Custom Page Sizes in the New Document dialog box
I can’t believe I never knew this, but on my recent trip to Australia, former-Adobe employee, and wonderful InDesign beta-coordinator Elliot Harper told me of a feature that he created for InDesign back around version 2. (That’s actually version 2, not CS2.)
Now that I’ve got some time in Iceland, after working in Dennmark (I love place dropping all the countries I’ve traveled to this year), I thought I’d write it up for you.
Let’s say you would like to save the page size of a business card. I always thought the only way was to set a custom size and then save that as a preset. But I was wrong.
What you do is open the Presets folder in the InDesign application folder. You’ll find a txt file called New Doc Sizes. Open it in Text Edit (Mac) or Note Pad (Windows).
The document, written by Elliot, explains how to create your own custom sizes in the Page Size menu. Rather than wade through all the text, the bottom line is anything you type without a semi-color (;) in front of it, becomes the information for a new setting in the Page Size menu.
So, for example, you want to have the custom sizes for a business card. You type the words business card (or as I’m in Iceland right now, you type Nafnspjald followed by a space and then the size for the width (85mm) and then the height (55mm).
typing the custom size
You can type in any units with spaces or tabs separating the amounts.
Save the document. You don’t even have to quit and restart InDesign.
Automatically, the next time you choose File > New, you will see the setting for the business card (Nafnspjald) in the menu.
custom size in menu
I love this! I would like to see more of these types of text files for supporting InDesign features all over. For instance, I would love to be able to define a whole bunch of style names simply by typing in the names in a text file and then placing them in a folder. The style definitions could come from the default basic style. But having those names automatically appear would be very helpful. Same with Swatches. Custom strokes. And custom sizes for stroke widths.
I’m sure you all have loads of other suggestions. Hey Adobe! Listen up. This is a neat way of working.
To be honest: this is very well known and in our own trainingmaterial even documented with an example by our authors at Opatel Graphic center for the last few years…
…and also doumented in my own book about CS3 (only available in Dutch)…
Agree with Veghel..
It is well khown, and it also in Photoshp…
OK, so it’s not exactly a “secret.” In fact, I see now that it’s in the Help file.
But then how do you explain that in the past three weeks, I have shown that tip to 30+ people in Dennmark and Iceland, and no one knew about it?
Come on, folks… This is not a contest to see if we can find “secrets” that no one knows! Sandee just pointed out something that we all know: We can use the program for years and still have something to learn. There is always more to learn, and some beginners know features that advanced users don’t know (and vice versa).
For example, I love showing how people can do math in panels and dialog boxes, and even some people who have being doing DTP for 10 or 15 years are amazed. It’s hard to break it to them that this was a feature of QX in 1990 and has been in ID since version 1. The important thing is not “who knows what first,” but “how can we share great info with each other.”
Thanks, Sandee, for documenting that great tip here! Have a great time in Iceland.
(By the way, I remembered the name of the Icelandic movie I was going to recommend to you: Cold Fever. It’s beautiful.)
Well said David. I didn’t know about doing this, I don’t usually go near the location of the adobe files except to add in scripts. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could just double click that script, or drag it into the panel (maybe you can do this?) to get it available in InDesign.
But again I didn’t know that you could do this. I wouldn’t be surprised if others new about it and others don’t. It’s not an area that many go into, but certainly the same people in the same circles would go near these types of “hacks”.
I really love coming onto InDesign Secrets everyday and I find it a little sad that people are trying to outdo or give out about something that is totally free. A bit hypocritical in my view. But that’s just me.
Thanks for the tip, I can’t wait to see what comes next… perhaps something to do with variable? I use them a lot but I’m sure there’s something I don’t know about them…
Bravo! I have no problem saying that I’ve been using ID since version 1.0 and had no idea this could be done.
Why would it be useful to have a bunch of blank styles?
Anyway, add this script to your scripts folder:
f = File(”~/stylenames.txt”); f.open();
for( n in (t=f.read().split(/[\r\n]+/)) ) try {
app.activeDocument.paragraphStyles.add({name:t[n]});
} catch( ex ) {}; f.close();
I think the idea, Dirk, was to be able to export styles in a human-readable, editable form, so you set them up in a text editor rather than having to troll through the Paragraph Styles dialog.
Dave
This is a great tip! And no, I didn’t know about it until now. Thanks Sandee!
>We can use the program for years and still have something to learn.
I agree in full. Just read a German magazine yesterday with 30 InDesign tips. And some were new to me. Also I didn’t notice the Remove transparency option in the fly-out menu of the effectspanel, missed that one for some reason. Learning every day. I was only under the impression that the document size was well known, meant nothing by it. Hmm.. for some reason I can not find the right tone in my messages the last few days it seems, sorry all…
Wa, that’s okay. I know what you mean about tone. It’s hard in this kind of forum.
Dirk and Dave, um… I have no idea what that script does. Does it erase my hard drive or something?
David,
Create a text file. Put in it:
Harry
Fred
George
Save it to your root folder (not the desktop; not documents, but the folder that holds those two folders).
Now open a document and run the script — you’ll need to convert the smart quotes in the first line to dumb quotes.
You’ll have three styles added to your document named Harry, Fred and George.
Dave
Now I think about it, the tagged text format comes very close to providing what Sandee asked for. Make a style named George. Type the word George in it. Export the word as tagged text.
Voila! A text file that defines a style. Edit it to your hearts content and then place the file into a document that doesn’t already have a style named George.
Dave
I owuld have to agree with David Blatner - this isn’t a contest to see who has the best secrets. I can’t tell you how many people I have amazed with the “Math” trick - and its well documented. Sometimes we get so deep in our own worlds we think everyone knows everything we do. Not teh case. Keep the tips coming. If it doesn’t help me - it might help someone else, and at the very least it jogs my memorty a bit and sez “hey don’t forget about this…”
Oh, thanks, Dave and Dirk! Interesting. I don’t think I would need this, but it’s an interesting idea.
But it does remind me of one of my long-term wish-list items: Everything in InDesign should be controllable via an xml preferences file. The über-preferences for power users.
For anyone who didn’t already know, like me!, here’s the math trick. All I had to do was type “math” into ID help screen. It says in any text box that accepts numerical values, you can use simple operators to change the value in the box.
You have a square that is 34.67pp wide and you need it 22p wider, just enter “+22″ behind the value in the width box.
And I definitely didn’t know about the custom page sizes tip. Thanks for that, Vectorbabe.
And I also didn’t know that Nafnspjald means business card.
And there’s another great tip.
I’m thrilled with any of the tips here. I may know them, or I may not. Refreshment and reinforcement always helps! Keep the tips coming everyone…please!!!
I agree, this is a great tip. Even if it is something obvious, not everyone may know it.
Next you may show me a way to create a pdf without distilling;)
Usually the people who think they know everything don’t…
Jessica, here’s a bit more on doing math in InDesign.
Thanks for the tip.
David,
Does CS3 do complex math features (10×3/2)? I know you can do this in Quark but not in CS2. Thanks for the tip Sandee!
I know about the New PDoc Size File for a time now and at work with CS2 this works great but now I’m using CS3 at home with my new MacBookPro and there is no New Doc Size in the Presets Folder. I’ve copied the New Doc Size file into the Presets folder but InDesign does not recognize …
I don’t have the file in my presets folder either…I was going to bringit over from CS2 to CS3 but it sounds like Sacha tried that to now avail…
That is very strange. It is there in my version of CS3. Applications > InDesign > Presets > New Doc Sizes.txt. You can see what it says here.
Thanks David for the file, but my file says exactly the same. I’ve just added alle the DIN-formats to it which I want to show up in InDesign. But ID still ignores it … indeed very strange …
I’m a little late to the discussion, but here are common page sizes here we use here at a small printing company. Just copy and paste away, and if anyone has any additions, post away.
A2 ENV 4.375in 5.75in
A2 Panel Card 5.5in 4.25in
A6 ENV 4.75in 6.5in
A6 Panel Card 6.25in 4.5in
A7 ENV 5.25in 7.25in
A7 Panel Card 7in 5.125in
#6¾ ENV 3.625in 6.5in
#9 ENV 3.875in 8.875in
#10 ENV 4.125in 9.5in
Business Card 3.5in 2in