InDesignSecrets Podcast 040
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InDesignSecrets-040.mp3 (17.7 MB, 37:22 minutes)
or read the transcript of this podcast.
Happy New Year! In keeping with this “new” theme, this episode is especially for the *new* InDesign users out there — what you should know, best places to learn more. Grizzled veterans may also learn some new things, too!
- Results from last week’s Quizzler — and the winner!
- Top five things every new InDesign user should know (We invite the legions of experienced InDesign users in our audience to add to this list — do a newbie a favor and post your advice in a comment below!)
- Best online resources for InDesign information and help (Ditto)
- A Quizzler that even a newbie can answer, with a poster for a prize
- Obscure InDesign Feature of the Week: Save a Copy
Links mentioned in the podcast:
TheInDesigner, Michael Murphy’s videocast on our site
Trumatch.com process color swatchbooks
InDesign CS2 Visual QuickStart Guide by Sandee Cohen
Real World InDesign CS2 by David Blatner and Olav Kvern
InDesign Breakthroughs by Anne-Marie and David
InDesign Magazine (select “2 yrs. for $69″ option and use INDESIGNSECRETS promo code to get 2 years of back issues too)
InDesignTalk listserv and the InDesign forums on Adobe.com
InDesign User Groups web site
Lynda.com online video training for ID and more (link leads to free 7-day trial)
VTC.com online video training for ID and more
InDesign CS2 Keyboard Shortcuts Poster (use FEATHER coupon code for a 25% discount)
Quizzler instructions: If you have an answer to this episode’s Quizzler, don’t post it here! E-mail it to info@indesignsecrets.com with “Quizzler” in the Subject. One winner will be chosen randomly from all the correct answers received by midnight, January 12, 2007. The winner will be mailed our beautiful InDesign CS2 Keyboard Shortcuts poster. Remember, don’t post your answer here! You’ll ruin it for everyone!
Listener Comment Line: +1-206-888-INDY (-4639)
Talk to us, baby: Leave a message!
Hey, it’s been pointed out to us by a few loyal listeners that while we announced the winner of last episode’s Quizzler, we forgot to say what the correct answer was. Our bad!
In that podcast, #39, the Quizzler question was, “What do you need to do within the program in order for a triple-click to select an entire paragraph (instead of a single line, the default behavior when triple-clicking)?”
The correct answer is to go to Preferences > Type and uncheck the box next to “Triple click selects a line.”
When this option is turned off, triple-clicking selects an entire paragraph, and quadruple-clicking selects the entire story.
Got it? Cool. And good luck with this episode’s Quizzler … remember, e-mail your answers to info@indesignsecrets by midnight, Jan. 12.
By the time I got to the end of the podcast, I couldn’t remember what the five key things to know were!
Any chance of a summary to save having to listen to the ‘cast again?
The one I wanted to mention was that text frames are threaded to each other not linked. Linking is a process involving external files. But XPress converts are always trying to find out how to link text frames and they don’t know the “threading” terminology. They’re not helped by the fact that a lot of ID veterans still refer to it as linking.
Dave
Podcast is great except for the following:
Way too casual. I tune them out and then when they say something valuable, I just resposition the mp3.
Podcaster David talks way too fast! I can’t listen that fast. I almost always miss the Book titles and urls.
Can present more (or make the podcast shorter) by sticking to an agenda.
Alfred
Dave (et al), here’s a summary of our Top 5 Things New Users Need to Know About InDesign (each discussed at length in the podcast with related “must-know’s”) …
1. How to Get Text on the Page
2. How to Autoflow Long Text Files
3. How to Override Master Page Items
4. How to Import Pictures with Drag and Drop
5. Difference between the Selection and the Direct Selection tools
… and the theme running through all of them was the importance of learning about InDesign’s unique features and using them to your advantage, rather than getting frustrated trying to make it work like your “old” page layout program.
Would love to see some more “Top Things” that other ID users think newbies should know (or wish they’d known when they first started using InDesign!).
#6, with a bullet, for new ID users:
Support for placement of native (layered, transparent, all things otherwise previously forbidden) .ai and .psd files. EPS RIP, amen.
I work as a senior Mac Artist at an ad agency in Boston;
my top five things for a user new to InDesign to know would be:
1. Building files to the Trim—not using oversized pages:
a. Trim = Page Size
b. Live = Margins
c. Bleed = Bleed
d. Slug Area needs to be large enough to include all marks: crops, bleed, folds, common edge, perfs, and all slug information
2. Viewing pages
a. Normal: includes pasteboard
b. Trim: shows layout to trim
c. Bleed: shows layout to bleed
d. Slug Area: shows Trim, Bleed, and Slug areas
3. Printing pages
a. Crop marks can be automatically set in InDesign’s Print dialog box and can butt to the bleed by specifying the offset to be equal to the bleed amount(s)
b. The bleed area can be printed simply by checking the Bleed area check box; if there’s no bleed, don’t check the box
c. The Slug area can be included by simply checking the Slug area check box
4. Info Palette
a. Helpful because it shows actual and effective resolution of a graphics file’s type, color space, and profile
5. Transform area of toolbar
a. Helpful because the window shows 9 separate points of origin that can be used for transforming a frame or line—i.e., moving, scaling, rotating, flopping, etc.
Doug
Boston, MA
Anne-Marie and David,
You guys do a great job.
Godspeed and no faster!