2. Adobe InDesign Tips and Tricks

Q: Weird Lines in InDesign
A: Are you seeing purple or green lines as you move objects around the InDesign CS4 page? Maybe some arrows, too? Nothing's wrong with the software. Those lines and arrows are the new Smart Guides feature in action. The purple guides are the alignment guides that pop up when your object is positioned at the center of the page. The plain green lines that pop up indicate when one object is aligned with the sides or center of another. When three or more objects are on a page, you may see green arrows and distribution indicators as you move one object around the page. These distribution arrows indicate that the space between the three objects is identical.

Q: Wrapping Outlined Type Around a Path
A: Once type has been outlined, it's very difficult to flow that type accurately around a curve. While Illustrator's Warp or Envelope Mesh commands can get you part of the way, they often distort the letterforms. Another option is to copy and paste the outlined type into InDesign, ungroup it, and then copy and paste the letterforms one-by-one on to the shape you want the type to wrap along. You can select each letterform with the Type tool and manually adjust the letter spacing. The undistorted letterforms will follow the path you want. If your workflow calls for it, you can then copy and paste the adjusted shape back into Illustrator. Once in Illustrator you may need to unmask the selection, but then you can continue with your wrapped type design.

Q: Navigation Shortcuts
A: Unless you work only on one-page documents, you need to navigate around InDesign files. To do so quickly, use these shortcuts: * Jump from page to page = Shift-Page Up and Shift-Page Down * Jump from spread to spread = Option/Alt * Jump to a specific page = Command/Ctrl-J * Jump to the last page you were on in a document = Command/Ctrl-Page Up

Q: Locate Missing Fonts
A: If you search for a missing font using the Find Font dialog box but can't locate the troublemaker on a page, cancel out of the Find Font box and bring up the Story Editor. Your cursor will be where the missing font is.

Q: Magnification Shortcuts
A: Everyone needs to zoom in and out on the page, so the more efficient you are at this, the more productive you'll be throughout the day. Here are some frequently needed magnification shortcuts: Zoom in a little: Command/Ctrl and = (equal) Zoom out a little: Command/Ctrl and - (hyphen) Actual Size: Command/Ctrl and 1200 percent: Command/Ctrl and 2400 percent: Command/Ctrl and 450 percent: Command/Ctrl and 5Fit page in window: Command/Ctrl and 0 (zero) Fit spread in window: Command-Option-0/Ctrl and Alt-0Type in arbitrary zoom percentage: Command-Option-5/Ctrl and Alt-5Toggle between last two zoom amounts: Command-Option-2/Ctrl and Alt-2

Q: InDesign Lock Files
A: Have you noticed file icons that contain the word "LOCK" and a little padlock? Those are InDesign Lock files. InDesign creates them when you have a file open so that no one else can work on it at the same time, but the Lock files are supposed to disappear when you close the file. If you're seeing the Lock file icons after you've closed that file, something's wrong, but it isn't a nightmare. Just delete the icons -- you won't hurt anything

Q: Edit Styles Quickly
A: If you haven't tried the Quick Apply feature, you're losing out. Not only does it let you apply styles quickly, but it allows you to edit styles quickly, too. Press Cmd/Control-Return/Enter to open the Quick Apply panel. Type as many letters as needed to get to the name of the style you want to edit. Then press Cmd/Control-Return/Enter again. You're now in the Style Options dialog box for the style. Make your edits and close the dialog box to change the style definition. Easy!

Q: Copy Multiple Table Cells at Once
A: It used to be that when you copied tabular data from a word processing or spreadsheet document into an existing InDesign table, you had to do it cell... by cell... by cell. In InDesign CS3 and CS4, can copy and paste table data from multiple cells into multiple cells by choosing the cell, not the content of the cell.