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Adobe InDesign Tips

My Top Ten Tips for Learning InDesign

  1. Based-On Master Pages are a terrific time saver; learn them and save tons of time when you have to change your master pages.
  2. Careful set up and use of both Paragraph and Character styles saves time and creates a consistent look—especially with multiple users.
  3. Use the Book feature to link long documents. Break the files into logical sections or chapters; avoid building one long (and large) file.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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).
  8. 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.
  9. Turn on the Layout>Layout Adjustment option before applying new master pages, especially if you are not using Master Text Frames for flowing text.
  10. 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.