Jun. 28, 2008
Do you enjoy selecting the same object types on your page over and over? I don’t!
Did you know there is a scripts panel inside InDesign? It’s one of those hidden features many people overlook, but has tremendous power if used in the right context. For any unfamiliar with the world of scripting, in essence it’s a form of automation that brings InDesign to life. Scripts allow the user incredible power in doing the types of things that can become somewhat of a chore. Like selecting the same object types on your page. How do you select all the text frames on your page? By shift clicking, right? Well, have I got something to show you!
The Select Objects script inside InDesign is a real time saver. It allows you to select all the objects of a particular type, or even multiple types, on your page at once. You can choose from any of the following, Rectangles, Ellipses, Polygons, Graphic Lines, Text Frames, Groups, Images, PDF’s and EPS’s. I anticipate the light bulb in your head just went off? Followed by the frustration of always wanting to be able to do such a thing and not realizing it was right there in front of you, yes?
Lets take a look at how it works. If you go to the “Window” menu, down to the “Automation” sub-menu and choose “Scripts”, the scripts panel will appear. You will see two folders inside the Scripts panel, an “Application” folder, where all the default Indesign scripts are located, and a “User” folder, where all the custom scripts you add to InDesign are to be stored.
Open the “Application” folder. Inside the Application folder you will see a “Samples” folder, open it. Next locate the script called SelectObjects, inside either the apple script or java scripts folder. If your wondering what the difference is between apple script and java script is, java script is cross platform, Mac and PC.
Now you’re ready to select a particular object type, let’s select all the text frames on your page, go ahead and double click on the SelectObjects script. A dialogue now appears. Make sure “Text Frames” is checked and all the other options, Rectangles, Ellipses, Polygons, Graphic Lines, Groups, Images, PDF’s and EPS’s are deselected and choose “OK” (see image below). Now all the text frames that were on the active page are selected.
If you’re wanting to select multiple object types, Rectangles and Ellipses for instance. Make sure you have both checked and when you choose “OK”, all the rectangles and ellipses on the page will be selected. How easy!
There is a slight catch, this script selects objects on locked or hidden layers, resulting in objects on locked and hidden layers being selected. You still can’t move or format the objects on the locked or hidden layers though. This may or may not be a problem for you.
For anyone wanting to find out more about scripting or what the other inbuilt InDesign scripts do, check out this link, http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/scripting
Video Instructions (all videos are quicktime movies): 1. Click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink, a new window appears, once the video has downloaded completely (speed varies depending on internet connection) the video will commence. 2. Right click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink and choose “DOWNLOAD LINKED FILE AS” to save the video to your computer. Once downloaded open the .mov file in Quicktime to watch. 3. Subscribe to the creativementor.com.au now Podcast through iTunes.
Posted by Neil Oliver in Scripts | No Comments
Jun. 27, 2008
Did you know you can copy and paste objects and maintain the layer structure?
If you’re in the habit of pasting objects to different documents then adding new layers, then renaming those layers and then moving the objects to their correct layers to replicate the layer structure in the previous document (sounds like a lot of hard work), this tip is for you.
If you go to the layers panel drop down menu (top right) you will see the option “Paste Remembers Layers” (see image below).
Once you choose this option, you have the ability to copy any page elements from different layers in the current document to a new or existing document. When you paste the page elements on the page, the exact same layer structure appears with each object on its correct layer, as it appeared in the previous document. What a time saver!
Video Instructions (all videos are quicktime movies): 1. Click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink, a new window appears, once the video has downloaded completely (speed varies depending on internet connection) the video will commence. 2. Right click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink and choose “DOWNLOAD LINKED FILE AS” to save the video to your computer. Once downloaded open the .mov file in Quicktime to watch. 3. Subscribe to the creativementor.com.au now Podcast through iTunes.
Posted by Neil Oliver in Layers | No Comments
Jun. 18, 2008
Get the most viewing area from your screen
When designing, I always look for ways to get more viewing area on my screen. I’ll hide my dock (on a Mac), maximize screen resolution, and make the document window as big as I can. Indesign also has inbuilt interface options for hiding some, or even all of your panels, allowing you to get the most viewing area out of your screen. Let’s take a look.
If you press “Tab” on the keyboard, all the panels on the left and right sides of the screen disappear, including the Tool bar and Control Panel, however the Menu bar remains. If you want to bring all the panels back press “Tab” again, and they will appear.
If you feel that you are pressing tab all the time to hide and reveal the panels, there is another option available once you have hidden your panels. You simply hover your mouse over the far left or right side of the screen where the panels are normally displayed, and they spontaneously reappear. You can proceed with any necessary changes within a panel, and when done, the panel hides itself again. If you would like to bring all the panels back permanently press “Tab” once more.
You may want to hide your panels and keep the Tool bar and Control panel, if so press “Shift” “Tab”. Now all the panels on the right disappear and the Tool bar and Control panel remain. If you want to access the panels on the right of the screen you can hover over the far right of the screen and they will reappear. To bring all the panels back permanently press “Tab” again.
Video Instructions (all videos are quicktime movies): 1. Click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink, a new window appears, once the video has downloaded completely (speed varies depending on internet connection) the video will commence. 2. Right click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink and choose “DOWNLOAD LINKED FILE AS” to save the video to your computer. Once downloaded open the .mov file in Quicktime to watch. 3. Subscribe to the creativementor.com.au now Podcast through iTunes.
Posted by Neil Oliver in Interface | 3 Comments
Jun. 16, 2008
An efficient way to apply effects to objects
People using the effects panel inside Indesign tend to miss one of the best features available when working with effects. The feature I’m talking about gives you the ability to drag and drop effects from an existing object to other objects on your page.
If you have an existing object selected with a Drop Shadow applied to its fill for instance, the effects panel shows you that there is a Drop Shadow applied to the fill via the “fx” icon that appears (see image below).
To transfer the drop shadow from the selected object to another object, simply drag the “fx” icon from the effects panel to the object on the page you’re wanting to replicate the effect on. Once you hover over the desired object, an outline will appear around the object frame, indicating the effect will be applied to that particular object. When you let go, the effect will be applied.
This drag and drop method only lets you take a effect from one level (object, stroke, fill or text) of the object at any given time. So, if you’re wanting to copy the Drop Shadow of a fill and the Bevel and Emboss from the stroke of the object and apply them both to an object at the same time, it would be best to use the eyedropper tool or even an object style. We will cover the powerful eyedropper tool and object styles extensively in future posts.
Video Instructions (all videos are quicktime movies): 1. Click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink, a new window appears, once the video has downloaded completely (speed varies depending on internet connection) the video will commence. 2. Right click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink and choose “DOWNLOAD LINKED FILE AS” to save the video to your computer. Once downloaded open the .mov file in Quicktime to watch. 3. Subscribe to the creativementor.com.au now Podcast through iTunes.
Posted by Neil Oliver in Effects | No Comments
Jun. 11, 2008
Have you ever changed an Indesign preference to find that the next document you open your preference has reverted back to its original setting?
Thats because Indesign in theory lets you save preferences in two specific ways. What I call local and global preferences. If you have no documents open and change preference settings from the Indesign preferences dialogue, all new documents will maintain the settings you chose. This is what I call a global setting.
According to Adobe if you have a document open and change preference settings, the preferences will be assigned to that document only. This would be a local setting. So the next document you create or open, the preference settings will have reverted back to their global states because Indesign didn’t recognise your preference settings to be permanent due to the document you had open at the time. That’s what they say in theory, however its just not that straight forward.
There are many instances when you will have a document open, make a preference change and find it’s still current next time you create or open a new document. For my sanity and for the sake of being too technical I’m not going to dive into that right now. Just remember if your wanting to change settings permanently (globally), make sure all your documents are closed beforehand, this way you can be certain you’ll get the result you’re expecting.
Similar rules apply when working with objects, text and panels. If you were working with objects on your page and decide you want your default fill to be magenta and the stroke cyan for all new objects (smashing I know), change these settings when no objects are selected. Your changes will be set as the default fill and stroke for all new objects drawn on that page. Once you close that page all these changes will revert back to their global states, they are specific to the document you had open at the time.
Video Instructions (all videos are quicktime movies): 1. Click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink, a new window appears, once the video has downloaded completely (speed varies depending on internet connection) the video will commence. 2. Right click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink and choose “DOWNLOAD LINKED FILE AS” to save the video to your computer. Once downloaded open the .mov file in Quicktime to watch. 3. Subscribe to the creativementor.com.au now Podcast through iTunes.
Posted by Neil Oliver in Preferences | No Comments
Jun. 9, 2008
Place text on your page, make changes to the original text file and it updates in Indesign automatically.
Did you know you can place your text files and spreadsheets on your page and maintain a link back to the original text file, so that any revisions to the original text file or spreadsheet are automatically updated in Indesign?
By default, when you place text into your layout there is no live link between the text on your layout and your original text that lives on your hard drive. So any changes you then make to the original text file when you are outside the Indesign layout and back in the native text editing program, MS Word or Text Edit for instance, aren’t displayed within your layout. You would have to go and re-place the text, or copy and paste and reformat the new text to get it looking the way you want on your page.
There’s an easy solution to this problem. Go in to your Indesign preferences, select the “Type” tab and you will see under the “Links” section the “Create Links When Placing Text and Spreadsheet Files” option. Choose this option. Now every time you place a text or spreadsheet file on your page you will get a live link in the links panel back to your original text file. Any changes you make to that original text file will be updated on your page.
Note: If when you go back into your Indesign page you don’t automatically see the revisions you made to your original text file, go to the links panel and choose “Update Link” from the fly out menu (top right of the panel) or select the “Update Link” icon from the bottom of the links panel and your text will update.
Video Instructions (all videos are quicktime movies): 1. Click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink, a new window appears, once the video has downloaded completely (speed varies depending on internet connection) the video will commence. 2. Right click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink and choose “DOWNLOAD LINKED FILE AS” to save the video to your computer. Once downloaded open the .mov file in Quicktime to watch. 3. Subscribe to the creativementor.com.au now Podcast through iTunes.
Posted by Neil Oliver in Preferences | 1 Comment
Jun. 5, 2008
You can now subscribe to creativementor.com.au video tutorials via iTunes 
Click on the iTunes logo or link below to open the Creative Mentor podcasting page in the iTunes Store. Once subscribed you will be able to download the creativementor.com.au video tutorials directly into iTunes as soon as they are posted.
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=282044172
Posted by Neil Oliver in News | No Comments
Jun. 5, 2008
Displaying the scaling percentage accurately
Have you noticed that by default when you scale an object up or down in Indesign from either, the control panel or the transform panel its scaling percentage is reset to 100%? This means the objects scaled percentage, let’s say you choose 50%, doesn’t actually reflect 50%, instead it shows as 100% even though the object has been scaled down to 50%.
There’s an easy way to change this behaviour, and it’s one of the first things (among many) that I change when working in Indesign on a foreign computer for the first time. If you go to the Indesign preferences dialogue (MAC: Command+K / PC: Control+K) in the first tab “General” you will see under the “When Scaling” section two options.
1. Apply to content - This is the default setting that causes objects to be displayed at 100% no matter what scaling percentage has been applied to them.
2. Adjust Scaling Percentage - This is the preference that allows the scaling percentage to be represented in accordance with the actual transformation that just took place.
If you want your scaling to be represented accurately, go ahead and choose the second option Adjust Scaling Percentage.
Now all scaling transformations you do will be represented in accordance with the actual transformation that just took place.
Video Instructions (all videos are quicktime movies): 1. Click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink, a new window appears, once the video has downloaded completely (speed varies depending on internet connection) the video will commence. 2. Right click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink and choose “DOWNLOAD LINKED FILE AS” to save the video to your computer. Once downloaded open the .mov file in Quicktime to watch. 3. Subscribe to the creativementor.com.au Podcast through iTunes (not yet available).
Posted by Neil Oliver in Preferences | 2 Comments
Jun. 3, 2008
An easy way to reduce the empty space within your text frames.
There is a fantastic new feature within Indesign CS3 that allows you to quickly remove any unwanted empty space within a text frame. It’s simplicity is obvious, though there are a few variables depending on what part of the text frame you are clicking that you should be aware of.
So we have a sentence of type (see image below), and as you can see the text frame is way larger that the actual text. Its always best practice to minimize the size of all your frames in your layouts, so you can easily select other page elements without having to use keyboard shortcuts to select through page elements on top of other page elements, and also to minimize transparency effecting page elements unnecessarily.
So the trick is to make sure you have the text frame you want to remove empty space from active, then if your text frame needs to snap up from the bottom and the right as per the image above, you simply double click the lower right corner point of the active text frame, and the frame snaps to the last character on the right and to the baseline of the type (see image below).
I did say there are some variables depending on what part of the text frame you are clicking that you should be aware of so here they are;
- If you double click any corner point two things will happen, the frame with snap both horizontally and vertically in direction
- If you double click the lower centre point of the text frame the result will be the frame snapping to the baseline of the last line of text, however any empty space to the right will remain
- If you were to double click on the centre point on the right side of a text frame the result will be the text frame snapping to the last rightmost character in the frame, however any empty space below will remain.
So depending on what point of the text frame you double click on you will get a certain result. Play around with it, try the other text frame points not mentioned here.
Video Instructions (all videos are quicktime movies): 1. Click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink, a new window appears, once the video has downloaded completely (speed varies depending on internet connection) the video will commence. 2. Right click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink and choose “DOWNLOAD LINKED FILE AS” to save the video to your computer. Once downloaded open the .mov file in Quicktime to watch. 3. Subscribe to the creativementor.com.au Podcast through iTunes (not yet available).
Posted by Neil Oliver in Text | No Comments
Jun. 1, 2008
Quickly change from the selection tool to the direct selection tool when working with images.
Commonly when working with images in Indesign, people tend to switch between the selection tool and direct selection tool in two ways. The first way is to manually choose either the selection or direct selection tool from the tool panel. The second way is to use each tools keyboard shortcut, (V) for the selection tool and (A) for the direct selection tool.
In Indesign CS3 there is a new way to switch between the two tools. Let’s say you have placed a graphic on your page and you have the selection tool active. All you need to do to switch from the active selection tool to the direct selection tool, is double click on the placed image, voila. You now have the direct selection tool active and you’re ready to select your image and move it around within its frame.
Once you have finished moving the image around within the frame you simply double click on the image once more to switch from the direct selection tool to the selection tool.
The great thing about this technique is that you can keep your eye focused on your design rather than looking at tools in the tool panel or at keys on the keyboard.
Video Instructions (all videos are quicktime movies): 1. Click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink, a new window appears, once the video has downloaded completely (speed varies depending on internet connection) the video will commence. 2. Right click on the “CLICK HERE TO WATCH TUTORIAL” hyperlink and choose “DOWNLOAD LINKED FILE AS” to save the video to your computer. Once downloaded open the .mov file in Quicktime to watch. 3. Subscribe to the creativementor.com.au Podcast through iTunes (not yet available).
Posted by Neil Oliver in Tools | No Comments
Jun. 1, 2008
Do you need an experienced trainer?
Creative Mentor provides training across the Adobe Creative Suite. Applications Include: InDesign, InCopy, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, Bridge and Lightroom. Presented by Adobe Certified Expert, Neil Oliver.
If you would like to enquire about training please do so via the contact page above.
Posted by Neil Oliver in News | No Comments
Jun. 1, 2008
Do you need an InDesign trainer?
Creative Mentor provides training across all versions of Adobe InDesign. Presented by Adobe Certified Expert, Neil Oliver.
If you would like to enquire about training please do so via the contact page above.
