This week I’m going to be delving into the basics of InDesign, I recently did a magazine layout brief and thought this would be a good time to show of what InDesign can do.

I’m using InDesign CS4 but these are only the basics so it should be fine in other versions as well.

InDesign is Adobe’s page layout software, in this quick look I’m going be covering the basics of setting up a page and doing your first layout with drop caps, text wrap and more.

Setting the page

When you first open InDesign you need to create your document and its guides, these are important as you can’t change them once it’s set up so get it right the first time.

These are the settings I’d recommend, you might want a larger margin, or less columns, but these are what I’m going to be using. It’s important to note the Bleed as this is vital if this is going to print. This will produce what you see below, at any point you can hit W to hide the guides and bleed.

Notes

• The bleed is important for printing purposes
• W - Hides guides and bleed for a clearer preview

Putting in the text

The main principle behind InDesign is boxes, if you want something in InDesign you’ve got to draw a box for it to be placed in. I’m only going to be looking at text boxes and picture boxes for a one page document.

Okay let’s get us some text, grab the Type Tool (T) and draw out a box, as you’re drawing the box it will automatically snap to column guides. I’m going to draw a box that covers all three columns. I’m going to fill it with some placeholder text, to generate some just go Type > Fill with Placeholder Text.

If you have a text document already typed up then you can use Ctrl + D to Place the text document into the text box, the document has to be currently formatted and saved as a compatible file. I’ll discuss the advantages of placing things later.

You’ll notice the text isn’t formatted into three columns. To do this go to Object > Text Frame Options… or Ctrl + B and this will bring up the Text Frame Options where you can change the formatting of the box.

We want three columns so increase the column number and match the gutter width you set up at the beginning (for me it’s 4 mm). Now with this all set up you can deselect the box (by Ctrl + Clicking outside of it), hit w and see what you’ve got so far.

If your text doesn’t fit then you can use Ctrl + Alt + C to automatically fit the box to the text, this will only adjust vertically, it won’t expand horizontally to fit.

Notes

• T — Type Tool, used to draw out boxes for you type in
• Type > Fill with Placeholder Text — Fills the text box with Lorem ipsum
• Ctrl + D - Place, used to place text or images inside boxes
• Ctrl + B — Text Frame options, used to add columns and more
• Ctrl + Click — Deselect the currently selected box, if clicked outside of it
• Ctrl + Alt + C — Fit box to text vertically

Formatting the text

So InDesign usually defaults to Times New Roman, I’ve cheated and already changed it to Museo but now it’s time to go into more complex formatting.

These are the two main text formatting palettes (Ctrl + T should make them appear if hidden), you’ll recognise most of these options from Photoshop but there are some different ones. I always prefer Hyphenate turned off but that’s personal preference.

Drop Caps

Selected the first letter of the paragraph and increase the highlighted option to the desired number, in this case the number of lines and this will produce a nice big drop cap.

Notes

• Ctrl + T — Show the Character and Paragraph tool palette

Putting in a photo

Layouts are a bit boring if there’s no imagery so now we’re going to put in a photo. Same deal as with the text, you’ve got to draw a box and then place the photo inside it. So grab the Rectangle Frame Tool (F), draw a box and Ctrl + D to place an image, find the image you want and then it’s time to fit it to the frame.

Use Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E to fit it proportionally to the frame, or use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to select the photo and resize it yourself, remember to use Shift to resize it proportionally. Then if you’re happy with it use Ctrl + Alt + C to fit the box to the photo.

Don’t worry about the image quality, that’s just a preview and it doesn’t affect the print quality. If you want to see it at the highest quality then right click on the image > Display Performance > High Quality Display but this will slow down InDesign you have a lot of photos.

Text Wrap

This can be done by first finding the Text Wrap palette, use Ctrl + Alt + W to make it appear.

Now select the Wrap around Bounding box option (the one to the right of the default option) and now text will keep out of its way, increase the numbers beneath it if you want a larger margin.

Linking to images

The reason I said you should Place the image is so that it forms a link to the original file, this will mean that if you move it it will lose the link and need to be remade, but on the plus side any changes made to the image will be shown in InDesign as well when you refresh the image (under the Links palette tab).

Notes

• F — Rectangle Frame Tool, used to put images in
• A — Direct Selection Tool, to directly resize the image
• Ctrl + D — Place
• Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E — Resize the image proportionally to fit the box
• Ctrl + Alt + C — Fit the box to the content
• Ctrl + Alt + W — Text Wrap options

So there you have it, a brief introduction to InDesign.

That’s all folks.