Adobe InDesign Run-down
Adobe InDesign, as you probably know, is used to design things like magazines, books, brochures- basically anything that has primarily text being showcased. Page and layout design is the function of InDesign, and it allows designers to publish original designs for print or digital media.
There are so many different tools and shortcuts in InDesign that help make designing convenient. There are also a handful of tools that are difficult to use and can sometimes make a design frustrating. With that in mind, some of the most used and most powerful tools in InDesign that help control the designs. Personally, I think five of the most powerful tools of InDesign include the selection tool, direct selection tool, type tool, zoom tool, and eyedropper tool. These tools I have found I use the most in InDesign for many different things, and they all make my life so much easier as a user of the software.
The selection tool in InDesign is self-explanatory but goes hand in hand with the direct selection tool. This tool selects specific lines, frames, graphics, text boxes, and more with the exception of transformation to whatever it is. This tool I find myself using the absolute most. What is any app or software without the option to select anything? The most basic tools in InDesign I find are the most powerful because they assist so much with what we need to do as designers. The direct selection tool is different from the selection tool in that it selects things within other objects. For example, it is used to select the image inside a rectangular frame, rather than the frame itself, or a specific point of a path rather than the entire path itself. This is exactly how a lot of these tools tie into each other and are needed for one another for maximum efficiency. I also find myself using this tool quite often in InDesign, especially being that it is connected to other tools I use a lot. The type tool is one of the most important tools to be used in InDesign. Let’s take a moment to remember what the purpose of this software is for: creating books, page layouts, brochures, etc. How are we as designers supposed to be successful with software that primarily focuses on text layout if it does not have a type tool!? It seems like such a simple tool to designers but really comes into play with InDesign. Magazines and books would not be what they are without this tool. The zoom tool is convenient for use because you zoom in and out of documents all the time especially when designing. Zooming in and out in InDesign is very important to view or edit multiple pages at once. The eyedropper tool takes the color swatch from another object to make whatever is selected that color. I use this a lot in InDesign since it is not as swatch-focused as other software like Photoshop. If I wanted to take the color of one object, I would use this tool and I could have it for different things.
Although these tools are pretty prominent through a lot of Adobe’s designing software, the ones I mentioned are specifically directed to the use of InDesign. The most basic things become the most essential.
Pre-flighting is an extremely imperative step of InDesign that every advanced designer should know about. Pre-flighting is used in InDesign to make sure there are no errors at all in the document. Some errors that can occur are missing links, missing fonts, etc. The Preflight panel can be opened in this software, which notifies you of any errors occurring in your document. This is very important and can save us designers because you should not and cannot send a client or anyone looking for your service because the design will not either print or display as intended. Missing links or fonts will automatically be replaced by another or removed, so pre-flighting is one of the most essential steps when designing in InDesign.
The term “Preflight” comes from a presentation conference in which numerous people were discussing solutions to pre-flighting in 1990. When pre-flighting began to become more popular, people had to manually preflight and fix errors in digital documents. Later, plugins and apps were created to more easily support the use of pre-flighting. You can easily and automatically preflight with InDesign. This software has some of the most revolutionary tools.
I hope these little tips and hints of information help anyone who needs it. The sources below have been provided for deeper information about the main things I discussed.
Sources:
http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign.html
http://www.uwec.edu/help/indesigncs3/toolbox.htm
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/preflighting-files-handoff.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-flight_(printing)