Hi there!
In this video we’ll be talking about some workflow speed tips in InDesign, so let’s
get started.
Let me grab the rectangle tool, and make a rectangle.
If you look at the control panel on top, you’ll find that the selected unit is picas, and
I’m not comfortable with picas, so should I change the units from the settings?
Well!
It’s going to take time, and do I really need to do that?
Actually I don’t.
Let’s just click the width tab, and if you’re comfortable with inches, just type in 6 ‘in’.
‘In’ for inches, and InDesign will do its internal calculation, and change the width
to 6 inches, and what you see in the control panel is the 6 inches equivalent in picas.
Similarly, I can increase the height to 10 inches, and it shall obey my command.
Let’s drop this rectangle down.
Let’s say I want to reduce the height three times, so all I need to do is click the height
tab once, and add a forward slash, as it is used for division, and enter 3, and hit return,
and you shall find the rectangle resized, as per your settings.
Similarly, now I want the height to be doubled, so I’ll click the height tab once, and for
multiplication, add the asterisk sign and the number 2, and hit return, and it shall
do the multiplication for you.
You can even use the close quotation mark for inches, so let’s change the width to
7, and then add the close quotation mark, and hit return, and you shall find it recognizing
the quotation for inches.
Let’s delete the rectangle.
The next one is a brilliant one, and is most underused feature of InDesign.
Let’s say I want to go to the bulleted lists option, but I have forgotten where I’ll find it.
Not to worry!
Just go to Help menu, and you’ll find a small search bar to type in, so just type
in ‘bullet’, and as you type in, you’ll find InDesign guiding you with a blue, bold
arrow, where exactly you can find this option.
Let’s try something else.
Let’s type in ‘cross’, because I want to find out where the ‘cross-references’
option is, and just by typing in ‘cross’, it will point out where exactly it is in the
menu options.
So do make good use of this option, as not many people know about it, and the ones who
do, don’t use it that often, for some unknown reasons.
The next one is very similar to the help feature we just spoke about.
To activate this, you need to press Command and Return on a Mac, or Ctrl and Return on
a PC, and you shall find it populating.
It’s called ‘quick apply’, and if you scroll through, you’ll find a wide variety
of options that can be quickly applied to elements of your choice, so from applying
styles to your paragraphs, to saving your file, to activating the rectangle tool, or
the frame tool, you have a plethora of settings that can be activated from here, so do give
it a try.
For the next one, let’s grab the type tool, and type in ‘Adobe InDesign.’
Now suppose I’m composing a document in which I’ll have to type in Adobe InDesign
more than 100 times, so a quicker way of doing this is through the ‘autocorrect’ option
that you learnt in the last lesson.
Let’s go to ‘preferences’, and then ‘autocorrect.’
Now let’s click the ‘add’ button to add a new word.
In the ‘misspelled word’ option, I’m going to type in ‘ain’, which is going
to trigger the correction, and the correction phrase will be ‘Adobe InDesign’, and I’m
going to type it, in the way I want it corrected, and then hit okay, and come out of the preferences panel.
Now let’s type in ‘ain’, and the moment you add a space, you’ll find the word getting
corrected, as per our settings.
I think this feature can be a life-saver, particularly when you’re composing a book.
The next one is to zoom-in and out.
The best way to do it is holding Option on a Mac, or Alt on a PC, and using the mouse
scroll key.
It’s the fastest way you can jump to another page as well, so do make good use of it.
The next one is to increase, or decrease the font size in larger increments.
So let me select my text here, and you can see that the font size is set to 10 points
at the moment, so using the selection tool, if I hit Shift Command and > sign on a Mac,
or Shift Ctrl and > sign on a PC, it will increment the font size by 2 points with every click.
Let’s do it twice, and check the font size.
You can see from 10 points, now the font size has move to 14 points.
Let’s undo the last two actions using Command Z on a Mac, or Ctrl Z on a PC.
So the font size has come back down to 10 points.
This time click, and hold Shift Option Command, and then hit the > sign on a Mac, and on a
PC, hold Shift Alt Ctrl, and then hit the > sign.
With every click of > sign, it will increment by 10 points.
You can see we hit the > sign twice, and the size has jumped from 10 points to 30 points.
Similarly to reduce the font size you use the same set of keys, only this time use
the < sign instead.
Moving on, let’s talk about another tool that has been underused by most, for some
unknown reasons.
Let me fist make a rectangle using the rectangle tool.
This tool is called the ‘measure tool’, and you will find it hiding under the ‘color
theme tool’, so click to activate it.
You see I just made this rectangle, but I don’t know the dimensions of it yet, so
with the measure tool, I’m going to click the edge of the rectangle, hold Shift, and
then drag to the opposite edge, and it shall give me the exact height of the rectangle
in the info panel.
Similarly, you can find out the width of the rectangle as well, holding Shift.
We hold Shift so as to have a straight line.
You can even measure the diagonal of the rectangle, and it will also give you the angle of the
diagonal in the info panel.
This is something you can use, not just with shapes, but texts, or any other elements on
the screen, so if we try to find out the width of our text here, all we need to do is click,
hold and drag to the other side of the text, and the width shall be revealed in the info panel.
Like I said, a powerful, but underused tool of InDesign.
That brings us to the last one for this tutorial.
Let’s go to the pages panel, and let’s say I want some of my pages to be on a different
size, so what I need to do is, click the page tool from the toolbar on the left, or you
can even use the shortcut Shift P, and then click the first page you want on a different
size, and then hold Shift, and then click the last page you want on a different size.
You’ll find all the pages in between getting selected.
Now since we’ve already activated the pages tool, you’ll find the dimensions on the
top toolbar.
Let’s say I want to change the selected pages to 6 inches, by 8 inches, and then hit
return, and all four pages will have the new size now.
To verify it, click one of the pages, and you can find pages of both the dimensions
sitting side by side, so that’s the easiest way to resize pages using the page tool.
Alright guys!
That brings us to the close of this session.
Time to take a break, and I shall see you in the next one in just a bit.
Good bye!