Tips & Techniques

IDML is the new INX

2010-07-28T11:43:00.001-05:00

InDesign has always had the ability to export a file that can be opened in a version of InDesign one version back. In the past, this was achieved by choosing File > Export and choosing the "InDesign Interchange (INX)" format. The resulting INX file can then be opened by the next-oldest version...

Multiple monitor productivity

2010-07-19T10:45:00.001-05:00

Eighteen months ago I wrote about the efficiency benefits of using multiple monitors. That blog post caught the eye of the folks at Sewell Direct. They are looking for folks to participate in a short survey about the benefits of multiple monitors: "Basically we’re investigating whether there is a...

Adobe Illustrator how-to guides

2010-07-15T15:37:00.001-05:00

If you use Illustrator CS4 or CS5, don't miss the wonderful "how-to" guides that Adobe has created. These guides consist of original artwork created by Von Glitschka, Greg Geisler, Philippe Intraligi, Shadow Chen and other talented illustrators. Accompanying each piece of artwork is a PDF that...

Becoming an ACE

2010-06-28T13:45:00.001-05:00

I'm frequently asked about the best way to prepare to become ACE certified in Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat or other Adobe products.An Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) "is a person who has demonstrated a professional level in proficiency with one or more Adobe software products." The...

Preview multiple pages in Bridge

2010-06-21T07:27:00.001-05:00

The Preview panel (Window > Preview) of Bridge lets you view each page of multi-page documents.1. You can view each page of a multi-page InDesign CS5 file. For this to work, in InDesign CS5 you must choose Preferences > File Handling, and choose All Pages from the Pages drop down list.2. You...

Rounding one corner of a rectangle in Illustrator

2010-06-08T17:03:00.001-05:00

I needed to round one corner of a rectangle in Illustrator today. This requires just a couple easy clicks in InDesign CS5. But in Illustrator this isn't so easy. Sure, there are various sneaky ways to do it without too much work, but it got me thinking about what the easiest way might be.I'm...

A nice touch

2010-06-01T18:55:00.001-05:00

I was using Bridge CS5 today, and accidentally hit Command-d. To my surprise, the dialog box pictured below appeared. I thought this was an awfully nice touch. Instead of just taking over the popular Command-d shortcut, which has been problematic because it is used for different things in the...

Import/Export custom workspaces in Photoshop

2010-05-26T17:37:00.001-05:00

On his excellent blog, Photoshop Principal Product Manager John Nack wrote today about a script that enables you to export workspaces from Photoshop on one computer, and then import those workspaces on another computer. There are ways to do this without the script, but this script makes it simple...

Tile printing in Illustrator CS4/CS5

2010-05-25T22:19:00.001-05:00

In a recent Illustrator training session we had created artwork with three large (24” x 36”) artboards. Someone in the class asked how to tile print the artwork onto 11” x 17” paper. “No problem” I said, just select the Tile option in Illustrator’s Print dialog. But when we looked, that option was...

Live Captions in InDesign CS5

2010-05-21T17:13:00.001-05:00

I just wrote a post over at InDesignSecrets with some cool tips for using the new Live Caption feature in InDesign CS5. Be sure to check it out!

Quickly enter Metadata in Adobe Creative Suite

2010-05-21T17:10:00.001-05:00

Command-option-shift-i (Macintosh) or ctrl-alt-shift-i (Windows), or File > File Info displays a dialog box that lets you view and enter metadata about the file you’re currently editing. This works in InDesign, InCopy, Illustrator, Photoshop and Bridge.Unfortunately, Flash, Fireworks, Soundbooth...

InDesign User Group meeting

2010-05-17T19:48:00.001-05:00

If you're in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, come and check out the Minneapolis InDesign User Group meeting, Tuesday night May 18, 2010. These meetings are a lot of fun, a great way to learn more about InDesign, and free! Over 200 people are pre-registered for this meeting, to be held in the large...

Auto-Show Hidden Panels

2010-05-12T23:46:00.001-05:00

InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop let you to hide and show all your panels by hitting the Tab key (as long as you're not typing/editing text). In Flash Professional you do the same thing with the F4 key.In the CS4 or CS5 versions of these products, if you ctrl-click (Mac) or right-click (Windows)...

Preparing an InDesign file for an XML workflow

2010-05-06T10:13:00.001-05:00

InDesign has great features for importing XML data from a database, or for exporting the contents of pages to XML format for re-use elsewhere. If you think that a project you're working on might someday become part of an automated XML workflow, here are some things to take into consideration as you...

Adobe Creative Suite 5 now shipping

2010-04-30T09:23:00.001-05:00

Adobe announced last night that CS5, announced on April 12, is now shipping. Also, for the first time, you can download a free trial of the entire CS5 Master Collection (18 programs!) as a single 5+ gigabyte download.

Spotlight sees PSD layer names, Adobe Bridge doesn't

2010-04-28T16:49:00.001-05:00

Did you know that the Mac OS X Spotlight feature has the ability to "see" the layer names in Photoshop .psd files? If you have a layer named "timbuktu" in a Photoshop .psd image, and you do a spotlight search for "timbuktu" that image will be found. This could be useful if you misplace a file and...

Typography on the iPad

2010-04-23T15:23:00.001-05:00

Stephen Coles wrote a great piece on the FontFeed blog about typography (or lack thereof) on Apple's new iPad, and also covers some points about the iPhone and Mac OS X. Justified type without hyphenation in iBooks?iBooks don't recognize embedded fonts?No widow-orphan control?Ouch.See also Liz...

Add new capabilities to InDesign & InCopy

2010-04-21T09:35:00.001-05:00

I've been doing a lot of writing lately. I usually start a writing project in Word or NeoOffice, so that I can use an outliner to quickly organize and rearrange my thoughts. I also rely on the thesaurus in those programs.But sometimes for various reasons I do my writing in InDesign. But InDesign...

Check out InDesignSecrets!

2010-04-20T14:47:00.001-05:00

My friends David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepcion over at the popular InDesignSecrets blog and podcast have asked me to become a regular contributor to their blog...and I've agreed. I'm certainly not going to curtail, or even reduce, my postings here. Writing for InDesignSecrets will be in...

Creative Suite 5 announced

2010-04-12T12:31:00.001-05:00

Finally, the cat's out of the bag. Adobe announced Creative Suite 5 today. I'm really impressed with this release. For designers, there's something for everyone. But you might have to dig beyond Adobe's marketing messaging to discover the features and improvements that will affect you.Begin by...

iPad and Adobe

2010-04-05T09:52:00.001-05:00

Apple is reporting today that they've sold over 300,000 iPads in the US as of midnight April 3, and that these early users have already downloaded over one million apps and over 250,000 eBooks. With all the frenzy around the release of Apple's iPad, it's interesting to note that Adobe has also...

How to create a clean Illustrator file

2010-04-05T09:01:00.001-05:00

Have you noticed that every document you create in Illustrator contains a bunch of default swatches, graphic styles, brushes and symbols? These can make it difficult to locate and use the specific swatches, brushes etc. that you create for the project at hand. In addition, they make your AI and EPS...

Interesting OpenType statistics

2010-03-30T14:57:00.001-05:00

Ran across this chart today on FontShop's 20 year anniversary page:I found it interesting that it wasn't until recently that OpenType font sales surpassed the sales of PostScript fonts. The OpenType format was announced in 1996 and major applications and operating systems have supported it for a...

Workspaces added to Acrobat.com

2010-03-29T16:14:00.001-05:00

Acrobat.com is Adobe's solution for "cloud-based" file sharing and collaboration. Today Adobe added the ability to create online "workspaces" where you can share files with designated groups of people. Specifically, the free version of Acrobat.com gives you the following capabilities: Create and...

Adobe CS5 tease

2010-03-24T06:54:00.001-05:00

Adobe has "announced" that Creative Suite 5 will be announced on April 12, 2010. You can sign up for the on-line launch event here.See also the Adobe Creative Suite Buzz Hub.19 days, hour, 5 minutes and 29 seconds until launch as I write this. I can't wait!