Adobe InDesign CS3 Bible

As you might expect, because both come from the Adobe world, the transition from PageMaker to InDesign isn't that tough. The basic methods for working with frames , lines, and pages are the same in both programs. What you will get with InDesign is more control, with improved tools for drawing, formatting text, and manipulating objects. And there's not much to miss about PageMaker, either.

Using tools and setting preferences

The basic selection, object-creation, and navigation tools in InDesign are similar to those in PageMaker. You do have to remember that InDesign has two selection tools: the Selection tool for moving and resizing objects, and the Direct Selection tool for reshaping objects and working with graphics.

Because you'll be switching tools often, as you did in PageMaker, get in the habit of using the keyboard shortcuts. (Table D-1, later in this chapter, shows InDesign keyboard shortcuts that differ from PageMaker shortcuts. It's not a long list since the two programs share many shortcuts as part of Adobe's strategy to have a common interface across its creative programs, with the exception of Adobe Acrobat.) As long as the Type tool isn't selected, you can hop from tool to tool by simply pressing a letter on the keyboard. In particular, you'll want to memorize the following:

• Press V for the Selection tool.

• Press A for the Direct Selection tool.

• Press T for the Type tool.

• Press H for the Hand tool. (You can also press the spacebar; when editing text, you can press Option or Alt.)

• Press Z for the Zoom tool (you can also press z +spacebar or Ctrl+spacebar to zoom in and Option+ z +spacebar or Ctrl+Alt+spacebar to zoom out). Remember you can zoom to 1600% in InDesign!

InDesign includes significantly more preferences than PageMaker. You'll definitely want to explore all the panes in the Preferences dialog box (choose InDesign ‚ Preferences on the Mac or Edit ‚ Preferences in Windows, or press z +K or Ctrl+K). You might find some power you've never had before (although you will be disappointed to see values for Superscript, Subscript, and Small Cap relegated to a document-wide preference rather than a character attribute as they were in PageMaker).

Working with objects rather than elements

As with other aspects of InDesign, when you work with objects, you gain more than you lose. The types of objects are similar: text frames, graphics frames, and lines, PageMaker is limited to creating closed frames and straight lines.

While selecting and manipulating objects with tools, remember the following:

• Use the Selection tool to move objects or resize frames.

• Use the Direct Selection tool to reshape objects, change the endpoints of lines, and work with objects in groups. The Direct Selection tool also works like PageMaker's Crop tool, letting you move graphics within a frame.

• You get B ƒ zier curves in InDesign! Using the Pen tool, Anchor Point tool, and Remove Anchor Point tool, you can draw and manipulate curves to your heart's content.

• You can't just click on master page objects: Use Shift+ z +click or Ctrl+Shift+click to select them.

When modifying objects, remember the following:

• Look in the Object menu for familiar Elements menu commands.

• InDesign CS now uses a more powerful version of the PageMaker Control palette.

• To specify runaround, choose Window ‚ Text Wrap or press Option+ z +W or Ctrl+Alt+W to display the Text Wrap pane.

• To specify attributes of text frames, use the Object ‚ Text Frame Options command, or z +B or Ctrl+B.

• To suppress printout of objects, put them on a different layer and hide the layer.

Working with text

When it comes to working with text, PageMaker users will feel comfortable, now that InDesign CS has added the Edit Story mode (choose Type ‚ Edit Story, or press z +Y or Ctrl+Y) that PageMaker users have long enjoyed.

If the display of graphics make it difficult for you to edit text, go to the Display Preferences pane of the Preferences dialog box (choose InDesign ‚ Preferences on the Mac or Edit ‚ Preferences in Windows, or press z +K or Ctrl+K). Chapter 3 covers this pane.

Other differences between PageMaker and InDesign include

• To type special characters such as ƒ ±, ‚ , or ‚ , you can choose Type ‚ Glyphs or Type ‚ Insert Special Character rather than system utilities or key combinations.

  Tip ‚

  Use the Keyboard Shortcuts feature (Edit ‚ Keyboard Shortcuts) to assign a keyboard command to the Insert Character command if you find yourself using it often.

• In PageMaker's Edit Story mode, you can only see invisible characters such as spaces and tabs. But you can see them all the time in InDesign by choosing Type ‚ Show Hidden Characters.

• Use the Character pane (Window ‚ Type & Tables ‚ Character, or z +T or Ctrl+T) to format highlighted characters. You'll notice there are no type-style buttons ‚ InDesign requires you to choose the appropriate version of a typeface rather than bold and italic, while other type styles are listed in the Character pane's palette menu.

• Unlike PageMaker, you can stroke and fill characters in InDesign.

• Use the Paragraph pane (Window ‚ Type & Tables ‚ Paragraph, or Option+ z +T or Ctrl+Alt+T) to format selected paragraphs; the palette menu includes additional commands for adding rules and controlling hyphenation.

• Use the Tabs pane (Window ‚ Type & Tables ‚ Tabs, or Shift+ z +T or Ctrl+Shift+T) to set tabs for selected paragraphs.

• To create style sheets, use the new commands in the palette menus on the Character pane (Window ‚ Type & Tables ‚ Character Styles, or Shift+F11) and the Paragraph pane (Window ‚ Type & Tables ‚ Paragraph Styles, or F11). To share style sheets with other documents, use the load commands in the same menus.

• When you apply style sheets in PageMaker, local formatting is retained. InDesign style sheets have the opposite effect ‚ they wipe out all local formatting when applied.

Working with graphics

InDesign and PageMaker are very much alike when it comes to importing and manipulating graphics. There's no Crop tool in InDesign, but the Direct Selection tool functions pretty much the same way for graphics.

Other differences include the following:

• You can drag graphics files into a layout in addition to using the Place command (File ‚ Place, or z +D or Ctrl+D).

• You now get to create clipping paths ‚ use the Object ‚ Clipping Path command.

• InDesign can automatically scale pictures or frames for you. Use the Object ‚ Fitting commands: Fit Content to Frame, Fit Frame to Content, Center Content, and Fit Content Proportionally.

• To track the location of graphic files, use the Links pane (File ‚ Links, or Shift+ z +D or Ctrl+Shift+D).

Manipulating pages

The one thing you'll miss about PageMaker is those neat little page icons in the lower-left corner of the document window. In shorter documents especially , the icons provided a quick, easy method for jumping to pages. Get used to using the Page Number text field and arrows at the bottom of the document window or the icons in the Pages pane instead.

Other differences between InDesign and PageMaker's page handling include the following:

• InDesign provides three methods for creating guides: dragging them off the ruler as you do in PageMaker, double-clicking the ruler where you want a guide, or choosing Layout ‚ Create Guides.

• To delete guides, you need to select them and click Delete. (To select all guides on a page, press Option+ z +G or Ctrl+Alt+G.) Make sure that guides are not locked (View ‚ Lock Guides, or Option+ z +; [semicolon] or Ctrl+Alt+; [semicolon]).

• Use the Pages pane (Window ‚ Pages, or F12) to create and apply master pages; to add, move, and delete document pages; and to display different pages.

• You can now place more than two pages side-by-side. Choose the Keep Spread Together command in the Pages pane's palette menu to ensure they stay together if you add more pages later before them.

• Some of your favorite commands from the Layout menu seem to be missing (such as Insert Pages), but you can access similar commands from the Pages pane's palette menu.

• You can base one master page on another, the same way you can base style sheets on each other.

• To share master pages among documents, you can drag a master page icon into another document window.

Working with color

Although creating colors is somewhat different in InDesign, applying colors is fairly similar. You can create colors in the same color models, and you can manage colors in a similar way. Differences between PageMaker and InDesign include the following:

• Most of your work with colors happens through the Swatches pane (Window ‚ Swatches, or F5) ‚ not through the Colors pane as PageMaker users might think.

• To create colors, use the New Swatches command in the Swatches pane's palette menu.

• To apply colors, first click the Stroke or Fill button on the Toolbox to specify where the color goes on the selected object. Then click a color in the Swatches pane.

• Use the Colors pane (Window ‚ Colors, or F6) to specify a shade (tint) of a color.

• Apply the color None to strokes and fills for transparency; you can also click the None button on the Toolbox.

• To share colors among documents, drag a colored object into another document window.