Alpha Computer Consultants is happy to provide the following application and workflow TIPS.
CS1, CS2
A problem experienced by many users is the different conversions of PMS colours across CS1 and CS2 applications.
Typically users select a PMS colour from “Pantone Solid Coated” and then they convert to process. This conversion will change depending on the Colour Settings of each application, and will not be the PANTONE recommended conversion numbers.
As most users do not have colour management under control, we suggest the following:
“In Adobe Photoshop, simply choose the PANTONE colour from the library explicitly labelled “PANTONE solid to process”. This library contains explicit CMYK data supplied to Adobe by Pantone, rather than using Photoshop's algorithms to convert to CMYK. If you pick the colours from the PANTONE solid to process coated library, the values will be consistent with those native to Adobe InDesign 2.x and Adobe Illustrator 10.x up to CS2.”
InDesign
1
When there are several documents open, press Control + ~(tilde) on the PC or Command + ~ on the Mac to quickly switch between all open documents.
2
To select all ruler guides on a spread, first make sure the guides are unlocked, then press Control + Alt + G (Mac: Command + Option + G). You can then delete them all or move them.
3
If you select a ruler guide, you can copy and paste it onto a different page or spread, and it will be pasted into the same location.
4
You can even Step and Repeat a ruler guide. First select the guide(s) and then choose Edit > Step and Repeat. Enter a number for the number of copies you want, then enter a horizontal or vertical offset amount and click OK.
5
To make your pasteboard taller, go into the Guides and Pasteboard Preferences and increase the Minimum Vertical Offset value.
6
To make the pasteboard wider and/or taller, follow these steps:
a. increase the Document Setup so that it is as larger.
b. draw a large rectangle the full size of the pasteboard.
c. decrease the Document Setup back to what the original size was.
d. the pasteboard will remain at the large size.
e. finally, delete the rectangle that you drew earlier.
7
If you have a shape in Adobe Illustrator and wish to use it in Adobe InDesign, you can simply select it, copy it and paste it into InDesign. But first you need to select a preference to make this work. In Illustrator, open your File Handling and Clipboard preferences and select the AICB option. This will allow you to select a shape in Illustrator and copy and paste it into InDesign. The shape becomes a fully editable InDesign shape.
8
InDesign CS2
You can now Transform Again, just like in Illustrator.
For example, if you Alt or Option drag an object to make a duplicate of it on
the page, choose Object > Transform Again > Transform Again, (or press
Control+Alt+3 or Command+Option+3) to repeat the duplication as many times as
you need.
This also works for other types of transformations such as moving, rotating,
scaling, etc.
9
Customised Placeholder Text
To fill a text frame with "dummy" text, place the text cursor in the frame and select Type > Fill with Placeholder Text. InDesign will apply the current text formatting to all the text it adds. By default, the text is psudo-Latin based on the Lorem Ipsum text that graphic designers have been using for years. If the Caps Lock key is held down, InDesign will place random words from an oration by Cicero. To create your own placeholder text, save any text file as an ASCII .txt file in the InDesign application folder with the name placeholder.txt and InDesign will use that text instead.
10
Inserting a Tab in a Table
When you have the text cursor in a table cell, pressing Tab will move it to the next cell. If you need to place a tab character inside a table cell, choose Type > Insert Special Character > Tab. On the Macintosh, just press Option-Tab. If you need to do this a lot you can create a keyboard shortcut to do this by doing the following:
1. Choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts
2. Click New Set
3. Select Type Menu in the Product Area menu
4. Select Insert Special Character: Tab from the Commands list.
5. Select Tables in the Context menu.
6. Type a keyboard shortcut (e.g. Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Tab) in the New Shortcut field.
7. Click Assign
8. Click OK.
11
Viewing Style Overrides
If you wan to see what the style overrides are (represented by a plus sign after the style name), hold the mouse over the plus sign and InDesign will display what they are.
12
Preventing Rasterized Text
To avoid rasterized text when using drop shadows and other transparency effects, create at least two layers in your document. Place the text on the top layer, and all your images on the bottom layer. Any text that appears above a transparency effect in the layer stacking order will never rasterize.
13
Looking Back at History
Press Command/Ctrl while you choose About InDesign from the InDesign menu (Mac) or Help menu (Win), to display the Component Information dialogue box. This tells you exactly which version of InDesign you are using and which plug-ins are installed.
In the Document History section you can see when the document was first created and by which version of InDesign, when it was last saved, whether the file was ever converted from QuarkXpress or PageMaker, as well as other information. All of this information may be useful for diagnosing a troublesome document.
14
Quick Switch for Measurements
You can type any measurement unit into any number field, e.g. if your measurement unit preferences are set to inches, you can still type "30mm" into the X field to position an object at 30mm.)
You can change the ruler measurement system in the Preferences dialogue box , but here is an even faster way: Press Command-Option-Shift-U/Ctrl-Alt-Shift-U. Every time you press this shortcut, InDesign switches to the next measurement system.
One more tip you should know about: right-click on a ruler (or Control-click with a one-button mouse) to set the measurement system for that one ruler.
15
Place a ruler guide by clicking
Double-click on the horizontal or vertical ruler to place a guide on your page at that position. Press Shift key when you place the guide to place it at the location of the nearest ruler tick mark. That way, you do not have to click exactly on the 100mm tick mark to get a guide there - just go near that tick mark and Shift-double-click.
16
Text formatting changes after you copy and paste (InDesign CS, CS2)
Issue
After you copy and paste text with different Basic Paragraph style definitions within the same Adobe InDesign document, incorrect attributes are applied to the pasted text.
Detail
The font may change to Times and/or take on other unexpected attributes.
Solutions
Do one of the following solutions:
Solution 1: Install the latest InDesign CS2 update.
The update and installation instructions are available on the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/downloads .
Solution 2: Remove overrides from the formatted text.
Select the affected text and click Remove Overrides on the Paragraph Styles or Character Styles palette if style shows overrides.
Solution 3: Reapply the correct paragraph style.
17
Some fonts do not appear in the Type menu (InDesign CS-CS2)
Issue
Some fonts do not appear in the Adobe InDesign Type menu when you install a large number of fonts.
Details
There are more than 3638 fonts installed in folders that Adobe InDesign can access, such as the system or user fonts folder, or Adobe application fonts folders.
All fonts appear in the Character Control palette or the Character Style and Paragraph style palettes.
Solutions
Do one or more of the following solutions:
Solution 1: Select the font from the Character Control palette.
Solution 2: Apply the fonts to the text through Character or Paragraph styles.
All fonts are displayed in the Character Style or Paragraph Style palettes. By creating a style you can apply the fonts to the text.
Background information
InDesign is currently limited to display 3638 font families and faces in the Type menu.
PhotoShop
1
If there are several type layers and you want to change the text attributes for all of them, first link them then hold Shift while changing any of the settings (e.g. font or font size), and all the layers will change at the same time.
2
If you have several images open, press Control + Tab to quickly switch between them.
3
With a painting or editing tool selected, press [ or ] to increase or decrease the brush size.
4
Press Shift while pressing the [ or ] keys to increase/decrease the hardness of the current brush in 25% increments.
5
Press < to select the previous brush or > the next brush.
6
Press Shift and < or > to go to the first or last brush.
7
With a painting or editing tool selected, press a number key to change its opacity.
8
With any tool other than a painting or editing tool selected, press a number key to change the layer opacity.
9
Press Alt + ] to select the next layer up in the Layers palette. (Mac: Use Option instead of Alt)
10
Press Alt + [ to select the next layer down in the Layers palette. (Mac: Use Option instead of Alt)
11
Press Control + ] to move the active layer higher in the Layers palette. (Mac: Use Command instead of Control)
12
Press Control + [ to move the active layer lower in the Layers palette. (Mac: Use Command instead of Control)
