Adobe InDesign

From NoskeWiki
Revision as of 18:50, 4 April 2020 by NoskeWiki (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

About

NOTE: This page is a daughter page of: Adobe


Adobe InDesign is a professional product for producing printed works like magazines, books and business cards.

InDesign supports a mix of vectors and bitmap and "print publication" concepts like pagination, bleed area, page templates, paragraph styles (headers), table of contents, etc. While Illustrator can be used to design logos and single page designs, InDesign is much better for something like a book.

In this article I will keep track of the main tips and tricks I want to remember.


Page Templates (and Editable Text)

Open the Pages panel and by default you'll see just one master called "A-Master". Double click it to edit. Changes here apply to the background of all other pages. Click the hamburger to add a new master, apply a master to particular pages, or change the options.

This is great for adding styles in the background (borders, watermarks etc). Now often you'll want text in the same place (think: Chapter pages), but obviously different editable text for each page. To achieve this, make your text boxes in the Master Page, but then in the actual pages use {Ctrl}+{Shift}+click to select the text box in the background and edit the text. If you move it in the master page it should still move across all your custom text pages.

Hot Tip: In the Master Options you can base a master on another Master... so your first mast you might just want to add page numbers and call "Blank"... but then you might have different styles (different colors) laid over different sections.


Adding Page Numbers

The next thing you'll probably want is page numbers. Best to do this in your template. Insert a text box at the bottom left and then go: Menubar > Type > Insert Special Character > Markers > Current Page Number. Done.


Adding Headings (and a Table of Contents)

The steps to create a table of contents (TOC) are:

  • Open the Paragraph Styles panel via: Menubar > Window > Styles > Paragraph Styles.
  • Add a style called "CHAPTER_HEADER" and "HEADING_1" (etc) and set the font.
    • Apply your header styles to the right text pieces.
  • Click: Menubar > Layout > Table of Contents.
    • Add your heading Paragraph Styles as the sections you want listed, and you can also add a level order.
    • Click done and then you can drag the TOC onto any page (probably you want a blank page).
  • Extra notes:


Adding a Bleed Area

When you start a project you select a bleed area. To produce a book on Amazon, you'll want 0.125 inches on all sides, and you'll notice bleed shown in a red dotted area. At the bottom of the toolbar you can switch between "Normal" view (which shows the bleed area) and "Preview" to see it without the bleed.


Links