InDesign CS Script Automation

Harness the power of scripts to automate common tasks in InDesign.

Kloskowski, Matt. Mac Design Magazine (2005). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

InDesign CS Scripting Changes

InDesign CS has introduced a large number of changes in scripting. Some things are new, some are simple changes in terminology, and some are changes that will break existing scripts. This is a guide to some of these changes, and is designed primarily to help in moving scripts written for version 2.0.2 to CS.

Stanley, Shane. Scripting Matters (2004). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

InDesign Killer Tips  

If you approach InDesign as you did your former page layout application, you may be missing out on some features that will make your life easier.

White, Terry. InDesign User Group (2005). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

InDesign Tutorial: Advanced Typographical Controls

Find out how to use Adobe's single line and paragraph composer, hyphenation settings and other typographical controls.

Bruno, Elisabetta. Designorati (2005). Design>Software>Document Design>Adobe InDesign

InDesign Tutorial: Design With Character - Character Style Sheets

Character Style Sheets can be real time savers for designers especially in the creation of long or multi-page documents. Character Style Sheets are simply recorded format that you can then use in your design at will. Consistency is one of the principles that designers must follow. Character Sheets help the designer so he doesn't have to apply manually the same type of formatting over and over again throughout the document.

Bruno, Elisabetta. Designorati (2005). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

InDesign Tutorial: Setting up a Document

Let's start with some basics. Here you will learn how to create a new document, add pages and other basic functions. A second tutorial will follow to complement this one.

Bruno, Elisabetta. Designorati (2005). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

InDesign Tutorial: The Paragraph Palette

With this tutorial you will learn how to use InDesign's Paragraph Palette. Here is an explanation of most of InDesign's Paragrah Palette's functions which should arm you with enough knowledge to do most design tasks you might need to do while laying out a design document.

Bruno, Elisabetta. Designorati (2005). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

InDesign Tutorial: the Tools Palette - Part 3

Bruno, Elisabetta. Designorati (2005). Design>Software>Document Design>Adobe InDesign

InDesign's Work Area

This tutorial goes through the different parts that compose InDesign's work area. If you want to drive a car, you want to make sure that you know where the break is, where your wheel is, where your indicator is and so on. The same is for InDesign. You want to know where you can find all the tools that you will be using to create your InDesign documents.

Bruno, Elisabetta. Designorati (2005). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

The Ins and Outs of InDesign

If you ever create multi page layouts such as brochures, newsletters or booklets there is an application that is made for you. InDesign, which can be purchased as a stand alone product or as part of the Adobe Creative Suite, has many, many tools for streamlining the process of setting up and working on these types of projects. In this article we will look at what InDesign is for and highlight some of the features that set it apart from other applications.

Dudley, Kim. Community MX (2006). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

Inserting Special Characters in FrameMaker

In Adobe FrameMaker, it is necessary to use special keyboard combinations to insert special typographic characters in your work. You can find an extensive list of special characters in FrameMaker's online help. You also can paste in special characters from Word or HTML.

EDITsphere (2007). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker

Instructions for installing Adobe PS 4.26 for Windows 95/98 And Attaching it to Acrobat Distiller for use with FrameMaker 5.5x, with Acrobat 3.0x  

Instructions for installing Adobe PS 4.26 for Windows 95/98 and attaching it to Acrobat Distiller for use with FrameMaker 5.5x.

Halva, Wade C. InFrame (1998). Articles>Software>Document Design>Adobe FrameMaker

Learning PageMaker

One way to learn PageMaker is just to use it. If you have experience in publishing, PageMaker is designed to be familiar to you, like using a light table. There are a few 'gotchas,' of course, but if you're an experienced publisher, learning PageMaker should be a snap. It's a complex program. But the good news is that PageMaker is a lot easier to learn than competing products like QuarkXPress. In addition to the obvious — the PAGEMAKR mailing list — you may want to take advantage of the many training materials available. In 1985, desktop publishing was brand new and unexplored territory. Today, millions of people use desktop publishing software worldwide. Of course, there's a lot more to learning desktop publishing than learning PageMaker: there's typesetting and graphic design, for starters.

Adams, Peter C.S. Makingpages.org (2002). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe PageMaker

Making PDFs Smaller

How can I reduce the size of several PDFs at once?

Rosenthol, Leonard. PDFzone (2003). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Making Screen-Ready PDFs

Is there a quicker way of making screen PDFs from print-ready PDFs?

Miller, James. PDFzone (2003). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Markup PDF Pages with Drawings

Using Acrobat, PDF has been established as a popular and user-friendly medium for collaborative workflows. Not only can you add sticky notes or highlight text, you can even draw polygonal or freehand annotations. This tip explains how.

Shea, Dan. PlanetPDF (2007). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Merge Records With a Publication

Tired of copying and pasting when doing mass mailings? Take advantage of the new data merge feature in Adobe® PageMaker® to create form letters, envelopes, or mailing labels from records. The following steps show you how to use the data merge feature.

Adobe (2003). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe PageMaker

Moonlighting with PageMaker  

The truth about PageMaker's not-so-secret life in the office.

Nordling, Tamis and Wendy Katz. Adobe Magazine (1998). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe PageMaker

Moving from Unstructured to FrameMaker Plus DITA

This page provides some answers to the question 'What resources would you recommend for someone moving from unstructured Frame to Frame+DITA?' Carla Martinek, Translation Coordinator/Editor, started making this list in response to a CMS question on the FrameMaker+DITA listserv, and thought it would be worth sharing.

KeyContent.org (2006). Resources>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker

New Uses for Old Clipping Paths

No one enjoys drawing clipping paths (or, if they do, they rarely admit it in public). The transparency features in Adobe® InDesign® spare you the headaches of drawing clipping paths because the program honors background transparency in Adobe Photoshop® files. However, there are still times when a clipping path comes in handy, so don’t throw the Bézier out with the bathwater.

Blatner, David. Adobe (2004). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

No More Lost Work, No Matter What You Use!

Create file versions on the Adobe Web Workgroup Server using your favorite Adobe application. Restore any version using Adobe GoLive.

Adobe (2003). Articles>Software>Document Design>Adobe GoLive

On the High Wire  

Some unexpected ways that Adobe Acrobat software can help with design and publishing tasks.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1995). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Opening PDF Documents in Full Screen Mode

Adobe Acrobat allows users to configure the opening settings of PDF documents to display them in full screen mode. It's as effective as a PowerPoint display and very easy to accomplish. This tip explains how.

Shea, Dan. PlanetPDF (2007). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

PageMaker Archaeology  

Opening somebody else's PageMaker publication? Here's an explorer's guide to the discoveries and dangers that may be lurking.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1996). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe PageMaker