Meeting Summary: Image Magic with InDesign CS4

Thu, Dec 4th, 2008 at 5:45 PM

Edith Cowan University - Mt.Lawley

Event Details

Another big thank you to all the members who attended Perth's second InDesign User Group (IDUG) meeting on December 4. Without our members, there wouldn't be a user group!

The ambiance was very lively and it was great to see so much interaction between the members at the pre-meet drinks and during the presentation.

The theme for this meet was Image Magic in InDesign and after initial quick tips and tricks on Image placement, fitting and resizing options, Cari demoed some interesting image tricks, ranging from different ways in which we can create image grids to building collages of images and using InDesign's Object Layer options to create text under an image effect and a cool sticky-tape-on-photos effect. With a little help from Geoff we learnt that the "Fit Content to Frame" command has a purpose in life, as it is a great command to use when those ads aren't quite made to the measurement specifications and need to be resized ever so slightly to make them line up with other ads on the page.

After the main session, the lights were turned on in the lecture theatre, and in the Question session, two short topics were covered:

• We learned about the importance of using Paragraph styles in our documents and saw the ability to extract content that has particular paragraph styles applied to it to a Table of Contents that is automatically generated and easily updated when text in the document changes.

• In addition, we saw that the Library feature in InDesign is a great tool for storing your designed assets for reuse in your publications, for instance icons, selections of text frames designed to set articles with headings etc.

At the end of the meeting, an abundance of give-away prizes were handed out to many lucky members.

Thank you

This meeting would not have been possible without the generous ongoing support by Adobe Systems, Aquent (food & drinks) and Edith Cowan University (venue) and the help provided by volunteer members Geoff (registration, clean-up), Lynne, Simon (set-up in pre-meet room and lecture theatre) and Bob (photos). Thank You!

The many prizes we got to give away: software, notebooks, yoyos, books and design card bundles, were kindly provided by Adobe Systems, Peachpit Press and Stock Layouts. Thank You!

Comments from attendees

"Enjoyed all of the presentation and even the small stuff"

"Thanks for showing how to use InDesign with Bridge"

"As always, a big thanks to Cari for your never-ending enthusiasm & valuable tips & tricks"

"Pizza + drinks - Brilliant!" (just came from work)

"Great presentation, very interesting"

"Great tips and tutorial. Very well presented. Cari is the Best!"

Next Meeting

Our next meeting will be early February 2009; keep an eye out for the email announcement early next year.

The holiday season is upon us, the shops are busy with those of us doing last-minute Christmas shopping and preparing for a break over the holidays and summer. I'd like to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a wonderful Christmas and a creative and Happy New Year. And look forward to catching up again at our first 2009 User Group Meeting.

Warm Regards,

Cari Jansen
Chapter Representative, Perth InDesign User Group
perth@indesignusergroup.com

P.S. Most "Image Magic in InDesign" Notes - now available online:
The feathered collage
Gridded Images
Colourising and fake duotones
photo-album, sticky tape effects

Photos from this Meeting

See the photos