InDesign CC 2017 interface

Editor's Notes

• #3: Remind students that the point of this introduction is to simply get used to the behavior of UI elements; as they complete the projects in this book, they will learn more about the specific functions of the various elements. If you are using a Macintosh, you can enable or disable the Application frame to control the overall environment. When enabled, the entire application (excluding the Menu bar) is contained within a single window (“frame”). In this case, the user experience is more like the Windows application model, in which each application is always contained within its own frame. At this point, you should introduce the importance and advantages of contextual menus throughout the application. Contextual menus present options that are specific to the object or element where the menu is opened. On the Macintosh OS, users who do not have right-click capability will have to press the Control key while clicking to access the contextual menus.
• #4: The dock is the area around the screen or application frame (if enabled). Users can essentially lock panels into place in the dock, making it easier to access specific panels without using the Window menu commands. The most important issue here is that panels can be placed where they are most convenient for a specific user and/or project type. You should become familiar with all of the different methods of controlling panels, so you can determine which best suits your personal work habits. •Double-click a dock/group title bar to iconize (collapse to icons) •Click icon to expand iconized panel •Double-click drop zone to collapse into title bar •Drag tab to reposition a single panel •Drag drop zone to reposition entire panel group •Create multiple panel columns in the dock •Each floating group and column can be iconized separately
• #5: The Tools panel defaults to the left side of the application space. Depending on your needs and preferences, it can be dragged to another position, or floated, just as you would any other panel in the workspace. You can access nested tools by clicking the primary tool and holding down the mouse button, or by Control/right-clicking the primary tool to open the menu of nested options. If a tool has a defined shortcut, pressing that key activates the associated tool. Finally, if you press and hold a tool’s keyboard shortcut, you can temporarily call the appropriate tool (called spring-loaded keys); after releasing the shortcut key, you return to the tool you were using previously. As you become more familiar with the application, you should start to remember keyboard shortcuts for various tools; this can significantly increase your productivity. (The keyboard shortcuts are listed on Page 8.)
• #6: You can personalize the UI by saving a custom workspace to recall panels in the specific position where they were when saved. This saves time when calling the same set of panels, which is especially useful if using a shared workstation (as is common in a classroom environment), or when working on different types of projects over time. (For example, “Today is color correction day, so I need A and B panels. Tomorrow I’ll be building composite ads, so I need X, Y, and Z panels.”) Warn students that calling a saved workspace in InDesign restores the last-used state of the workspace. To call the saved state of a specific workspace, you might have to use the Reset [Workspace] option.
• #7: You can change the view percentage of the active file, and change the visible portion of the image within the document window. There are several methods for accomplishing these tasks; you should become familiar with each so you can determine which best suits your work habits. (Review the information on Page 13 for complete details.)
• #8: It is often necessary (or at least, more convenient) to work with multiple files open at one time. The document tabs at the top of the document window let you know which file is active (the lighter one), and easily switch to another file. If an asterisk appears in the document tab, it means changes have been made but not yet saved. The built-in arrangements in the Arrange Documents panel display multiple files in different “panes” within the document window. (Many of the same options are available in the Window>Arrange submenu.) You can also drag any document tab to move it to another pane.
• #9: By default, InDesign displays a low-resolution preview of placed images to save time when the screen redraws — in other words, every time you change something. You can use the View>Display Performance option to change this behavior. The low-resolution preview is the Typical Display setting, which can be changed in the Display Performance pane of the Preferences dialog box. The High-Quality Display option shows the actual file data on screen; placed vector graphics appear smooth and clean, and raster images appear less bitmapped (depending on the file’s actual resolution). The Fast Display option replaces all placed images with a solid medium gray (in other words, no preview image displays). If the Allow Object-Level Display Settings option is active, you can also change the display of individual, selected objects on the page. These options can also be changed for individual images in a layout using an object’s contextual menu.
• #10: Double-clicking a page icon in the Pages panel makes that page visible in the document window. This is the easiest way to move from one page to another in a multi-page document. You will use this panel extensively as you complete the projects in this book. You can also use the panel to rotate a specific page in the document window. Control/right-clicking a page icon opens a contextual menu; rotation options are available in the Rotate Spread View submenu. Rotating the view only changes the display of the page; the actual page remains unchanged in the file. This makes it easier to work with objects or pages that are oriented differently than the overall document. (In the example in the interface chapter exercises, the front side of the postcard has portrait orientation, but the mailer side has landscape orientation.)
• #11: You can use the Screen Mode button at the bottom of the Tools panel, or in the Application/Menu bar, to change the way the document appears in the application interface. •In Normal screen mode, you can see all non-printing elements, including guides and frame edges (if those are toggled on). You can also see the white pasteboard surrounding the defined page area; your development work is not limited by the defined page size. •Preview mode surrounds the page with a neutral gray background. Page guides, frame edges, and other non-printing areas are not visible in the Preview mode. (The files you explored in this project were saved in Preview screen mode.) •Bleed mode is an extension of the Preview mode; it shows an extra area (which was defined when the document was originally set up) around the page edge. This bleed area is a required part of print document design — objects that are supposed to print right up to the edge of the page must extend past the page edge, usually 1/8” or more. •Slug mode extends the visible area of the page to include any defined slug area. •Presentation mode fills the entire screen with the active spread. By default, the area around the page is solid black; press W to change the surround to white, or press G to change it to neutral gray. In Presentation mode, clicking anywhere on the screen shows the next spread; Shift-clicking shows the previous spread.
• #12: Close any single file by clicking the Close button on that document tab. Keep in mind: On Windows, closing the Application frame closes all open documents and quits the application. On Macintosh, closing the Application frame closes all open files but does not quit the application. If any open file has been changed, the application asks if you want to save the file before closing. This can prevent accidentally losing changes, or even accidentally saving changes that you did not mean to make.