ROUND THOSE CORNERS
As you are dragging the Rounded Rectangle tool to create a rounded-corner rectangle (duh), you can change the radius (size) of the rounded corners. Just press the Up or Down Arrow key to increase or decrease the corner radius, or press the Left Arrow key to jump to the minimum radius or the Right Arrow key to change to the maximum radius. (The minimum radius is zero, while the maximum radius depends on the size of the rectangle you are creating. The “max” maximum radius is 8,192 points—ideal for those building-sized rectangles.)
GRADIENT BRUSHES
You can make gradients follow a path by making an art brush. Start with a rectangle and change the fill to the gradient of your choice from the Swatches palette. With your rectangle selected, go to the Object menu and choose Expand. In the dialog change the number of Objects—the number you use will depend on the final use of the artwork, Web versus print. Make sure that no banding is visible once you’ve expanded the gradient, meaning there are no lines visible in the gradient. If there is banding, you’ll have to undo (Mac: Command-Z; PC: Control-Z) and try a higher number. Then in the Layers palette, twirl down the layer information until you see the object’s clipping path and drag it to the palette’s Trash icon. With the expanded gradient still selected, from the Brushes palette’s flyout menu choose New Brush, select New Art Brush, and click OK. In the resulting dialog, give your brush a name and select other options, such as Direction and Size. Now you have a “gradient brush” that you can apply to any path.
PERMANENT PATHFINDER
By default, clicking on the top row of icons in the Pathfinder palette (Window>Pathfinder) creates a “live” effect that can be edited. Clicking on the Expand button makes the effect “permanent.” If you want to create a permanent effect right away, hold down Option (PC: Alt) as you click on the Pathfinder icons of your choice.
GRADIENTS BY BLENDING
The Blend tool (W) is a great alternative for creating a gradient. If you don’t like the effect produced with your selected objects, just double-click the tool in the Toolbox to open the Blend Options.
LOSE A PATH AUTOMATICALLY
To create a closed path with the Paintbrush tool (B) or the Pencil tool (N), start drawing, and then hold down Option (PC: Alt). Continue drawing and when you’re ready to have the path closed for you, let go of the mouse button. Once the path has closed, release Option (PC: Alt).
YOUR COLORS, EVERY TIME
You can customize the Swatches palette to have your choice of colors, patterns, and gradients appear in every document. To do this, you need to open a document called Adobe Illustrator Startup, found in the Illustrator CS applications folder under Plug-Ins>Illustrator Startup. There are actually two documents, one for RGB and one for CMYK. Open the document that corresponds with whatever color schematic you use most often. Once the document is open, add or delete swatches for colors, gradients, and patterns. Save the document, restart Illustrator, and from then on, the Swatches palette will contain your swatches. (Note: You may want to create a backup of the Startup file so that you can revert to the default Swatches palette later—just create a copy of the file and store it on your hard drive outside for the Illustrator application folder.)
SLIGHTLY LIGHTER, SOMEWHAT DARKER
If you have created a color using CMYK or RGB sliders in the Color palette and now you want a slightly lighter or darker version of that color, you can adjust all the sliders at the same time. Hold down the Shift key as you drag one slider and the other three sliders will move together, creating a lighter or darker shade of the color.
GRAB ONLY THE COLOR
By default, the Eyedropper (I) picks up everything: fill and stroke colors, stroke attributes, transparency, etc. (These options are set by double-clicking on the Eyedropper tool in the Toolbox.) To pick up only the color—without changing the default settings—hold down the Shift key and click with the Eyedropper on an object that has the color you need.
LOCK IN THE TRANSFORM PALETTE
Before Illustrator CS, Adobe Illustrator allowed you to scale selections proportionally by pressing Command-Enter (PC: Control-Enter) when typing values into the Transform palette. This was a “hidden feature” that very few people were aware of. Now Illustrator has a Link icon in the Transform palette. Clicking on it will constrain transformations proportionally.
PANNING MADE EASY
In an effort to give the user better control over performance, Illustrator allows the user to specify a lower quality setting for faster pan and zoom with the Hand tool. This option is found in the Units & Display Performance section in Preferences (Mac: Command-K; PC: Control-K).
ROTATE INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERS
You have the ability to rotate individual characters within text. In the Character palette (Window>Type), use the flyout menu to choose Show Options. Then, enter an angle in the Character Rotation field (near the bottom-right corner of the palette) while you have your character highlighted with the Type tool (T).
ADD YOUR OWN CUSTOM BEVELS
If you’ve used 3D effects in Illustrator (Effects>3D), you likely have noticed the Bevel settings available when you’re working in the 3D Extrude & Bevel Options dialog. However, you may not have known that Illustrator has the ability to allow users to create their own bevels to apply with 3D extruded objects. Go to the Illustrator CS2 application folder, and within the Plug-ins folder there is a file called Bevels.ai, which gives clear instructions on how to define custom bevels.
KEEP PROPORTIONS
When you use the Transform palette (Window>Transform) to change the size of an object, you can enter the width and the height for a selected object and press Return (PC: Enter). Another option is to enter either width or height and keep the other measurement proportionate by pressing Command-Return (PC: Control-Enter). For example, if your object is 1.5 inches high by 3 inches wide, change the width from 3 to 6 inches and press Command-Return, and the height will automatically change to 3 inches.
TIP FOR MAGAZINE AND NEWSPAPER EDITORS
If you’re working on a magazine or newspaper, you’re working with writers; and chances are you’re in charge of giving them (or at the very least, your editors) the word counts for articles. If that’s the case, InDesign can help. Put your text frames in place on the page where the article will appear, then go under the Type menu and choose Fill With Placeholder Text to fill the text frames with sample text. Now all you have to do is look at InDesign’s built-in word count, which is found by going under the Window menu and choosing Info. At the bottom of the Info palette, you’ll find the “counts,” and the second one down is the word count for your selected text. (Note: If you don’t see this information, it’s just hidden. Go to the Info palette’s flyout menu and choose Show Options.)
QUICKAPPLY STYLES
InDesign CS2 now lets you access all of your styles directly from the keyboard. Just press Command-Return (PC: Control-Enter) and a small window will pop up on your screen. Type the first few letters of the style name and press Return (PC: Enter). Your style will be applied without ever touching the mouse.
THE HIDDEN OPTIONS FOR TYPE ON A PATH
Want more control over how your type on a path works? Then go to the Toolbox and just double-click directly on the Type on a Path tool to bring up its options. (Note: To get to the Type on a Path tool, click-and-hold on the Type tool in the Toolbox, then choose the Type on a Path tool from the flyout menu.) Perhaps one of the coolest options is the Effect pop-up menu, where you can apply different type-on-a-path effects, even after the type is already on the path. Now, if they’d just bring these effects to Photoshop...
PLACE A MOVIE IN YOUR DOCUMENT
Print and QuickTime usually have nothing to do with each other. After all, print is usually CMYK and static, and QuickTime is usually RGB and moving. So why would you ever want to place a QuickTime movie in an InDesign document? To go out to PDF and the Web. If you don’t already have a document open, create a new one by pressing Command-N (PC: Control-N). Choose Place from the File menu and then point to a QuickTime movie. Click-and-drag to set a viewing area for your movie. You will be able to bring it in, and on your print document it will be a static image. If you decide to export to PDF (File>Export), make sure to select the version of Acrobat you will be using from the Compatibility pop-up menu in the Export Adobe PDF dialog (choose version 6 or higher). In this same dialog select the Interactive Elements checkbox, and in the Multimedia pop-up menu choose Use Object Settings. Whether you choose to export to PDF or Package for GoLive, it will output as a fully functional QuickTime movie.
USE MULTIPLE VIEWS OF THE SAME DOCUMENT
Sometimes you need to be zoomed in and out at the same time. Without causing a rift in the space-time continuum, you can simply choose Window>Arrange>New Window. This will give you another view of the same document so you can zoom in or out. You can even tile the windows to see both views at the same time.
ADD A HOTLINK TO YOUR WEBSITE
If you’re going to export your document to PDF, InDesign can add interactive hyperlinks that will be live in the PDF. If you’ve already entered a valid URL in your document, such as www.macgroup.org, highlight that URL with the Type tool (T) and go to Window>Interactive>Hyperlinks. Then, from the Hyperlinks palette’s flyout menu choose New Hyperlink from URL. The hyperlink will be added to the Hyperlinks palette and automatically will be active upon exporting to PDF (File>Export).
ADD PAGES THE FAST WAY
Do you want an even faster way to add pages to your document without choosing Insert Pages from the Pages palette’s flyout menu and then adding pages manually in the dialog, as mentioned in the previous tip? Instead, just click-and-drag the page icon from the top section of the Pages palette to the main section. Each time you do, it adds a page.
MAKE YOUR GUIDE STRETCH ACROSS SPREADS
When you’re working with two-page spreads, if you pull down a horizontal guide from the top ruler, the guide only appears on the current page, not across the spread. If you’d like to have your guide appear across the whole spread (great for lining up blocks of text on facing pages), just hold the Command (PC: Control) key before you click on your ruler to drag down your guide.
GIVE ME DOTS OR GIVE ME NOTHING
It’s very common to have a series of leader dots between each table of contents entry and its page number. Imagine that the readers of your publication need to slide a finger from the entry to the page number. Without those dots they’d be helpless. Go to Layout>Table of Contents Styles and click on the New button to get the Table of Contents dialog. Click on the More Options button, and for the Between Entry and Number option choose Tab Character from the pop-up menu. In Other Styles, double-click on the styles you’d like to be included in the TOC, and then click OK twice to exit each dialog. In the Paragraph Styles palette, double-click on one of the styles you’ve included in your TOC. Under the Tabs option, enter a period in the Leader field, and then click on the ruler to insert a tab where you want the dots to end and the page number to begin. Click OK and your TOC will now feature those super handy dots!
TAKE IT TO THE WEB
With a book of multiple InDesign documents, going to the Web can be a challenge. I mean c’mon, who wants to open up and export individual documents? If you’re doing that, stop it! Try this tip: Open your book document and from the Book palette’s flyout menu go to Package and choose Book for GoLive. (Note: To take full advantage of this tip, you will need Adobe GoLive CS2.) Now open GoLive CS2, go to File>Open and find your new package. You can now move the package folder into the InDesign Packages area of your site and start to repurpose your content for the Web.
COPY DROP SHADOWS WITH THE EYEDROPPER
Putting a drop shadow on an image or text is easy (just select it with the Selection tool [V] and go to Object>Drop Shadow). However, after you’ve tweaked that shadow to get it just right, you may need to apply the same shadow to another object or objects in the document. Drop shadows are a frame attribute; therefore, you can use the Eyedropper tool (I) to add the same shadow to other elements. Simply select the other objects by Shift-clicking on them with the Selection tool, switch to the Eyedropper tool, and then click on the edge of the frame containing the shadow. All your selected frames will have the same shadow settings with just a single click. It’s tricky at times and works best if you hold down I as you click within the bounding box, or try clicking just to the right of the frame edge.
MAKE INTERACTIVE BUTTONS
PDFs can be interactive and you can use this tip to make buttons that will do things in exported PDFs. For example, if you place a QuickTime movie, you can make a button to alert the recipient of your PDF file that it is a movie that can be played. I would suggest that you create a graphic that looks like a “Play Movie” button and place it near your movie. Use the Button tool to drag a new button around your graphic. Then double-click it with the Selection tool to get to the Button Options dialog. Next click on the Behaviors button at the top of the dialog and create a behavior that plays the movie upon mouse up. In the Event pop-up menu choose Mouse Up. In the Behavior pop-up menu choose Movie, and you’ll see two more pop-up menus appear: one for choosing which movie the button interacts with and another for the Play Options. Once you’ve set your options, click the Add button and then click OK.
USE PATHFINDER TO JOIN SHAPES
Drawing irregular-shaped frames with the Pen or Polygon tools is okay, but sometimes it’s a lot easier to just take two shapes and join them together. Simply draw two or more overlapping shapes with InDesign’s various Shape tools. Then, using the Selection tool, hold down the Shift key and select each shape. Now, choose Pathfinder from the Window menu. Once the Pathfinder palette appears, click the first icon to join them together as one frame for text or graphics.
SNIPPETS
Drag an element from a layout to Adobe Bridge. The item will turn into what’s known as a “snippet.” These snippets are saved in what’s known as an INX (InDesign Exchange) format and can then be dragged into any InDesign layout. In addition, designers can create snippets and email them to others to re-create parts of pages instantly.
TOGGLE GUIDES ON/OFF
Here’s one of the most useful shortcuts in all of InDesign CS2. When you want a clean, no-guides look on your page (and by clean I mean no ruler guides, no margin guides, no column guides—nothing but page, baby), press Command-; (PC: Control-;) (that’s a semicolon).
CHANGE FONTS AUTOMATICALLY, WITHOUT STYLE SHEETS
Let’s say you have a multipage document, and all of the captions are in the font Minion Pro. If you used style sheets, you could change all the captions to a different face, say Times New Roman, very easily, but what if you didn’t build style sheets (hey, it happens all the time)? Here’s what to do: Go under the Type menu and choose Find Fonts. A list of the fonts used in your current document appears in the window. Click on the font you want to replace (in this case, Minion Pro), then choose the Font Family and Font Style you want it replaced with from the pop-up menus at the bottom left of the dialog (in this case, Times New Roman). Click the Change All button, and all instances of Minion Italic in your document will be replaced with Times New Roman.
MAKE THAT SENTENCE ALL CAPS THE FAST WAY
If you’ve typed something, and then wish you’d entered it in all caps, you’re only about three seconds away from having just that. Highlight the text you want in caps using the Type tool (T), and then press Shift-Command-K (PC: Shift-Control-K) and it’s changed to all caps lickety-split.
MAKE THAT SENTENCE ALL CAPS THE FAST WAY
When tracking words (adjusting the space between a number of selected letters or words), what exactly is the right amount? Nobody knows. This is because you have to do it visually, rather than numerically, to get it to look right. That’s why it’s so important to know a simple keyboard shortcut: First highlight the letters or words whose tracking you want to adjust, then press Option-Left Arrow (PC: Alt-Left Arrow) to tighten the spacing by moving the letters closer together or Option-Right Arrow (PC: Alt-Right Arrow) to move the letters farther apart.
HOW TO USE GLYPHS
If you’re reading this tip, and you’re into typography, you already know that many fonts have glyphs (extra characters used in professional typesetting, like real fractions, alternate letters, swash letters, etc.). Well, you can find a font’s glyphs and insert them directly by going under the Type menu and choosing Glyphs to bring up the Glyphs palette. From there, you can see all the alternate letters for the currently selected typeface, and if you want to insert one of those characters into your document, just double-click directly on the box that contains the character you want.
IT’S HISTORY
GoLive has a History palette just like its Suite-mates Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. However, you can fill it up very quickly because it records every little step you do in your sites. To help with this problem, you can adjust the number of History States that GoLive stores, much as you can in other programs. However, the method in which you do so is just a little different. You’ll need to open the History palette (Window>History). Then click the small arrow on the right to open the History palette’s flyout menu, and then choose History Options. Change the Maximum History States setting to whatever you’d like and click OK.
VIEW SERVER-SIDE INCLUDEES
Many thanks to Lynn Grillo for this one. By default, GoLive doesn’t let you view the content of server-side includees inside the webpage when you’re editing a site in Layout mode (View>Document Mode). However, by taking advantage of an extension included with GoLive, you can make it so you can see them. Just navigate to the GoLive SDK 8.0r1 folder (within the GoLive CD2 application folder) and open the Samples folder. Then copy the Translate SSI folder. Now find the Extend Scripts folder (Adobe GoLive>Modules>Extend Scripts) and paste this folder in. Restart GoLive and you’ll be able to view your server-side includees in the Editor.
ALWAYS LINK TO THE SAME CSS
If you add files to your site from the File menu, you’re doing yourself a disservice. GoLive CS2 can automatically link any new files you add to the site’s CSS file if you add them through the Site window. Just Control-click (PC: Right-click) inside the window and choose New>HTML Page. Your page will be added and it will automatically contain a link to the site’s CSS file.
FAVICONS
A Favorite icon (or Favicon) is an image that appears with your page’s title in the Favorites or Bookmarks menu of a Web browser. GoLive CS2 lets you create these icons without any third-party plug-ins. Just click the Draggable Objects button in the Toolbox and choose Smart from the drop-down menu. When the Smart options appear in the Toolbox, choose the Smart Favorite Icon (it’s the third icon down along the left). Click-and-drag this into your layout, and then open the Inspector palette (Window>Inspector). Choose a file in the Source a source file to be used for the favicon image.
HIGHLIGHT CSS IN LAYOUT MODE
When you’re working in Layout mode (View>Document Mode), you can highlight a CSS class so you can see each place it’s used in your webpage. To do this, start editing a webpage that contains CSS class in Layout mode. Then open the CSS palette (Window>CSS). Click on a style in the palette and click on the CSS palette’s flyout menu. Select Highlight Class in Layout, and then every instance that class is used in your page will be highlighted, so you can easily find them all.
EXTENSIONS
GoLive extensions add various types of advanced functionality to the GoLive authoring environment, from new objects to entirely new commands, menus, and palettes. GoLive CS2 ships with a number of useful extensions in the GoLive SDK. You can find this folder by navigating to the Adobe GoLive CS2 application folder, and open Adobe GoLive SDK 8.0r1>Samples. Then simply copy a folder and paste it into the Modules>Extend Scripts folder (which is also in the GoLive CS2 application folder). Restart GoLive and you’re ready to use your new extension.
DEFAULT MODE
This one sounds small but believe me, you’ll thank me for it later. Every time you open GoLive, the Editor will default to a specific mode like Layout, Frames, Source, Preview, etc. Many of us prefer to work in a different mode than the default. Sure, it’s not too hard to change, but think of how many new windows and documents you create in GoLive and how many times you need to switch modes. If you find that you prefer a different mode, just go to Preferences (Mac: Command-K; PC: Control-K) in the General section, and under Default Mode, select the mode that you work in the most.
RULERS RULE
When you’re designing your site in Layout mode (View>Document Mode), it can often be difficult to see how large your site or images are in comparison to the targeted website resolution. Try using rulers to help you determine how your changes will affect the size of the website to your prospective viewers. Just choose View>Show Rulers to see them. This way, you’ll be sure people won’t have to scroll when you didn’t want them to because the rulers will let you know if you’re going outside the designated boundaries.
REORDER YOUR STYLES
To help keep track of your styles in the Editor, keep similar styles or styles that work with one another together in your style sheets. You can easily change the order of your styles by clicking on any style and dragging it up or down the list. A dotted line shows where it’ll land when you release the mouse button. This works in both internal and external style sheets. Don’t forget that styles cascade, though, so sometimes their order is important.
DICTIONARY HELP
If you’re ever proofreading a PDF and realize there may be a better word to use than the current one, you’re in luck. You can find word definitions or access a thesaurus by Control-clicking (PC: Right-clicking) when using the Hand tool. Select Add Note from the contextual menu that appears. Type the word into the Note window and highlight it. Control-click (PC: Right-click) once again and select Lookup “
MERGE PDFs
If you’ve ever wanted to create one PDF file from several, then the Organizer can be your best friend. Just open Organizer (by clicking on its icon, which looks like a filing drawer with folders, in the Options Bar), and then Shift-click or Command-click (PC: Control-click) to select the files you’d like to combine together. Now click the Create PDF From Multiple Files button located in the Organizer’s Options Bar.
REVIEW WITH THE LESS FORTUNATE
This one is huge. In previous versions, only those who had the Professional version of Acrobat could review and collaborate on PDF files. Now in Acrobat 7, anyone can participate in the reviewing process. Just choose File>Send for Review to start the review process. Acrobat creates and sends an email for you (if you choose that option), and also fills in directions on how the reviewer should proceed. Note: The only catch is that you must have Acrobat 7 Professional to start the initial review process shown here.
SECURITY LOCKDOWN
If you’re a digital photographer (or anyone who shares images with clients via PDF), then securing your images is important to you. While you want to make sure that the samples you sent to your clients are of high quality, you don’t want your customers “borrowing” your photos without paying for them. So, to protect your images, you can secure your documents to prevent others from printing or viewing the images. With the PDF file open, choose Document>Security>Show Security Settings for This Document. Then choose Password Security from the Security Method pop-up menu. In the Password Security settings dialog, you can specify a password required for opening the document and/or you can restrict printing capabilities.
QUICK ZOOM
A lot of people don’t know this, but the shortcut keys for quickly zooming in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign work in Acrobat too. To zoom within your document window, press Command–+ (Plus Sign) (PC: Control–+) to zoom in or press Command–- (Minus Sign) (PC: Control–-) to zoom out.
INSERT OR REPLACE PAGES?
Let’s say you edit a page in a source program such as InDesign. Then when you’re done editing and convert the page to PDF, you need to move a page back into the original PDF file. This begs the question of whether you should insert the page or replace it. Well, let’s say you have a page with a large number of comments or links on it. If you merely inserted an edited version of the page and deleted the one you wanted to remove, you’d lose all your comments and links. When you replace a page, only the text and images on the original page are replaced. Any interactive elements, including comments, bookmarks, and links associated with the original page, are not affected. To replace a page in an open document, go to Document>Replace Pages, select your edited document in the resulting dialog, click Select, and then enter the page(s) you want to replace in the resulting dialog.
ALERT! VERSION CUE IS ON BY DEFAULT
Okay, we had to throw at least one in here for Version Cue. Version Cue was first released in the CS version. However, it was off by default. Now, when you install CS2, Version Cue is on by default. If you don’t use it, then it’s best to turn it off because it will use your system resources as it runs in the background. To turn it off in Windows, go into the Control Panel and double-click the Adobe Version Cue CS2 icon. Set the Version Cue CS2 pop-up menu to Off and uncheck the Turn Version Cue CS2 On When Computer Starts checkbox. On the Mac, you’ll find the same options by choosing System Preferences from the Apple menu and then clicking on the Version Cue CS2 icon in the Other section.