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8/3/2019 In Design Starter

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Making senseof InDesignA reference guide for usingtoolbox tools, pulldown

menus and side menus



Theselection tool

Use this to select a box, guide or line you have drawn.This selects the box itself, not what’s inside it. You canthen move what you’ve selected by holding the mousebutton and dragging the item to its new position.

You can also use this tool to select several objects atonce by drawing a marquee around all of them. Or you

can hold down shift while clicking on them one at atime.

Toolbox Tools



The directselection tool

This selects what’s inside a box, like a photo or agraphic. You can use it to move the image around insidethe frame or make the image bigger or smaller insidethe frame by changing the percentages in the Controlpalette.

Toolbox Tools



Thetype tool

This tool functions in two basic ways: You can use it todraw a box to contain text, or you can use it to click inany existing box and type. To create a text frame, placethe text cursor wherever you want the upper left cornerto be, then drag diagonally to the size you want.

To type in a box, just click in it and a cursor will appear.

Toolbox Tools



Theline tool

This is the tool you will use to draw a line; it will be of most use to you in drawing rules to set off a centerpiecepackage. You can draw the rules horizontally, verticallyor diagonally. Hold down shift while dragging themouse to keep the line straight.

Toolbox Tools



Thehand tool

Use this to move around quickly in your document.After selecting this tool, just click and drag to “grab”areas of the page and move it around.

You can also get this tool without leaving the one youalready have selected by holding down the spacebar. Butbe careful — if your type tool is selected and you have

an active cursor in a text box, you won’t get the handtool. But you will get a few extra spaces in your text.

Toolbox Tools



Thezoom tool

Use to zoom in or out on specific areas. Just click on thearea you want to see closer to zoom in. Hold down Altwhile clicking to zoom out.

Other helpful zooming options:

Apple and plus key ... Zoom in

Apple and minus key ... Zoom outApple and zero key ... Full frame view

Toolbox Tools



The fill andstroke tool

This is what to use if you want to make a box you havedrawn filled with a particular color or if you want to puta border on it (or both).

The square on the left is the “fill” square; it shows thecolor inside your box. Generally, you will have a red

slash through it, which signifies there is no fill color.The square on the right is the “stroke” square; this iswhat you use to put a border on something. It can alsohave no color, or you can just click on the little blacksquare underneath them to give it a black border.

Click the appropriate square to work on either fillor stroke. Whichever one is displayed in front in the

Toolbox is the one you’re working with.

Toolbox Tools



Regular andfull screen

views

Regular view shows all guides and frame edges. Fullscreen preview pane will show without guides, frames

or anything outside the page layout.Helpful shortcut:

You can toggle between regular and full screenviews by simply pressing the W key. THERE IS ONEEXCEPTION: If you are using the type tool, the W keywill type a W. Because sometimes a W is just a W...

Toolbox Tools



Object formatting This is the palette you get when you have a frame selected

pulldown menus

1. X and Y coordinates — use to place an itemin a particular spot or move it a certain amountof space. You can also type formulas into theseboxes, which is handy if you know you want tomove something a specific amount of space.

2. Width and height coordinates — Typemeasurement in these boxes to adjust the size of

any box selected. You can also type formulas intothese boxes. For instance, if you know that yourbox needs to be wider by 2 picas, simply type +2after the measurement in the box.

3. Rule type/weight — Here you can adjust thetype of rule you have (single or double line, etc.),

as well as how many points wide it is.

4. Columns — This is the icon that looks likea square with bars on it. Select the number of columns a box has by changing the number inthis box.

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Character paletteThis is 1 of 2 palettes that will be available only when you have text selected

pulldown menus

1. Character palette — It is accessed by clickingon the “A” icon on the left side of the Controltoolbar.

2. Typeface and style — This is where you selectyour typefaces and whether they are regular,italic, bold, etc. The top box is for selecting thetypeface, the bottom is for the varieties available

within the typeface you have selected.

3. Size and Leading — Select the point sizeof your text and change the vertical spacingbetween lines.

4. All Caps — The icon that says “TT” will putwhatever text you have selected in all caps. Theone below it will create small caps.

5. Tracking — This will squeeze letters togetherin whatever text you have selected. Just clickingthe arrow adjusts tracking in increments of 10.Type in amounts that aren’t multiples of 10.

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Paragraph paletteSecond of 2 palettes that will be available only when you have text selected

pulldown menus

1. Paragraph palette — It is accessed by clickingon the paragraph symbol on the left side of theControl toolbar. If you look carefully at the littleicon by each box, you can tell what its functionis.

2. Justification — There are six icons displayingoptions for text justification. They look like whatthey are — ragged right, centered, etc.

3. Drop caps — There are two icons for this,one to adjust how many lines deep the drop capwill be and one to make it just one letter or morethan one.

4. Space After Return — This adds verticalspace after a paragraph. In this example, 2 picasof space would be added after each hard return.This is most useful for making columns of textline up at the bottom of a package.

5. Columns — Also available here, as on theobjects palette.

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Paragraph andcharacter styles

side menus

Paragraph styles — Use this menuto format text into a particular style.

Paragraph styles will format all textbetween hard returns, regardlessof what text you have selected withyour mouse.

Character styles — Use this menuto format text into a particular

character style. The differencebetween these two menus is thatcharacter styles only affect text youhave selected with your mouse.

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