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Here are some handy notes regarding Adobe InDesign CS4:
- Adding more pages
- Right click on an existing page, and choose either 'Insert Pages' or 'Duplicate Spread'. Usually better to use 'Insert Pages', since 'Duplicate Spread' also duplicates the content on the page, which can get confusing and forces you to go in and delete the duplicate content. Click the out port of the old page to load the Place cursor with overflow text, then click in the first column of the new page (you should see a cursor with what looks like chain links) to flow the text onto the new page.
- Drop Shadow
- To add a drop shadow, `Object...Effects...Drop Shadow`
- Fonts: bold and italic
- InDesign doesn't have 'bold' and 'italic' buttons, but alternate versions of fonts are usually available when you select a font.
- Fonts: changing font size
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- Command - Shift - > to increase font size
- Command - Shift - < to decrease font size
- Fonts: choosing a font
- To try out different fonts, select text, click in font face box, then use the up/down arrow keys. You can also start typing in the name of the font, or select font with the drop down box.
- Go To Page
- Command - J
- Guides: color
- To change the color of the selected guide: Layout...Ruler Guides. However, you won't see this new color until you then de-select the guide.
- Guides: creating them
- To create guides: Layout...Create Guides
- Guides: facing pages
- When dragging a guide down from the ruler onto one of two facing pages, the default is for the guide to appear only for that one page. Ctrl - drag for the guide to appear for both pages.
- Hand tool
- To move a page's display while Type tool is active, Option(Alt) - drag
- Guides: locking/unlocking them
- View...Grids and Guides...Lock Column Guides
- Master pages
- Apply Master to Pages
- Page numbers
- To add page numbers, 'Type...Insert Special Characters...Markers...Current Page Number'
- Pages: adding pages
- To add more than one page at once, Alt - click on the new page icon in the page panel.
- "Paper"
- "Paper" = "White"
- Paragraph Styles
- Click on the Essentials button at top of screen and select Advanced, or Type...Paragraph Styles, or F11.
- Paragraph Styles: changing them
- Redefine Style (find out more about this)
- PDF re-purposing
- See also: Acrobat notes
Recosoft - maker of software to convert PDF to InDesign notes
- PDF re-purposing
- Click here for a discussion of a Recosoft Corporation plug-in for creating InDesign documents from PDFs
- Place command
- Command - D
- Preview Mode
- W to toggle between normal and preview modes.
- Rulers
- Command - R to toggle rulers on/off.
- Save Preset
- Click the Save Preset button in the New Document dialog to save your choice of size, number of columns, etc for future documents.
- Text: activate Type tool
- Double click on text in a text frame to switch to the Type tool and make the text editable
- Text: color
- Assign color to select text with Swatches panel (F5) or Color panel (F6)
- Text: kerning (adjusting spacing between letters)
- Click on the Essentials button at top of screen and select Typography, various options appear including kerning.
- Text: selecting words, paragraphs, etc.
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- double click to select word
- triple click to select line
- quadruple click to select paragraph
- quintuple click to select page (easier to do Command - A for Select All)
- Text: selecting several words
- Double click to select a word, but before releasing mouse, drag to select an additional word. Probably easier just to select the text you want.
- Text: toolbar shortcut
- T to activate Type tool
- Text: switch to Select tool
- After adding text with the Type tool, hit Escape to switch to the Selection Tool
- Text Frame: automatically create text frame on master page
- If all pages based on a given master page are going to have pretty much the same text frames, you can have InDesign automatically generate text frames in the master page, based on the master page's guides, when you first create the document. In the `New Document` dialong, check the `Master Text Frame' checkbox.
- Text Frame: create with Type tool
- Another way to create a text frame is to drag the Type tool
- Text Frame: placeholder text
- Type...Fill With Placeholder Text
- Text Frame: vertical alignment
- select object, then Command/Ctrl - B or Object...Text Frame Options...Vertical Justification
- Text Frame: toolbar shortcut
- F to activate Text Frame tool
- Text Frame: unlock a master page text frame for editing on a page
- `Command - Shift - click on frame`, then you can use the frame as normal with the Type Tool
- Undo
- Command - Z
- Units of Measurement
- Default unit is picas. "35p4" means "35 picas, 4 points".
- 6 picas = 1 inch
- 72 points = 1 inch
- 12 points = 1 pica
- Zooming
- Command +, Command -
- Zooming
- To zoom out with Zoom tool, hold down Alt.
- Zooming
- Command - Spacebar to temporarily toggle to Zoom tool from the Select tool.
- Zoom and Pan using mouse wheel
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- scroll up/down: mousewheel
- pan left/right: Command - mousewheel
- zoom in/out: Alt/Option - mousewheel