This Week in InDesign Articles, Number 80

David Blatner

Twas the week before Xmas, and all through the house, not a peripheral device was stirring, not even a mouse! Happy holidays everyone, whether you’re lighting candles for Chanukah* or Christmas or Kwanza or Solstice (or just because you like candles). Here are a few articles and videos you can look at during your break.

• I love this short video from contributor Mike Rankin, on Simulating Multiple Strokes in InDesign (but it’s really about making pretty frames around pictures).
• Of course, there are other free “InDesign Secrets” videos at lynda.com (and even more if you’re a subscriber!)
• The new issue of InDesign Magazine is out to subscribers! Check your email box for a direct download (it usually takes 1 or 2 weeks before it shows up on the web site, for odd technical reasons I’ve never fully understood).
• Anne-Marie wrote up a cool article on our sister site InCopySecrets.com about whether InCopy users can make PDFs.
• Are you looking at creating user interface elements for scripts you’re writing? If so, you must have the updated version of Peter Kahrel’s Script UI for dummies.
• Our friend Diane Burns wrote a fun article for InDesign Magazine on cool stuff you can do by creating anchored graphics inside tables, which is now free at creativepro.com. By the way, Diane is doing a class for the UC Berkeley Extension program called “Creating Digital Publications with Adobe InDesign.” We’re unofficially helping to sponsor the class, so if you’re in the SF Bay Area, check it out!
• Nigel French, a wonderful designer and instructor who has presented at PEPCON the last couple of years, has a showing in Brighton, UK. If you’re traveling through for the holidays, see if it’s still up! Cool stuff.
• If you’re a Mac user, you should read TidBits, an eZine (or newsletter, or whatever) full of excellence. And if you read tidbits, then consider becoming a paid member to help support them!
• Want to learn more about EPUB, and especially what’s inside that little epub file? Check out this great primer at epubsecrets.com!
• Anyone using Adobe’s DPS (digital publishing suite, for creating ipad and android apps) knows the ongoing frustration of dealing with different versions of the Folio Producer and Content Viewer, etc. Here’s an important overview by Bob Bringhurst on what to update, when, and where to find the DPS files.

*I have long felt that this should be spelled Khanukah, because the first sound is a gutteral “kha” (like clearing your throat). It’s not a “ch” like “choo-choo,” because Hebrew doesn’t have that sound in it. But, for some reason, if you write “Happy Khanukah,” everyone gets nervous, like it’s the Wrath of Khan or something. Oh well. (For more tidbits on the holiday, see Judaism for Dummies.)