linked and all text in both frames can be edited as one.

Number of Pages: 1 Facing Pages: Off Size: A5 Orientation: Landscape Columns: 3 Gutter: 10mm All Margins: 15mm Place the file ‘Green Tree Frog’ located in the Tutorial 1 folder into the first column. Turn off the Hyphenation.

Then place the overflow text into the next 2 columns. Save your file as ‘Exercise 6’.

Your page should look like this:

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