eleven tricks that will help your workflow in indesign

8/12/2019 Eleven Tricks That Will Help Your Workflow in InDesign

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Quick Tip: Eleven Tricks That Will Help YourWorkflow in InDesignTutorial Details

Program: InDesign CS5 Difficulty: Basix Estimated Completion Time: 15 mins Today we have a collection of useful InDesign tips will help or enhance your operating skills. Perfect

for beginner users in InDesign, theres plenty of tips here to get you started. Lets begin!

1. InDesign the Calculator Within the Control or Transform Palette it is possible to calculate and resize objects. The control

palette can be found by going to Window > Control, and the Transform palette is found underWindow > Object & Layout > Transform. Simply use your number keyboard as you would whenusing a calculator. For example, to double size of a frame, select the frame and in the width or heightoption input 55*2 > and hit enter. This will size the frame at 110mm. Remember to active "ConstrainProportions for scaling" option if you require scaling.

2. Perfect Center

To place an object in the absolute center of the page, select your object using the selection tool, cut(Command + X), go to View > Fit Page in Window (Command + 0) and then Paste (Command + V).


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3. Live Corners InDesign CS5 has a new feature where you can add rounded corners instantly. Draw a rectangle or

square frame, click on the yellow box attached to the frame, this will activate four new yellow boxesat each corner. Click on one of them and drag horizontally into the center of the frame, as you do thisthe four corners will form curves. If you want to isolate one corner hold down Shift before you clickand drag. Detailed options for adding corner affects can also be found by going to Object > CornerOptions.


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4. Ignore Text Wrap If you have a body of text that needs to sit on a image that has text wrap applied, do the following so

the copy doesnt disappear. Select the text frame, right click and go to Text Frame Options, tickIgnore Text Wrap box. This tip can be useful for placing captions or photo descriptions.

5. Eyedropper Use the eyedropper tool to mimic settings from existing copy, fills, strokes or colors within your

document. Select or highlight the element you want to affect, pick the eyedropper tool and click onthe original source. Select any other tool within the Toolbox to finish the process. Also if you doubleclick on the eyedropper tool InDesign will present you with an options box. Here you can select anddeselect various options.


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6. Tabs Within Tables Every tried adding a tab within a table? Trying to use the tradition tabbing method will cause the

cursor to jump to the next available cell. To add a tab go to Type > Insert Special Character > Other> Tab. Or simply use shortcut Alt + Tab.


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8. Switching Units Quickly

Instead of going through InDesigns preferences to change units, go directly to the info palette. If itis not already open go to Window > Info. On the palette you will see a little triangle symbol next tothe cross-hair. Click this and select your preferred unit.


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9. Distribute Objects Evenly Open the Align palette by going to Window > Object & Layout > Align. In the top right hand corner

of the palette click on the triangle button and select Show Options. A extra panel will appear titledDistribute Spacing. Now select the objects you want to distribute with the selection tool and hiteither the horizontal or vertical option. It is also possible to define the amount of space in-betweenthe objects.


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10. Placeholder Text When adding placeholder text turn on the caps lock to add a different version of latin. To add

placeholder text select your Type tool, draw a text frame and go to Type > Fill with Placeholder

Text.


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eleven tricks that will help your workflow in indesign

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