Blog . Tips and Tricks for Adobe InDesign
Tips and Tricks for Adobe InDesign
04/14/14 | Posted by Leah Yochman | Posted in Digital Canvas - Tips & Tricks
Always keep in mind your margins and bleeds when preparing a document, the general bleed measurement is 3mm or 1/8 inch. That same area should always be kept free of anything that is important for your print. You can set them to the number you need when making a new InDesign document.
Using master pages is a great way to save time if you are going to be making a document with multiple pages. Master pages will insert your layout automatically on to different pages, so you don’t have to keep manually repeating your layout. You can edit pages later, not having to worry about accidentally messing up your layout. You can set them up by bringing up the pages window and double clicking on “A-Master”. On that page, add everything you want to be repeated in other pages, such as page numbers, image/text frames, etc. You can have multiple sets of master pages as well! If you want to apply a master page to a new page, all you have to do is drag it from the master pages panel and place it on the icon of the page underneath where the master pages are. You can make any page a master page just by dragging it up to the master pages box in the pages panel. If you need to edit a master page later on, all you have to do is click on the page by holding down shift+command on a Mac or control in Windows. This won't change anything on the other pages.
Make sure you are not placing any images over 100% of the original size, doing so will cause it to become pixelated. It’s best to avoid using JPEGS, so try to stick with TIFF files.
If you need to replace a word with another in your text, use the “Find and Change” to save a lot of time by replacing the misspelled word throughout the document. This can be found by pressing command/control+F on the keyboard. Just type in the original phrase and the correct word followed by clicking “replace all”.
You can place an image into InDesign or drag and drop them into the document. Another way to place multiple images at once is to use Adobe Bridge. Select multiple images in Bridge and place them into InDesign using a loaded cursor so that when you click it will paste a photo. You can also use the cursor to go through the photos so you can place them where you want to!
If you have placed a photo and decided that you want to change it from a square to say an ellipse, you can select the photo, go to “Object” and “Convert Shape.” It will give you the option to change the frame around the photo to any of the 9 options available.