This Week in InDesign Articles, Number 44

David Blatner

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Fall has fallen here in the pacific northwest and it’s rain, rain, rain. Fortunately, we have a lot of good readin’ here on our blog for InDesign users. But once you’ve finished those blog posts, there are lots of fun InDesign links out there on other sites, too. For example:

• Check out this brand new white paper (2.5 MB PDF) at Adobe about exporting to EPUB and working with Apple to publish on the iBookstore.
• If you’re into metadata, and you want to add xmp metadata to your InDesign documents, you’re probably sick of the File > File Info route. Well, now you can do it with a panel! Sweet!
• Here’s another free plug-in from Marijan Tompa… just a little panel that lets you know how many objects you have selected. I don’t need that myself, but I bet someone does!
• GridIron Flow version 1 was pretty dang cool. But now in version 2 they’ve made it even more amazing. Check it out with their free public beta.
• If you can find a printer with a PDF RIP (a rip that eats pdf instead of, or alongside, postscript) you generally want to give them PDF/X4 files. Here’s a little movie about how to make them.
• Hey, now is a great time to pre-order a new book by Michael Murphy and Scott Citron: Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium How-Tos! This promises to be chock full o’ great information. It should be shipping by mid-December, so maybe it’s a perfect last-minute gift for Christmas. (Too late for Chanukah, though.)
• Okay, this one isn’t directly InDesign related, but I was amazed to see that Adobe is working on a way to convert FLA (flash professional) files into HTML5! For example: Imagine exporting an interactive InDesign document (with animation, etc.) as a FLA, then running it through this to make HTML5… ooooohhhh….
• Okay, this is even less relevant to InDesign users, but I have to mention it: Burt Monroy has finished his huuuge image of Times Square. He even included a portrait of me in there. I haven’t seen it yet, but I think he said I’m standing next to Sandee Cohen (who actually does live in NY).
• Liz Castro is tracking down why Apple invalidates some EPUB files. My advice to people that they should add book covers with iTunes is no longer true. Drat.
• These videos from Before and After are awesome for designers! Watch them all. (Then subscribe!)
• You want to make a c.v. (or resumé, or whatever you want to call it) in InDesign? Here’s a nice little tutorial.
• I’ve mentioned this plug-in before, but anyone who needs to do a lot of find/change queries (and certainly anyone who has ever been tempted to use the findchangebylist script) will want to check out Multi-Find/Change from Automatication!
• Of course, if you don’t already subscribe to InDesign Magazine, you definitely should. Last weeks’ issue has some great articles on topics such as Arabic typesetting, creating interactive documents, and lots more!

Okay, that’s enough for now… Happy InDesigning!