Tips and Techniques

The tips here rotate randomly, so be sure to come back often for more tips. You can also reload the page to get new tips. Note that we show both Macintosh and Windows keyboard shortcuts, Macintosh first.

Send your favorite trips to tips@indesigncentral.com.

InDesign CS3 | InDesign CS2 | InDesign CS

InDesign CS3

Revenge of the Butterflies

The new iconography for Creative Suite is fairly boring, though many people disliked the previous versions' nature subjects. But if you miss the old InDesign butterflies, open the About box (choose InDesignAbout on the Mac, or HelpAbout in Windows) and type butterfly. Watch what happens. And the longer you let it go, the more interesting it gets! (Also see what happens when you click a butterfly.)

Interface and Operation Tips

Tip #71: If your selected paragraphs have more than one paragraph style applied within the group, the Paragraph Styles panel displays the text (Mixed) at the lower left.

Layout, Typography, Graphics, and Output Tips

Tip #225: Skewing as a form of italics typically works better for sans serif typefaces than for serif typefaces because the characters are simpler and have fewer embellishments that can get oddly distorted when skewed.

What's New in Version 5 (InDesign CS3)

New #61: If you double-click a text frame, InDesign now switches to the Type tool. Double-clicking again selects the text. If the Type tool is active, you can select the text frame by pressing Esc, as a faster alternative to picking a selection tool and then selecting the frame with it.

Notes for QuarkXPress Users

Note #18: InDesign does a good job of importing Word tables and Excel spreadsheets as tables, unlike QuarkXPress. Plus it lets you save Word and RTD import settings as presets for reuse in the future.

InDesign CS3 | InDesign CS2 | InDesign CS

InDesign CS2

Interface and Operation Tips

Tip #34: Double-clicking the Zoom tool is the same as choosing ViewActual Size; it displays a document at 100 percent magnification.

Layout, Typography, and Graphics Tips

Tip #183: When you create objects on master pages, they are placed on the default layer and are therefore behind other objects on document pages. To create objects on master pages that are in front of other objects, place the objects on a different layer while the master page is displayed.

What's New in Version 4 (InDesign CS2)

New #77: InDesign CS2 supports Acrobat 7's PDF 1.6 format.

Notes for QuarkXPress Users

Note #35: Note that InDesign does not have any options to change image contrast or line-screen element for grayscale and black-and-white images, as QuarkXPress does. You'll need to apply such effects in an image editor.

InDesign CS3 | InDesign CS2 | InDesign CS

InDesign CS

Interface and Operation Tips

Tip #69: You can use a keyboard shortcut to apply manual kerning. Press Option+left cursor or Alt+left cursor to decrease the kerning value in increments of 20 units; Press Option+right cursor or Alt+right cursor to increase the kerning value in increments of 20 units. If you add the or Ctrl keys to these keyboard shortcuts, the increment is increased to 100 units. If you use the up and down cursor keys in the Kerning field in the Character pane or Control palette, you change the kerning in increments of 10, while holding the Shift key changes the increments to 25.

Layout, Typography, and Graphics Tips

Tip #244: If you apply the No Break option to a range of text that's longer than the width of the current column, InDesign will track the text so that it fits on a single line — squeezing it unacceptably.

What's New in Version 3 (InDesign CS)

New #37: The Suppress Text Wrap When Layer Is Hidden check box is new to InDesign CS's Text Wrap pane. This lets you keep text wrap on hidden layers in case you're hiding the layer to speed screen preview, while also giving you the option to stop wrapping around a hidden object, in case you've hidden it because you don't want it to appear in the final output.

Notes for QuarkXPress Users

Note #13: The InDesign Stroke Styles feature looks and works very much like the QuarkXPress Dashes & Stripes feature. The major difference is that InDesign has a separate option for dotted lines.

InDesign CS3 | InDesign CS2 | InDesign CS

REMEMBER:
Adobe Creative Suite does not come with a printed manual for InDesign!

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