The InDesigner - Episode 45: The Magnificent Six
November 18th, 2007Written by Michael Murphy
Normally, I pick one InDesign feature and build a whole episode around it. However, this is the second anniversary of the podcast, and I wanted to do something different, and demonstrate that combining InDesign features is far more powerful than using them individually. In this episode, I use six different features — Anchored Objects, Frame Fitting, Object Styles, GREP, Paragraph Styles and Multi-file Place — to eliminate all of the repetitive tasks from a layout.
Download it now or watch it in your browser:
The InDesigner - Episode 45 (12:40 mins. | 25.2 MB)
Excellent show, and what a time saver- thank you Micheal. Where can I find more info about GREP?
Mike,
Thanks a lot for your unbelievable movies.
Pete Kahrel, a regular on the InDesign Scripting forum in the Adobe U2U forums has had a piece published on GREP:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596517069/
Dave
Terry White has a podcast here
http://creativesuitepodcast.com/index.php?post_id=276955
And a great movie once again from Mr. Murphy. Thank you.
Another great resource on GREP — besides coming to see me at the Miami InDesign Conference in February, of course — is Ben Forta’s Teach Yourself Regular Expressions in Ten Minutes
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0672325667
If you’re a Mac user who has Bare Bones software’s BBEdit text editor, the help files contain an excellent GREP reference that’ll get you started pretty quickly.
Michael, thank you VERY much for this tight, super-economomical presentation of these killer ID features! A splendid podcast. And thanks also for the GREP resource — I guess I have to delve into that a bit more.
I second the recommendation for
Pete Kahrel’s GREP book, published by O’Reilly. I’ve tried to learn regular expressions before, but found the syntax too confusing. Kahrel’s introduction to GREP is thorough & provides enough useful examples to get you started right away.
Maybe the Kahrel book is good — but it’s also 10 bucks for 48 PDF pages, a rather steep price for non-printed pages!
Thank you all for the info on GREP. Challenge to Micheal: Is there a method to start a new section on a left-hand page whith the “Start Page Numbering at” checked? InDesign seems to move this page automatically to the right. This then interferes with my masterpage application to left and right-hand pages.
Starting a section on a left-hand page is as easy as giving the section an even page number (i.e., Start Page Numbering at: 2). Just make sure that you have Allow Document Pages to Shuffle (CS3) or Allow Pages to Shuffle (CS2) checked from the options in the Pages palette menu. Have I risen to your challenge?
Thank you for replying so soon. I’ve actually played around with that option. The only problem is that if I have my first section in the style of ” i, ii, iii, etc” and want my next section (the one I want to start on the left) to have the style ” 1, 2, 3 etc.”, I will have no page nr. 1 if I tell InDesign to start my page numbering at 2? Some of my clients are very stingy and don’t want any blank pages. My introduction will usually start on the right reflecting: Page “i” but my chapter one might have to start on a left-hand page reflecting: “Page 1” Your time & opinion is highly appreciated.
Check out a recent GREP tutorial at Terry White’s Adobe Creative Suite Podcast.
Recently found and love your videocast…
One thing though. ‘The Magnificent 6′ threw me for 6!
I really can’t see how this function is better than a master page:
a) It’s very long-winded.
b) Forget one thing and it doesn’t work.
c) Any other designer coming to this spread would be lost and curse your name!!
… just thought I’d add my 2 cents..
;0)
Ian — I admit that it’s a lot to take in. But the point was to open up the connection in people’s minds that these things are possible…and make them aware that the functionality is there right out of the box from InDesign.
I will say that I can think of dozens of reasons why this is better than a master page, but I only need one: none of this has anything to do with master pages.
Getting anchored text frames to flow with text…assigning anchored object options and fitting options…inserting multiple anchored objects based on a specific location and use of a paragraph style…none of those are related to master page functionality.
As text gets added or deleted, the anchored objects will move. Master page items are fixed, unless released, so reflowing images would become a manual process. Granted, this was a two-page layout, but as I mentioned in the episode, suppose it was 100 Best Albums Ever.
In that case (and many others) this level of efficiency is beyond the capabilities of a Master page.
Again…it’s about what’s possible once you know it exists. The extent to which people take that knowledge is the fun part.
Thanks for posting back
… I see where you’re coming from, but still don’t agree :0)
… keep up the good work!
Ian - I have just completed a 170 page price list containing over 800 products using a very similar method to Michaels, so believe me when you need to add or delete a couple of products you’ll be glad of the automatic reflow. I’ve still used Master Pages for the usual headers, footers and page numbers. This is a great method for when you can’t use datamerge.
Ian - fact is fact: time is money, and when you can save on both (and expand in work-flow methods/strategies), why not. My motto: work smarter not harder.
Woah, it’s been a while: and no new comments… Anyone (no disrespect - I know you are busy Micheal
) have advice on my question based on the page numbering?
Superz, here’s a post on how to make page 1 be a left-hand page. Look at the part at the end where we discuss turning off Allow Pages to Shuffle.
Thanks David. Highly appreciated.
Sweet, got it sorted! Thanks to all! Michael - know it’s the craziest season of the year, but will there be a last episode for the year?
More than one, I hope. Episode 46 is in the works.
Sweet, then at least there is hope in this crazy deadline-orientated season. Looking foward to it. Do you make shout-outs? Would be honored just to get a “hello superz” on your show. Just had to ask, anyway…
LOL, am I the only one who frequent checks this page, and actually loves seeing his name is the comments ? The early worm catches the first 46th episode… Any clues yet what it’s about Michael?
While placing multiple images, is it possible to actually see the file name? This is a really handy feature for placing multiple car/real estate and mug shots, but unfortunately is no good unless I can see the file name for correct placement.
Thanks!
I wish, Travis!!! That’s missing and I think Adobe should put it high on the list of CS4 features. It would be an incredible productivity booster.
Wait, Travis! Michael has been mucho busy recently, so he may have missed Anne-Marie’s post on how to see which image is loaded in the Place cursor. That Anne-Marie is very clever!
Fantastic as usual Michael. What software do you use to capture the on-screen footage for your vodcasts? I’m looking at doing a few for our school. Thanks to anyone who can help.
The videocasts are captured with Ambrosia software’s Mac-only SnapzProX. For Windows users, the only game in town seems to be Camtasia, which is about four times more expensive.
omg.. this is AMAZING! Thanks!
This is terrific, thanks. I have a client that does about 100 product listings per month that look almost exactly like your album cover example. I’ve already got them set up with anchored object styles, etc. That GREP search is about to make me look really, really good.
That’s great, Keith. Just remember to always make your client think it takes you longer. Never reveal your trade secrets.
Need Help, and I think it kinda falls under this category. I would like to make a list of “Top 20″ items with the number in a different color, a different and larger font than the rest of the list… is there a way to do that?
Kay —
As with most things in InDesign, there are about three ways to do this. In this case, all of them in some way involve Character Styles. You can create a Numbered List which uses a Character Style built with the size, color and font that you choose. You can use Nested Styles (Episodes 11, 12 & 13), where you’d nest that same character style within a paragraph style. Or…you could set it up as a Drop Cap, also calling on a character style that changes the font, size, color, etc. You’d need to create settings for both a one-character drop cap (for 1 through 9), and a two-character drop cap (10 through 20) to the whole Top 20 list.