Detroit InDesign User Group

Meeting Notes Archive

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

The meeting was opened with group announcements:

1. If you are interested in contributing to our upcoming newsletter, the deadline for the June issue is May 28. Please put text in an email and send to dgniewek@schoolcraft.edu. If you have won any of the books or training DVDs at a meeting, feel free to write and submit a review—good or bad. These also can be posted on the Web sites of the contributing companies and mention that you are an IDUG member. Suggestions on information you can submit to be published: general area job postings (include links or contact information for details), any articles you would like to write on relevant topics, industry events members might be interested in, resources you have found helpful and would like to share (magazines, books, training, web sites, etc). You will receive a byline on any submitted articles. We will publish all the news that fits! Deadline for the July newsletter is June 18 and the August newsletter is July 30.

2. Newsletter design challenge: Since the InDesign packaging has a new look and in keeping with sharing a brand identity, the deadline for submitting newsletter designs was extended to May 4. Our butterfly has flown away and new assets are posted online along with updated information. For details, go to the Detroit IDUG home page and click on the challenge link at the top of the sidebar to the right. The winning designer will be announced at the September 18 meeting and will receive a copy of InDesign CS3.

3. Calendar/holiday card design challenge: A design challenge to create a calendar and holiday card was announced, sponsored by University Lithoprinters. Some previous designs were on display in the lobby. Their logo and the challenge requirements will be found on the Detroit User Group Web page. Deadline is September 7, 2007. For details, go to the Detroit IDUG home page and click on the challenge link at the top of the sidebar to the right (it will be posted once the newsletter design challenge is over). The winning designer will be announced at the September 18 meeting and will receive a copy of InDesign CS3 courtesy of Adobe, and have their calendar/holiday card printed and distributed.

Now it was time for the fun portion of the meeting! Adobe has taken the wraps off InDesign CS3 and Terry White of Adobe Systems and an Adobe master guru put the new program through its paces. Terry founded MacGroup Detroit, Michigan’s largest Mac User Group, which meets monthly on Sundays at 3:00 pm at the Birmingham Temple in Farmington Hills. Terry also invited everyone to download his free podcasts.

Terry’s message was that the new productivity gain from the phenomenal integration of the Creative Suite 3 packages would allow all of us to accomplish five days’ work in four days a week!

Terry, who has written books on Adobe Bridge, demonstrated the latest time saving tricks. A new multi-place feature allows you to load the cursor with any number of elements in Bridge, then go into your InDesign document and quickly apply them into frames—versatility includes ability to skip ahead and back and delete elements while placing only those you want to.

New compatibility allows InDesign documents to accept placed InDesign documents, nesting all linked documents with it in a main document. Updating the original placed InDesign document will result in the main document being updated, too.

Newly renamed palettes have been reborn as “panels” but Terry constantly slipped back into the old terminology.

Some new features that wowed the audience included thumbnails replacing the icons in the pages panel, making finding the right page in larger documents much easier. Terry showed other improved flexibility in individualizing your workspace.

New to InDesign is the effects panel with bevel/emboss, gradient feather, and all the features in addition to drop shadow that Photoshop users are used to seeing. Effects can now be applied separately to an object frame, background and/or text.

Among the many other new features that were showcased:

Finer Transparency controls
Faster Frame fitting
Table and cell styles
Text variables
Expanded Quick Apply
Advanced bullets and numbering
Improved cross-media exporting

Terry said CS3 will ship by the end of April, and many attendees were eager to upgrade.

Based on the comments shared through the evaluation forms, the night was a complete success:

“This was my first meeting in the Detroit InDesign User Group. The location, food and speaker was outstanding and I will highly recommend the meetings to others I work with.”

“Very informative. Terry once again leaves no stone unturned. He is a presenter second to none.”

“I learned a ton about InDesign having recently switched from Quark and am itching to get CS3.”

“Very impressive. I can’t wait to get my mouse on it.”

“Awesome! Seeing all InDesign can do first hand is very inspiring. It makes what I love to do just that much more fun!”

“Excellent! Terry knows his stuff! Having AQUENT here is a great idea. The food was great. A perfect evening!”

“Terry White, as usual, does an excellent job of presenting complex material simply and concisely.”

Donna Gniewek
Detroit IDUG Chapter Rep

Photos From This Meeting
Photos are available from this user group meeting.
See the photos.

Meeting Notes Archive
View notes from past meetings of the Detroit InDesign user group.
• Read notes from other meetings!

Meeting Topics Archive
With user group chapters across the United States, Europe, and Australia, we have gathered quite a bit of information from presenters, Adobe representatives, attendees, and industry experts during the past four years.
• Read all of the notes