Posts by Mike Rankin

I guess it all started in 1987, when I traded in my Sears word processor for a Mac 512k. Twenty-one years and many thousands of pages later, MacWrite and MacPaint on the 512k have evolved into the Creative Suite 3 on a MacBookPro, but it's never stopped being fun. I’ve worked in publishing since 1995, mostly making grade 6-12 educational products for history, science, mathematics, and world languages disciplines. I've also worked as an illustrator, drawing for anatomy books, spent a few years as Prepress Specialist using Kodak Prinergy, and as a Software Trainer, training folks in InDesign, InCopy, Illustrator, and Photoshop. I also underwent Six Sigma Black Belt training in business process improvement. Currently I work for a large educational publisher, doing application development (translation: more XML than you can shake a stick at). I am DTP pack rat, treasuring a lot of stuff that most sane people would consider trash. I proudly display a complete Illustrator 88 package on my desk, along with my set of Photoshop 2.5 floppies, and my InDesign 1.0 CD. I've written about InDesign for InDesign Magazine and extensively (some would say obsessively) on my blog, Publicious.net

InDesign for the Web Best Practices eSeminar

February 2 2010 • 8:28 PM

Interested in a free eSeminar on best practices for using InDesign CS4 to create and publish content for the Web?

Workflow Lab

January 26 2010 • 1:47 PM

New beta software from Adobe Labs for building, tracking, and communicating about workflows.

Scaling Effects

January 21 2010 • 10:20 AM

With scaling preferences, you can choose custom-tailored effects or one-size-fits-all.

The Curious Case of Occasional Overset

January 12 2010 • 8:10 AM

Can you solve the mystery of the occasionally overset text frame?

O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing 2010

January 9 2010 • 3:08 PM

Coming soon: reports from the future of publishing at TOC 2010.

IDML Bits

December 21 2009 • 10:43 AM

Learn about IDML on Twitter: bit, by bit, by bit.

Holiday Papercraft

December 7 2009 • 10:12 PM

InCorporate InDesign into your holiday celebrations with this little papercraft project. It’s a whole new dimension of geekery.

Polaroid Pix

November 13 2009 • 5:36 PM

As we’ve learned from the new user forums, there’s more than one way to make a placed picture look like an old Polaroid. Here’s a nifty one, and you can apply an object style to “develop” it faster.

Geeking out on GREP Styles

November 5 2009 • 10:41 PM

You don’t have to be a geek to love the power of GREP styles.

The Ultimate Designer’s Dilemma

November 5 2009 • 12:54 PM

It’s not every day that a dialog box poses such a deep question.