being a graphic design professional ;), you might get in the situation that you want to insert one or more pictures inside fonts (editable and non-vectorized) .

so you try to convert the text to outlines and place the picture inside the resulting frame.
but hei!
even though InDesign can do incredible things with text and images, at first sight it won’t do this…

in fact, it’s been possible since indesign 2!
all you need are some basic understanding of blending modes and four simple steps:

1. choose a bold or black typeface so that the image will be visible through it.
2. go to: fill text - swaches - paper
3.then type - create outline. and it will work
4. place image in text or simply drag and drop the image you want in the selected text

so… here’ a month work (a part of it anyway). i started the “tip of the day” suite on the 7th of march with some cool (i think ) tips and tricks for how to use adobe’s photoshop and indesign. cathegorised under “tip of the day”.

this is a “gathering” of all the tips posted during march. structured on tips for photoshop and indesign.

tips for photoshop:

1. hide the palletes . a tip on how to use the tab key in photoshop.
2. lines with any tool. a tip on how to draw a strait line using any paint tool in photoshop.
3. break movies into jpegs. a tip inspired by mikey, about how to automatically create jpegs from movies.
4. eyedropper in photoshop. a tip for how to more easilly define a color for background.
5. actions play actions in photoshop. a cool tip for saving time in photoshop.
6. smart crop. a tip to crop your image without losing any data.
7. trick fill for layers. how to trick the fill layer command in photoshop.
8. straighten leanned objects . … i think this one is clear

and here’s the indesign tips and trics:

1. rulers in indesign. a tip for how to drag both vertical and horizontal rulers at once.
2. copy drop shadow faster. how to faster copy the drop shadow settings faster.
3. using bridge in indesign. save time in indesign using bridge.
4. smarter text wrap. how to define a text wrap without having to redefine it eache time you change the image to wrap to.
5. indesign scripts. where to find scripts to automate your work in indesign.
6. indesign leading like quarkxpress. customize your indesign leading to work like in quarkxpress.

and… this is it. i hope this is usefull.
please leave a comment if you need a specifically tip, or… just to link to me

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here’s one for those quarkxpress nostalgics: indesign leading CAN work like in quarkXPress!

we all know that, by default, when you want to change the leading of a paragraph, you must highlight all the characters, from the first through the return character at the end.

and… when you’re used to simply clicking an insertion point anywhere in the paragraph, that’s a lot of work. (and i know i hate useless work! ).

to avoid this difficulty, you have to change leading to a paragraph attribute by going to type preferences (Ctrl + K).
In the options list, one is not checked: apply leading to entire paragraph.
When you check that box, you can apply leading to a paragraph with one click.

isn’t that nice?? yes it is

Note that Adobe does not reconstruct its palettes to put the leading field with the paragraph attributes. it’s still to be found with the character attributes on the control palette.

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have you been working nights automating your work in indesign? well…

you probably didn�??t realize that but…. adobe includes prewritten indesign scripts. that’s because none install automatically in the scripts folder (which you can find in the presets folder, inside the adobe indesign application folder).

however, if you bought the creative suite, 21 indesign scripts are waiting for you on the resources and extras disk 1, that�??s part of the installer pack. Look for them in Program Files\Adobe\Adobe InDesign CS2\Presets\Scripts.

you can add one or more of these to indesign�??s scripts folder, by manually dragging them in. if you bought the standalone version of indesign cs2, those same 21 scripts are in the adobe scripts folder.

you can also find indesign scripts on this page

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have you found yourself in situations that you should redefine a text wrap each time you want to replace the graphic used for the text wrap in indesign?

lucky for us, there’s an easier way!
When you assign a text wrap to an imported graphic, be sure to first select the graphic with the selection (black arrow) tool.

this applies the text wrap to the frame, not the frame�??s contents, which makes it easier to delete the graphic or replace it with a new graphic without deleting any text wrap in indesign.

so… stop loosing designer precious time

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being a graphic design professional ;), you might get in the situation that you want to insert one or more images inside text (editable and non-vectorized) using indesign.

so you try to convert the text to outlines and place the image inside the resulting frame.
but hei!
even though InDesign can do incredible things with text and images, at first sight it won’t do that… ouch!

in fact, it’s been possible since indesign 2! ha!
all you need are some basic understanding of blending modes and 3 simple indesign steps:

1. choose a bold or black typeface so that the image will be visible through it.

2. go to: fill text - swaches - paper; then type - create outline. and it will look like this:

3. insert the image inside text or simply drag and drop the image you want over the selected text:

isn’t it a child play!? try it! tell me how it feels! comment below!

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sick of all that leaving the layout window in indesign just to open other adobe elements?
if this is the case… then i’ve got good news:

you can save time if you’ll use bridge/browse in indesign!
i’m talking about that icon in the control palette that looks like a folder and magnifying glass: this one!

that you can find here:

it launches adobe bridge (or switches to it, if bridge is already running).
to do that, just hold down the ctrl key when you click. bridge appears and fills the screen.
or hold down both ctrl + alt +click bridge and it will open a new window for you automatically.

note that you can also find this feature using the menu, too: File > Browse. and… also note that as far as i know this is a cs2 option only…

imagine this:
you’re sending a product (or a service) presentation to a client. and you want to send it pdf so it cannot be editable.

wouldn’t it be nice to include a short movie presenting the feature of the product?
or the benefits of the service?

yes it would! and here’s how you can insert movies into pdf presentations using indesign:

1. create the layout as you like it
2. define where the movie will be framed
3. select object > interactive > movie options…

.

4. just insert a new object (movie) from hard drive or from any url (isn’t that just cool?)

5. note that indesign can’t play these movies by itself. you’ll see action only after you export the file as a pdf file and open it in acrobat reader. and, as far as i can tell, acrobat’s movie-playing ability is based on quicktime. so if your audience doesn’t have quicktime installed or you want to use a movie format that quicktime doesn’t understand, you’re probably out of luck.

great indesign feature though, isn’t it?

some days ago, i wrote you about how to create and use actions in photoshop.

but there’s more!

one really powerful aspect of actions is the ability to have them play other actions (even from different action sets).

this feature is ideal for actions that contain repetitive command segments that could be segregated into action �??subroutines�?� (thereby making the action easier to edit and maintain).

here’s how:

while recording an action, choose another action and press the play button: the play command is recorded as an action step (play action �??name�?� of Set �??name�?�) in the current action.

usefull, isn’t it?

i’ve seen a big “don’t” today.

it’s about how a designer should not to create a brochure:
you should never position a picture of your product at the cutting edge of 2 pages! never!
it will show up like this:
.

see how the two pages divide the image in two parts and one of them is “higher” than the other?
see how a bit of the product, right in the middle, is cut off from the original picture?

why is that? well:
1. cutting: no matter how short is the stack of sheets cut in the guillotine and no matter how talented the cutting operator is (that is if the cutter is non-automatic), there WILL be cutting errors.
2. staple’ing: the same: you WILL get errors. stapples ar in this case the reason for wich a part of the picture “has magically disappeared”…

don’t get me wrong!
i’m not telling you never to use your pages’ borders for design elements! just don’t expect that you will succeed to include continuous elements from a page to another.