Adobe InDesign Tips

My Top Ten Tips for Learning InDesign

Based-On Master Pages are a terrific time saver; learn them and save tons of time when you have to change your master pages.
Careful set up and use of both Paragraph and Character styles saves time and creates a consistent look—especially with multiple users.
Use the Book feature to link long documents. Break the files into logical sections or chapters; avoid building one long (and large) file.
In most cases, place native Adobe Illustrator files rather than pasting them. This creates a link to the original file and makes for easier management and updating.
Adjust your Color Settings and set all your Adobe programs to the same settings. If you don’t know how, ask your printer or, at very least, use the appropriate Prepress Defaults.
Create Swatches before applying colors. This makes for easy changes to colors later on. Use the Color palette only to create tints of true spot-color swatches.
If you are having trouble printing your files to older printers or RIPs, adjust your Transparency Flattener (Print>Advanced). Always use the High Resolution setting for high-end output devices (unless the printer supplies custom settings).
Test a sample file with your printer for correct separations. Make sure the sample is representative of your final layout and do this BEFORE your deadline is looming.
Turn on the Layout>Layout Adjustment option before applying new master pages, especially if you are not using Master Text Frames for flowing text.
Learn to use your Layers for multi-language or complex documents. If using any transparency features, put your text on the top layer whenever possible.

Other Tips

If you have some text that is uniquely formatted (with manually or with character styles), you can use the Find/Change dialog box to apply the formatting throughout your document. Simply copy the formatted text and open Find/Change. Type in the text you want to find and change the Change To option to Clipboard Contents, Formatted. The found text does not have to be the same text as on the clipboard, but it will use the text on the clipboard as the replacement. It is also possible to use the clipboard change feature without formatting.

Trapped PDFs from InDesign

If you have Acrobat Pro installed, you can make a trapped PDF from InDesign by printing to the Adobe PDF print driver this (does not work with the Export function). After checking all the other settings, simply set your Color settings to “In-RIP Separations” and the Trapping to “Application Built-In” Be sure to set the line screen to the desired setting. Finish printing to a PDF and Bingo! A trapped PDF.

InCopy to edit InDesign files

If you have a client that wants to edit the text in your InDesign files, but does not own InDesign—nor are you inclined to give them a copy of your native files. What is the best solution? InCopy—perhaps the least known program of the CS-branded software. It allows an editor/writer to edit stories (selected by the InDesign user) without being able to edit the actual layout or having access to the original InDesign file. It also allows the editor to crop and resize photos (but not change the photo frame). A nice feature is the ability to work with an editor via email. If you need to have others edit the text without being able to edit the layout (and possibly while you are still working on the layout), check out InCopy. InCopy is available as a 30-day trial.

InDesign PDFs

PDF/X 4 InDesign CS3 & CS4 allows the export of one of the latest PDF/X formats that allows multiple color modes for images (like PDF/X-3) but also keeps the transparency intact, whereas PDF/X-1a and 3 required the file be flattened. This is great for printers with advanced PDF workflows—just be sure that your printer is expecting to take responsibility for processing the file before you decide to send it. Not a file you want to surprise a printer with, especially to the poor sap on the third shift, without some prior discussion.