Reno InDesign User Group

Chapter Homepage Meeting Summary Archive Discussion Forum

I like seeing how the final product works, then seeing how to create it from scratch.

Patrick

Meeting Summary: Reno InDesign User Group

Mon, Oct 26th, 2009 at 6:15 PM

University of Nevada Reno

Event Details

Our October 26th meeting was held at one of our greatest venues ever, the Rita Laden Senate Chambers in The Joe Crowley Student Union at UNR (with all respect to other hosts, including The Natural Resources Conservation Service, The Glenn Group, NAI Alliance, CASAT/UNR, and the former Magic Underground).

But enough with the nostalgia. Our chairperson (Jim Cooper) used the InDesign Data Merge feature to show how we can embrace the "now" by efficiently bringing our marketing info and photo archives to life. We opened with a catalog sample, where multiple pages were generated from a spreadsheet file, with the added ability to refresh prices (or other data) by updating the source file. He also demonstrated a way to create a decent price burst using a nested style. The main focus of the demonstration was how to bring all data onto the pages pre-formatted and print ready, through use of InDesign Paragraph and Object Style Sheets.

Then, Jim explained how InDesign Data Merge is enabling at least one of his clients to economically package their extensive sports-photo archive and publish at virtually no cost, using Adobe PDF. He threw out a few other suggestions for other everyday products that could be created using the same methods he demonstrated, like real-estate bulletins, yearbook pages, and company directories (complete with hyperlinked contact info and interactive PDF "popout" photos).

As he explained, these types of efficiencies will be built on our ability to export a list of all files in a folder, like a photo gallery. We learned how to create a text file listing all of the contents of a folder, on both the PC and Mac (well worth the price of admission, or parking). He showed us how to process these lists and create tab-delimited text files using InDesign only -- admittedly a little clunky, but a decent way to demonstrate some InDesign Table features, including the ability to "merge" tables.

What else?
-Using Find/Replace to apply Object Styles.
-Maintaining multiple layers on Master Pages.
-Creating unequal column widths on pages.
-Creating an embossed page border.
-Using the Book feature to compile documents and synchronize styles.

Casey, Micheline, and Brian were our lucky raffle winners. All proceeds are on their way to the Bring Bri Justice foundation.

Thank you

THANKS ...
To our sponsors, Melanie Robbins (Senior Editor)
and Patrick McFarland (Art Director)
Nevada Silver and Blue Magazine
http://www.unr.edu/silverandblue/

AND ...
To Adobe (and our gracious User Group cousins in Indianapolis, Puerto Rico and Munich) for their support.
Also, we are grateful to Peachpit Press (www.peachpit.com), and Apsiva (www.apsiva.com) for their continuing generosity.