Jul. 21, 2009
There’s a universe of swatches out there…
New to InDesign Cs4 is the Kuler panel. Kuler is an online reservoir of swatches that are shared from designer to designer around the world at no cost. It gives you the ability to explore, create and share colour themes around the globe. If you’re lacking in inspiration and can’t think of a colour for a theme, give it a go.
To access the Kuler panel within InDesign go to Window > Extensions > Kuler. The Kuler panel will now appear on your screen. There’s much I could say about Kuler, I don’t want to bore you, Kuler is way to cool for that. Watch the tutorial below.
For more information on this topic via Adobe help click here.
[Click play to watch video tutorial, will commence once downloaded in full]
Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.
Posted by Neil Oliver in Feature | 1 Comment
Jul. 17, 2009
Want to work faster? Then take advantage of InDesign’s new Power Zoom…
Changing tools all the time can get really annoying, and having to go back and forth to the tool panel is something I try to avoid as much as possible. If you’re wanting to quickly pan and then zoom in to another area of your page or document, you may want to give the new Power Zoom feature a go.
If you want to access Power Zoom, press “H” on your keyboard to access the Hand tool. Now that the Hand tool is active, click and hold (don’t let go) for a second on the document page. InDesign now zooms your spread right out and a red rectangle appears on your screen, replacing your normal mouse cursor. InDesign is now waiting for you to move to another part of the spread or even another page altogether and release. When you release (let go) InDesign zooms your page into that spot with the same zoom level as previous. This is so quick and easy.
A variation on this is if you click and hold (don’t let go) and want to change your zoom magnification, you simply use your arrow keys on the keyboard to make the red rectangle smaller (results in a larger magnification) or larger (results in a smaller magnification).
Also, if you’re working away and don’t want to change tools, you can access the keyboard shortcut for the hand tool “Spacebar” and then use this Power Zoom feature in the same way. When you let go you’re back on the tool you had selected previously.
For more information on this topic via Adobe help click here.
[Click play to watch video tutorial, will commence once downloaded in full]
Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.
Posted by Neil Oliver in Feature | No Comments
Jul. 16, 2009
Creating contact sheets in InDesign is as easy as placing an image…
Contact sheets are a popular way of viewing a range of images quickly. InDesign CS4 now lets you create your own contact sheets by the familiar “File > Place” command.
To create a contact sheet go to “File > Place”, select a range of images (select one image then hold shift to select a continuous row of images) from the dialogue that appears and choose “Open”. At this stage you’re doing nothing other than placing images, the key now is to use the keyboard shortcut “Command + Shift” (Mac) / “Control + Shift” (PC). With this shortcut held, click and drag (don’t let go) on your document page; you will see a grid appear, indicating the arrangement of the rows and columns within your contact sheet. You can let go of the keyboard now, however you don’t want to release your mouse yet. Before you release, you can customise how many rows and columns appear and arrange the images to suit. All you need to do is use your arrow keys. Left and right will increase/decrease columns, up and down will increase/decrease rows.
If you have selected 10 images to place with an arrangement of 2 columns x 3 rows, you will find the place cursor will still be active with the four remaining images. Create a new page and follow the same steps to place the remaining images.
For more information on this topic via Adobe help click here.
[Click play to watch video tutorial, will commence once downloaded in full]
Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.
Posted by Neil Oliver in Feature, Links | 1 Comment
Feb. 24, 2009
Saving time with InDesign CS4’s new preflight panel.
Using the brand new preflight panel as you workwith InDesign saves vital time at the end of a job, making it easier to meet tight deadlines and raises the bar on productivity.
Thanks to everyone who dialed in to todays Saving time with InDesign CS4 eSeminar. Well we definitely covered the A-Z of InDesign CS4’s new preflight panel in our hour together. As promised here are my video tutorials which you can watch/download.
Todays eSeminar was recorded and will be posted by Adobe over the next week or so at the following link: http://adobeeseminars.com.au/ondemand/ If you missed it be sure to check it out.
If anyone has any questions feel free to send me an email via the contact page.
Click on a link to play video tutorial in your browser, or right click and choose “Save Link As” to download it:
DEFINE A CUSTOM PREFLIGHT PROFILE
EMBEDD A PROFILE INTO YOUR DOCUMENT
