tinyurl.com/indesignfall2024
CONTENTS
- Adobe Stock
- Opening and Navigating InDesign
- Editing/Adding Photos
- Editing/Adding Text
- Saving and Sharing
- Feedback Survey
1. Adobe Stock
Visit stock.adobe.com and login using your netid and password. Click on the "Template" tab at the top and search for things such as "magazine," "flyer" or anything you may be looking to design.
When looking through the search results look for "INDT" which stands for "InDesign Template." When you find a design you like click on the it.
As long as you are logged in correctly you will have access to any templates that we have purchased at a premium for the University. You also have unlimited access to 2-D assets such as photographs, drawings illustrations and vector graphics. There are premium assets that will require payment, if you are in need of these please email us a request at adobecc@arizona.edu and we will look into acquiring it for you.
2. Opening and Navigating InDesign
After launching InDesign click on "Open," in the dialogue box that opens select the INDT file you downloaded from Adobe Stock and click "Open."
- Menu -
- Open File - Shows your current open file, and any others you have open will appear in other tabs.
- Tools Panel - Contains a variety of editing tools used to create elements for you Canvas.
- Workspace - Shows your current Workspace, you may select from other Workspaces depending on what you are currently working on by using the drop down menu.
- Pages Panel - Shows all pages you have created in a project, it also allows you to apply universal features to a page using the "A- Master" or "Parent Page."
- Properties Panel - Supplies information about your project and any objects you may have selected in the form of an intuitive panel that changes depending on what you have selected.
- Paste Board - Space around your "Canvas" or page where elements can be created and worked on, but will not appear in your document once exported or shared.
3. Editing/Adding Photos
In InDesign any Frame Tool or Shape Tool can be used to place an Image into. This can be achieved by locating an image in your finder menu and "Dragging and Dropping" the image directly into the shape.
Notice the image in this case doesn't fit the rectangular frame fully, there is grey to either side of the image. Double clicking on the image will allow you to isolate the image inside of the frame and manipulate it (rotate or scale and image). You can tell by the brown "Bounding Box" that appears and extends beyond the frame in this case.
Once you have scaled or rotated the image to the desired position so it fills your frame, click off the image and it will return to normal editing mode where you can move the image inside the frame together.
Multiple images can be added at one time, start by creating several Image Frames or Rectangles. Spacing the frames can be done using alignment tools or taking advantage of the programs Smart Guides, which will appear periodically providing you with alignment lines and distances.
To add multiple images open your finder window and select the images you want to use. "Click and Drag" them to you canvas, they will not immediately place like it does when you are only placing one.
You will see a small preview of the first image, click in each of the frames you created to place them one by one.
Once all the images are placed they will likely be larger that their frames and need to be shrunk. You can double click like mentioned above or try right clicking and selecting "Fitting > Fit Content Proportionally."
4. Editing/Adding Text
To edit the text provided by the template, you can double click on any text box and begin changing it. Most all the text is "Lorem Ipsum" which is a standard placeholder text in design.
To import text from a saved Word document, start by deleting the text inside one of the text boxes. Open your Finder window and locate the text you want to use and "Drag and Drop" it into the text box.
If there is more text than will fit in the text box you will see a small red + symbol in a square toward the bottom right of the box.
To add the next section of the text or to "String the Text" click on the red +, and a small text preview will appear. Click on the next location you want the following text to appear. This may take more than one action to fit all your type. You can also stretch the text box for it to allow for more type if needed and vice versa if it is too large.
5. Saving and Sharing
To save your document, go to "File > Save As" from there select from items in the drop down menu. Saving as an InDesign Document will allow you to open the document and edit it later on, while saving it as a template allows you to create your own reusable document.
To Export your file, go to "File > Export" and select the desired format from the drop down menu. In general exporting a document in any program is usually a format that will no longer be editable, so it is a good idea to save an InDesign Document copy of all of your work as well.
Once you have saved a copy of your design, you can use the "Share" feature in the upper right hand corner of your page. Click on "Create Link" and from there you can choose what access individuals will have, what emails if any you would like to send the URL link to.
Users that you share the link with will have the ability to view your project and provide feedback. Pins and comments placed in the design by viewers will be observable to you inside of InDesign, where you can work through the revisions.
6. Feedback Survey
We invite you to complete this survey to help us create more targeted and improved content for resources like this.