By: Michael Murphy
May 11 2006 • 10:51 AM
Episode 20: Table Talk - Part 3 (VIDEO)
Add bells and whistles to your rows and columns in the conclusion of the three-part Tables series. Examples of real-world design projects that feature tables are used to demonstrate placing graphics and shapes into tables as Anchored Objects, how transparency is treated in tables, using tables in combination with other InDesign features, and nesting a table inside another table.
As usual, this episode is available in both the standard 672×450 format and an iPod compatible version.
I
really like the cell stroke feature, where you can pick, inside
strokes, outiside strokes, left or right, to apply stroke changes
just to that part of a cell.?r?n?r?nI am surprised its not as easy to
do for a box, there is no good way to just stoke the right side of a
box and leave the rest with just a fill is there?
That’s a good question, Adam.
Here’s an idea…make a table that is only one row and one column.
As far as anyone looking at your document would know, it’s just a
box like any other. Until InDesign incorporates that level of
formatting to a standard frame, that’d be a good workaround. You can
still place text, graphics or objects in that single-cell table, so
who’s to know?
A
single-cell table is called an amebic, one of thousands of fine
tidbits I heard at the ID Conference in Chicago. (Met you there,
Michael!)?r?n?r?nThis table series is terrific. I hadn’t done a
table in a while, so I plugged in for a refresher. I felt like Neo:
“I know Kung Fu!”
Hi, Amy. I didn’t attend the
Tables session at the conference…but I love the “amebic” name.
That’s great. Good seeing you again at Tuesday’s InDesign User
Group meeting. Congrats on your raffle win.
Michael,?r?nI stumbled upon your podcast a
few weeks ago and it has been a great encouragmenet. Our studio
switched from Quark back in 2001, and all those vendors who called us
crazy are now calling us for help with their InDesign work.?r?nThanks
for renighting our excitement about the app that helped change our
business. Regardint the table series, I was showing off your table
work in Part 3 at a staff meeting and my fellow creative director
didn’t even realize you could do that kind of work in Indesign. It
seeems after out initial switch from Quark we have been a bit
stagnate in learning new skills, but your podcast has encouraged us
to sqeeze Indesign for all it is worth. Thanks for the
encouragement.?r?n?r?nWe have but one podcast suggestion. The Dr. Who
inspired techno intro music… how do I say this… just doesn’t
seem to be up to the excellent level of the rest of the podcast.
Sorry to offend you if you worte it yourself. ;)?r?n?r?n- T.
I’m glad I’vehelped encourage
you to push the envelope with InDesign. I’m as guilty as anyone in
the stagnation department during my QuarkXPress years. It seemed
pointless to get ambitious in that application because of the
inevitable disappointment. But when I saw what InDesign was capable
of, I decided that I wouldn’t make the same mistakes again with this
powerful new tool. If it’s possible for a software application to
“inspire” a designer, that’s how I feel about InDesign. Challenges
put to me are viewed as opportunities these days, instead of
obstacles. And I created the podcast in the spirit of sharing that
renewed enthusiasm with as many people as I could.?r?n?r?nAs for the
music…I couldn’t be LESS offended by your remark. One of my best
friends laughs hysterically every time he hears it. It was the
fastest thing I could put together from the built-in GarageBand
loops. It’s on the long list of “in a perfect world, I’d change
this” things to do. When I feel diverted enough to play around with
other options, I’ll get around to it.?r?n?r?nBut, to be fair, the
Dr. Who theme IS a classic. I was glad they stuck to it in the new
series.