Detroit InDesign User Group

Meeting Notes Archive

September 18, 2007

This meeting was devoted to helping you with your InDesign-related problems with an evening-long Q&A about production process. Entitled “Ask the Experts,” we broke from our normal presentation format by giving members the opportunity to submit questions in advance with the hope of having them answered that night. Macomb Community College hosted and provided a space with plenty of elbow room and munchies for the 101 attendees.

Our panel of experts were:

Chita Hunter, an Adobe Certified Expert in InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and InCopy.

Terry White, who has been with Adobe for over a decade and has extensive knowledge of Adobe’s Creative Professional product line. In his current position as Director for North America, Terry leads a team of Solution Engineers that focus on Professional Publishing & Web Authoring.

Terry is an Adobe Certified Expert and Creative Suite Master, and has been active in the industry for over 20 years. He is the founder and president of MacGroup-Detroit—Michigan’s largest Macintosh users group—and is a columnist for Layers magazine and X-Ology Magazine.

Terry is the host of the top ranked Adobe Creative Suite Podcast, and the best selling author of Secrets of the Adobe Bridge and co-author of InDesign CS/CS2 Killer Tips. Terry is a key presenter at major industry shows around the world.

Celia McCulloch, an instructor at Macomb Community College and Schoolcraft College. She is currently teaching InDesign and has taught Illustrator and Photoshop courses. In her spare time she does freelance work.

Donna Gniewek, a graphic designer in the Marketing Department at Schoolcraft College. She has taught the advanced publishing class at Schoolcraft College, Acrobat 7 for campus staff development and corporate training, and InDesign for campus staff development/training.

The questions

During the presentation, any changes from CS2 to CS3 were highlighted. The lengthiest discussions were from these 2 questions:

How can I manage workflow and how can I more effectively use the Bridge and Version Cue features? It seems like I need to set up my folders differently to optimize for these features.
After polling the audience it was discovered most members never used Version Cue because they didn’t know what it could do for them. Terry demonstrated some workflow with Bridge and Version Cue.

When I create a table and set up cell strokes and fills, and then want to apply this style to another table, I have to go through the whole process all over again. I suspect that there is a “Table style” setting somewhere. In general, I find tables difficult. Any tips would be welcome.
Some completed tables were shown with a demonstration on creating them. Chita promised to show Table and Cell styles, which is new to CS3, at a future meeting due to time restrictions.

Here are the other questions we addressed:

I’d like to be able to create a document that has facing pages, but that doesn’t create a single first page before you can do a spread. For instance, if I am creating an 11x17 page that folds in half and is single sided, I want to be able to create it with (2) 8.5x11 pages that are side by side. In Quark this was easy to do—you just didn’t check “facing pages,” but you could still place the pages side-by-side in the page layout window. But in InDesign you can’t do that. It’s either “facing pages,” or else single pages. How can I have more than a two-page spread?
A: Deselect “Allow Pages to Shuffle” in the Pages palette/panel menu. InDesign will allow up to 10 pages in a spread. This process is much easier to accomplish in CS3 than CS2. Both were demonstrated.

Why can InDesign only read a QuarkXPress file if it was created in version 4?
Because Quark decided to encode their files so InDesign could not read them. A workaround is to save back down to version 4. If you do not have the software to save down, you can purchase a plug-in called Q2ID3 from Markzware (http://www.markzware.com/).

In QuarkXPress I can nudge an object 1/10 of a point. How can I do this in InDesign?
Shift+Command/Ctrl+arrow left/right will nudge any object 1/10 of whatever increment you set in Preferences > Cursor Key.

InDesign Spell Check includes all the stuff on master items and on every layer — not helpful to copyeditors.
Highlight the text you want to check and hide the layers you don’t want to check. Now run Spell check to search only the Selection (this also works for Find and Change).

When I make a new file, the default font is Times T1. Is there any way to change the default font?
Yes. Close all documents. Select the Type tool in toolbox, and choose another font. The font you just selected will become the default for all new documents you open.

How do I change my increments from picas to inches or any other measure that I prefer?
Change these the same way you changed the default font. Close all your documents, and then choose Edit > Preferences > Units and Increments (or InDesign > Preferences > Units and Increments in Mac OS). Note that there is a difference between Application Default Preferences and Document Default Preferences. You can change your measurement preference in the Preferences of your document at any time, or you can right-click (or Control-click) in the ruler to see a context-sensitive menu of measurement choices.

When I Package files I get flagged for Times or Times New Roman even though neither is used in the document.
Export the file to InDesign Interchange (.inx). Interchange cleans up the files. Open the .inx in InDesign and return to Type > Find Font. When a problem font is found, exit Find Font and try Edit > Edit In Story Editor, which will make it easier to spot the offending character or space. Note: Find Font will *not* remove problem fonts that are defined in Paragraph or Character styles.

I am a printer and still have the problem of designers giving us files without bleeds built in. Could you show how to set up full-bleed pages?
Choose File > New Document; click the More Options button. Enter the requested bleed amount (check with your printer—normally 1/8-1/4 inch) for all sides, which will create guides outside your document space. Make sure any bleed elements extend into the created space. Remember that anything outside the actual document edges will be cut off when the piece is trimmed!

How do I flip an image?
Select the image and choose one of the Flip options from the Transform palette menu (Window > Object & Layout > Transform). New in CS3 is a focus box on the Control panel, which visually shows how the item is flipped or rotated. No more guessing if it got flipped somewhere in production.

Help! I am having problems with my text when I scale it. How can I fix it?
Choose Edit > Preferences > Type. Use the Adjust Text Attributes When Scaling preferences option to determine how the changes appear in palettes when you scale a text frame.

For example, suppose you double the scale of a text frame that has 12point type. If this option is turned on when you double the scale, the values in the Control palette or Character palette appear as 24point type; scaling values remain at 100% in the Transform palette. If this option is turned off when you double the scale, the Transform palette indicates 200% scaling, but the text appears in the Control palette or Character palette as 12pt(24). Other palette text boxes, such as leading and kerning, appear with their original values, even though they have effectively doubled in size.

Note the following:

* If you edit the text or resize the frame when the Adjust Text Attributes When Scaling option is on, the text is scaled, even if it moves to a different frame. However, if this option is off, any text that flows to a different frame as a result of editing is no longer scaled.

** The Adjust Text Attributes When Scaling option applies only to text frames scaled after the option is turned on, not to existing text frames. To adjust text attributes of existing frames, use the Scale Text Attributes command in the Transform palette menu.

*** When you resize a group of text frames, the text is not scaled. However, if you scale a group of text frames, text attributes are not adjusted based on scaling, even if the preferences setting is turned on.

To scale text by resizing the text frame, use the Selection tool and hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) while dragging a corner of the text frame to resize it. OR use the Scale tool to resize the frame.

Scale text attributes by using the Selection tool to select the text frame that has been scaled. Choose Scale Text Attributes in the Transform palette menu. Text attributes are adjusted based on the scaling percentage; scaling options in the Transform palette revert to 100% scale.

Comments from the evaluation forms

“There are so many skill levels here and it’s very useful to see what issues others are having.”

“The topic was wonderfully user friendly and Version Cue was helpful to have explained.”

“I see a big difference now between CS2 and the jump to CS3.”

“Liked the idea of having a whole session dedicated to question and answers.”

“The meeting as always was very interesting and exciting. When I go home I want to design something.”

This comment was great since we did have some computer problems during the meeting:

“I enjoy the fact that they have computer glitches too, it makes us feel normal.”

Thanks for understanding!

Donna Gniewek
Detroit IDUG Chapter Rep

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