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Adobe® InDesign® Basics

scroll bars went out with cassette players. So fundamental basics of getting yourself around the screen right here, first and foremost. Scroll bars their debt. Okay, everybody has a scroll wheel from house. And I know there's two people out there saying, but I don't have one. Great. Now is the perfect time to get one, OK? Because the scroll wheel can actually be your friend. So if you have a scroll wheel Great. We're gonna use that. If you don't have one, go and get one right now. We'll wait. Let us know in your back. Okay. So, first and foremost moving your item around the page, being able to zoom in and zoom out on the page here. We've got a couple different ways up here. Above our control bar is what we have called is our application bar. Last couple versions. Adobe, put this in here. And these are very common items that we turn on and turn off and zoom in and zoom out. So this application bar right here is also under the window menu. There's the application bar and this shows very ...

basic items. This shows are zoom window that we can click on here or you can simply highlight and type in any value will go up to 5000%. Zoom the drop down menu of presets right there next to that got like a little ruler there we can turn on and turn off frame edges. Rulers guide smart guides and are hidden characters. We also have next to that are different screen modes and go through all this here as well as our arrange. When we have multiple documents, how do we want them to display? So for basic items like navigation and zoom right here, you can use the zoom level here. We're gonna show you a lot easier ways to get to the zoom in and out. First and foremost down here. Hand tool, zoom tool, those the things you're going to use he and two on the shortcut is H zoom, tool dizzy. And yes, it's that simple. You want the zoom tool you type C on your keyboard. You get the zoom tool you type in h, you get the hand tool, the hand tool, super handy. What's called a hand tool hand tool will allow you to move your page all around. You simply engage the hand tool, your click. Move it all around. No more scroll bar stuff. No more going to scroll bar and moving at this way and then moving at that way. Okay, hand tool. That's what it's all about. Right there. Grab the hand tool, zoom tool. Grab the zoom tool Z, And if you're gonna zoom into something, zoom like you know what you're doing. So, love times people grab the zoom tool will be nibbling on their cracker and they'll be zooming in zooming and you know it'll be bouncing all around the screen. And finally, they get really, really big 15 minutes later. Okay, so if you're going to use the zoom tool here, the best way to use the zoom tool is take the zoom tool. I'd like to zoom into this particular portion of the flower. I'm going to take my zoom tool, and I'm going to click and drag and that area that I defined right there with my zoom tool. Just a simple click and drag that I let go. That's gonna come front and center when you zoom in by using a zoom to Where were you? Click wherever you click on the page that gets centered in the middle of your page. So if you're clicking in random areas wherever you click, that becomes the center of your screen. So if I click here and then I click here, Gino's how my pages bouncing all around? Yep, user input. Wherever you click, that becomes the center of your screen. Now, of course, people like Great zoomed in. Now I can't zoom out. Just unplug the machine and start over and reset everything. So when you want to zoom out people like I've got it nice and big, how do we zoom out really simple and easy ways. If you go over to your hand tool in your tool bar and just double click on your hand tool, that's gonna fit everything right to your window. Double click on the zoom tool. It's going to go ahead and fit everything actual size or supposed to. We have our aspect ratio set up for a video and everything, but those are quick and easy ways to be able to get out of your zoom mode so you can but everything right back to where you want it to be. Nice and easy also you have your shortcuts under the view menu. Zoom in, zoom out fit Teoh fit to window actual size. So zoom in is basically command plus and command minus. I know it says equals here, but if you look at your plus and equals and minus key right there, they kind of share the same key. Okay, so just think of it this way. Command Plus zoom in command Minuses. Zoom out and yes, plus an equal share the same key. So just to let you know that people like no, it's his command equals, Yeah, if it's in photo shop, it actually says command. Plus, it's the same function. So command. Plus, we'll zoom in command minus zooms. Back out. Tried and true Method Command zero is going to fit the window. Command one is going to be actual size on the PC. Command on the Mac is going to be controlling the PC. Simple and easy to understand. If you forget those shortcuts, they're actually right here, right to the next. Right to the right of the commands. They're there all the time. You may have thought those were a little alien Hira graphs. Well, yep, they are They're also called shortcuts quick and easy. Way to see that. Now, as you get more proficient with this, yes, you can always use the drop down menu and choose the preset here. But these shortcuts are a whole lot faster to go ahead and use as you get even better. Once you get more proficient and in design, you're gonna be working with your file and you're gonna be sizing things and moving things around and you realize I just want to quickly move my page. Whatever tool you're in if you want to get to your hand tool The shortcut for the hand tool his age. But I don't want to even want to switch my hand tool. I'm gonna I'm editing my image size I'm just gonna hold down my space bar Whatever tool I'm in When I hold my space bar down As long as I hold the space bar I get the hand tool Once you let go the space bar You're right back to the tool that you were using And you haven't interrupted your workflow. There you go. Now even more fun. I want to zoom in on something. I'm controlling the size of my image and its container. I want to zoom into this flow really quickly. I could stop and use my zoom tool. I'm gonna use the zoom tool and the shortcut for that is going to be command and space bar command space bar, then gives me my zoom tool. As long as I have those held down, I couldn't use my zoom tool. And when I'm done, I let go, and I'm right back to the tool that I was using before. So no interruption, quick and easy. Those are a real shortcut whenever you have to stop and do something else and change the 21 comeback Great. Do we have a shortcut to get to her hand tool and resume tool here, But it's a whole lot nicer to do it. But the space bar on the command Space bar Space bar is the hand tool and command space bark. Is it a zoom tool for those of you that have just bought your little scroll wheel mouse and you're just getting used to it. If you hold down your option or your old key and use the scroll, you will be able to zoom in and zoom out. And the way we have our preferences set right here, it actually zooms in and zooms out the screen. And we'll show you how to set your preferences here. But option or Ault and then up or down with the scroll wheel, we'll zoom in and zoom right out with urine design file, and it goes really fast. So it's like hyper spect space for attacks. It's like all of a sudden it's huge, and all of a sudden it's disappeared. Okay, at any time you could just double click in your hand, tool your zoom tool, and it's going to return it right back to something and looks nice and normal for you. Sounds good. I thought so. Okay, so that's being able to get through with a navigation notice. No scroll bars. I'll never touch them again. Okay. No, little. Yeah, I won't. Can't even touch them. I'll get close. But, you know, don't use them a lot better ways to get through your document. Okay? So now, when it comes to certain items, preferences, increments, inches and such one of the things that happens when you install in design for the very first time and you go to the file menu and create a new document. We have our new document window, and it comes up with all these weird things. 51 p 0 66 p. Zero margins or three p zero. It's like, Oh, my gosh, what is that? Well, for those of you that are in two industries, either the magazine of the newspaper industry, this makes total sense for the rest of you. I'm sure you have no idea what it iss Well, these air pipe points and pikers and the magazine in the newspaper world measure all of their column widths in points and pikers. A little bit of trivia. How many points to a piker? How maney pikers to an inch. Anybody have any idea, Jim Pikers to an inch? Would that be 72.7? Wow, it was a lot of information 72 points to an inch. Yes, and there's 12.12 pica. And so there's six. Pike is to an antic spike. It thank you, I know. So it's like great throw in the standard, you know, measurement system that we have where we take big chunks and vitamin 2/16 and 30 seconds makes no sense, right? None whatsoever. But if you're in publishing world, it makes a lot of sense. But this is how in design defaults whenever you start up a document every single time and most people just kind of get by and they're just like, Oh, I go in and they change the increments every single time. Okay, great. I'm sure there's a better way. Why, yes, there is. If you have a document that does, it is set up in points and Pikus, which this one is now one easy way that you can change the preferences for that open document is just go to your ruler and right click on your ruler. When you right click on your ruler, you will get in many different units of increments. So our measurement so I can do inches right here and I can click on my left. Ruler and Aiken do inches as well. This has just set the preferences for only this open document. If I still create a new document, it still would be in points and Pikus. So I can very easily do that with my rulers. If your rulers air not on you can go under your application bar and you can turn on or turn off your rulers right there. You can also go under the view menu and turn on and turn off Your rulers, their commander control are for your rulers. So that's a quick and easy way to set the preferences. You may be working on a file and its European, and you need to change everything. Two millimeters, Not a problem. Make sure your rulers active, right. Click on there. Said it however you'd like and you're good to go. However, what happens if every single time you start up the document and you keep getting points and Pikus every single time? Well, here's the key. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna close out of my file and I have no file opened. But in design is open. And here is how you set the preferences for in design. So every single file we create from here on out is going to have these preferences set so that I don't have to set them every time you can't have any file open or else you will set the preferences for just that open file now within design open. I'm going to go under my preferences menu here under preferences, and I'm going to choose units and increments. I'll set my units in increments toe what? I want every single file that I create from here on out to be. And I'm going to set my rulers both my horizontal and my vertical rulers two inches. I'm gonna keep my stroke weight in points because that's how we measure the stroke around objects as well. And then we have keyboard increments right here. And keyboard increments are how when I'm using the cursor key to move things and really, really fine increments how much do I want that object to move using my right left up or down arrows, You consent whatever you want. I have a very particular size that I use in its 0.3 inches and it moves everything in a very fine increments. Set it to whatever you'd like. See how much movement you get. We're gonna show you right after this what I'm talking about. And then we also have our shortcuts here for baseline shift size and letting well, we have keyboard shortcuts when we get into editing type and these keyboard shortcuts, in my opinion, are too coarse. Oven increment here. I want everything to be done in one point increments so I can set these tow one. You set them to whatever you want, but this is what I normally use. So I have my baseline shifts at 21 my size and letting set to one. I want to use a shortcut. That's how much is going to increase or decrease. And then my current and tracking I set to 10 instead of 20. So I get finer increments Now I have no file open. I'm going to click. OK, now, when I create a new file now all my units and increments or set up exactly the way I want them now on and click OK, I no longer need to go in and change those increments. Somebody send you a file that is done in a different set of units and increments. Not a problem. Those preferences stay with the file so it doesn't adopt your preferences in your in design file. So if somebody is done thing in millimeters, you open it up. It's all in millimeters. Not a problem. Okay, But from here on out. I don't need to change that again. I've said it once and everything's good. Okay, so how are we doing in the chat room there? Jim, we're ready for a question. If you're up for it, I think I am great. So this is going back. Just a hair bill and Boca wanted to know. When you say to the zooming part, when you say actual size, what does that mean? How does it relate to the resolution and or pixels or inches? And how does it relate to the zoom tool? That's a fantastic question, an actual size. It tries to portray it best on screen, and it all depends on the standard resolution. So when we set this up here because our resolution is set for the cameras here, it's going to display at a much larger size. So actual size, I guess, is a relative term. If you have your standard settings, that's going to be actual size great, and I often that sort of crazy. I often will take a ruler and put it on my screen so I can actually see that it shows up as whatever inches I'm looking for for output It's sort of old school, but it works. Yeah, it sure does. All right. I think we're good up here. Okay, Wonderful. So with our preferences set from here on out, we don't have to worry about anything like that. But what will you do have to pay attention to now is a few other preferences that we have with our file now in design has tons of preferences with it. And one of the things that you'll also notice when the creative cloud came out is everything got really dark on the interface. And what I found is that once you get into your certain middle aged areas like 30 your eyes kind of don't work so well. So I'm gonna go under the in design preferences under the interface here, and every one of the adobe applications has allowed you to go through. And when you first load in design an illustrator or Photoshop, you have an entirely dark interface where you have a dark background with light type, and I find this very difficult to read because I can't quite focus well enough. So under your preferences under interface, you have your choice of making it dark. medium dark, medium, light or light and light is the original one that we've had for years and years and years. So you can change that Teoh, however you'd like. I run it on light interface. To me, it's a whole lot easier to see dark icons and a light background. But you have that choice on all of the adobe applications where you want different colors of contrast with that. So that's a big thing, because a lot of people like, How do I do this? I really like my light background. It's a preference. It's the interface. So said it, however you'd like to have. Once you begin using in design and you start to find that you have a certain set of units and increments, you begin having your panels where you want them displayed where you want them, and you've basically dialed in the entire interface. You can then save that as a workspace, so just in case something happens and everything gets disrupted, you go under the window menu here, and you can set this up is your workspace. You'll notice under the window workspace menu. We have all of these workspaces right here and all the ones that are in brackets or preset that comes with the adobe application. And this is nothing bore than Adobe trying to help you out with the panels and formats and options. If you're going to be doing book publishing or digital publishing or interactive or printing or typography here, it doesn't really change the functionality of in design. It just basically makes things more front and center for you. Once you start working with this, you're gonna find out what works well for you. The workflow, the placement of items. So you put that wherever you want the panels, you set your preferences and you can create your own workspace. And it's a simple is going under the workspace and simply saying new workspace and you'll see when you create a new workspace. We can have said our panel locations as well as menu customization, who and you customization. So create this name it click OK and that workspace will now be under. There is your workspace and you can set up several different work spaces. You may be doing very different layouts. A lot of times will do interactive layouts that will do interactive items for IPad, I would be doing print, and I may want a different workspace so I can have different panels. I can always go to my work space, and I can simply click on this, and my entire workspace will change based on how I've saved my items. So it's a great way of just saving preferences. But for the overall look and feel of the in design window, you can also access your workspace is right here at the very right hand side of your venue or your application bar right there. Okay, there's nothing special about thes thes air, just presets that they've put together for you. You can create anything that you want, especially for people who work in a small office where they share a computer and you have your stuff set up one way and somebody has said stuff set up the other way because we have palette orders that put everything all over the screen, and then they move them and place them and lose them, and they never close them. They never nest them. They just kind of shuffle them all around. Great way to go ahead and organize everything by using your workspace. right there. Fantastic question for you. Do you use a multi monitor set up? I don't. I used to. But now, with you know, the inch monitors, it's almost not necessary. Because when you're dealing with a 30 inch monitor, you can have, you know, three inches of real estate on the right hand side. And I mean, you're almost over into a different time zone their way, used to when we had, you know, the 21 inch We used to have the palate monitor like a 13 or 15 inch where we put them all over there. I'm I haven't seen that as much because, you know, with a 30 inch monitors pretty awesome. Yeah. Cool. Thank you.