50 Classic Tips From 50 Issues

How time flies when you’re having fun! Eight years and 50 issues ago, InDesign Magazine made a splash as one of the first subscription-based PDF magazines. For a magazine, publishing the 50th issue means nothing but success and strength. That’s why we’re celebrating with tips from all 50 issues—while InDesign has changed a lot in that time, these great tips still work today. 

Issue 1
July 2004

You can extract a clipping path from a placed image by right-clicking and choosing Convert Clipping Path to Frame from InDesign’s context menu.

Issue 2
October 2004

Place a tab inside a table cell by pressing Option-Tab (Mac) or choosing Type > Insert Special Character > Tab.

Issue 3
December 2004

To make Check Spelling ignore text, choose the text and set the language to No Language in the Control panel or Character panel.

Issue 4
February 2005

If you have text or other vector outlines in your Photoshop document, save the file as PDF instead of PSD to maintain the sharp outlines!

Issue 5
April 2005

Fake a duotone look by selecting a color image with the Selection tool and filling its frame with a color; then select image inside the frame and change the Blending Mode (in the Effects panel) to Luminosity.

Issue 6
June 2005

See exactly which version of InDesign you’re running by holding down Command (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) and choosing About InDesign from the InDesign menu (Mac) or Help menu (Windows).

Issue 7
August 2005

If you search for a missing font with Find Font, but you can’t see the text on the page, hit Cancel (to close Find Font) and then open Story Editor. The cursor will be highlighting the problem text.

Issue 8
October 2005

For more realistic drop shadows, try adding a just a little Noise (3 or 4 percent) in the Effects dialog box.

Issue 9
December 2005

When setting text in narrow columns you can get better-looking type if you adjust the Justification settings to allow a few percent of Letter Spacing and one percent of Glyph Scaling.

Issue 10
February 2006

If you select a single character with the Type tool, you can see its Unicode value in the Info panel. Helpful for certain special glyphs.

Issue 11
April 2006

Be careful when you convert text to outlines; bullets, automatic numbering, and rules above and below paragraphs will disappear!

Issue 12
June 2006

Need to set just a small amount of text vertically in Japanese or Chinese? Download templates from https://www.transpacificdigital.com/downloads.

Issue 13
August 2006

You can add metadata to your InDesign files with File > File Info, and then search for your documents better, based on that metadata, in Bridge. The metadata will also show up in exported PDF files.

Issue 14
October 2006

You can place RGB images into InDesign and they’ll be properly converted to CMYK when you export using the PDF/X-1a preset. If you use PDF/X3, transparency will be flattened, but RGB colors will be maintained.

Issue 15
December 2006

Trying to pick a font for all the text in an unthreaded frame (like a headline)? Click it with the Selection tool, then switch to the Type tool. Now you can click in the font field of the Control panel and use the up and down arrow keys to select fonts.

Issue 16
February 2007

If you’re trying to “hand rag” your paragraph (setting the line breaks carefully by hand instead of letting InDesign manage it), then be sure to change to the Single-Line Composer in the Control panel menu (or the Justification dialog box).

Issue 17
April 2007

Get started with GREP the easy way: Don’t try to remember the codes! Instead, choose from the @ menu (also called the “Special Characters for Search” menu) to the right of the Find What and Change To fields in the Find/Change dialog box.

Issue 18
June 2007

You can drag a color swatch from the Swatches panel over an object on your page, even if it’s not selected. Drag it over the middle and you change its fill; drag over the path, and you affect the stroke color.

Issue 19
August 2007

That weird light blue character you sometimes see between words that looks like a colon above an upside down V? It’s an index marker, and you only see these when Type > Show Hidden Characters is selected.

Issue 20
October 2007

You can display the Tools panel in three different arrangements: single column, double column, and single row (horizontal). You can toggle between these views by clicking the tiny double-arrow icon at the top of the panel. However, note that you can’t get the single row view when the panel is docked. To undock it, just drag the panel’s handle away from the side of the window.

Issue 21
December 2007

InDesign treats special white space characters (such as em and en spaces) as nonbreaking. If you want to allow them to break at the end of the line, insert a Discretionary Line Break (from the Insert Line Break submenu, under the Type menu).

Issue 22
February 2008

If frames jerk and stutter when you drag them (instead of moving smoothly), you may have accidentally enabled View > Grids & Guides > Snap to Document Grid. Turn it off, or (on the Mac) hold down the Control key while dragging to disable snapping temporarily.

Issue 23
April 2008

To change many frames to the same size: Set the height and width of one of them. Then select all the rest and choose Object > Transform Again > Transform Sequence Again Individually.

Issue 24
June 2008

Object styles cannot change the position of an object on your page… unless the object is anchored in text! If you need to control page position, anchor the object, then use the Anchored Object Options pane when defining the object style.

Issue 25
August 2008

To avoid accidentally clicking on the Registration swatch instead of [Black], drag Registration to the bottom of the list. Do this while no files are open and it will become the default for all new documents you create.

Issue 26
October 2008

Tired of searching for images where the width and height have different scaling? Edit your selected Preflight panel profile and turn on the Non-Proportional Scaling of Placed Images checkbox!

Issue 27
December 2008

You can get fancier rules between paragraphs if you combine a Rule Above and Rule Below so they appear to be a single rule. Then change the indents and stroke type of the two rules.

Issue 28
February 2009

You can hold down the Shift key while you drag the sliders in the Color panel to keep the same hue, but make it more or less saturated. In other words, Shift-dragging moves all the sliders proportionally.

Issue 29
April 2009

Some people don’t like new documents opening as tabs; if you want new documents to open in their own windows, disable the Open Documents as Tabs checkbox in the Interface pane of the Preferences dialog box.

Issue 30
June 2009

Want to create a new document quickly without having to go through a dialog box? Press Command-Option-N or Ctrl-Alt-N to open a new file based on the last Document Preset you chose in the New Document dialog box.

Issue 31
August 2009

To add a graphic separator between paragraphs (such as ornamental dots), anchor the graphic as the first character in the second paragraph, select it, choose Object > Anchored Object > Options, and choose the Above Line option.

Issue 32
October 2009

Some placed graphics have spot colors named differently than the way InDesign names them. To get the document to print correctly, open Ink Manager (from the Swatches panel menu) and use the Ink Aliasing popup menu.

Issue 33
December 2009

Setting text kerning to Optical is great for numbers inside body text (not tables) but is terrible for most script typefaces. 

Issue 34
February 2010

Want a star or some special character at the beginning of a paragraph for decoration or to indicate something? Automatic paragraph bullets aren’t just for lists! Instead of anchoring an image, use a custom bullet for that one paragraph.

Issue 35
April 2010

If you’re still using the Direct Selection tool to select images inside frames, it’s time to break that habit! Just double-click with the Selection tool to select the image; double-click again to select the frame.

Issue 36
June 2010

To make a book cover, with a back, front, and spine, create a three-page spread. You can do this if you first disable Allow Pages to Shuffle in the Pages panel menu.

Issue 37
August 2010

When you drag a guide out onto your page and you want to place it precisely, hold down the Shift key. That forces InDesign to snap the guide to the nearest ruler tick mark.

Issue 38
October 2010

It’s silly to use the Preview panel at its default tiny size. Resize it to be big, so you can see if your buttons and interactive elements work correctly. InDesign remembers that size, and you can even save it in a workspace!

Issue 39
December 2010

Yes, there is a way to force rows to stay together in a table: Select the rows with the Type tool, choose Table > Cell Options > Rows and Columns, then enable Keep with Next Row. Sadly, there’s no option for this in table or cell styles.

Issue 40
February 2011

You can change the default text frame style to any other object style you create: Just drag the little T icon on the right side of the Object Styles panel down to your new style.

Issue 41
April 2011

When you want a fancier version of a character (like a nicer bullet or a swash), select the character in a text frame and check the Glyphs panel. If the panel’s selected glyph has a small black arrow next to it, click and hold it to see alternate glyphs.

Issue 42
June 2011

In CS5 or later: Select more than one object and start dragging a side or corner handle. While the mouse button is down, hold down the spacebar and InDesign adjusts the spacing between the objects instead of scaling them.

Issue 43
August 2011

When you have the Place cursor loaded with a long text file (such as a Word document), holding down Option/Alt and Shift and clicking tells InDesign to flow the text inside the margins for as many pages as you currently have in your document.

Issue 44
October 2011

The best video format to place in your interactive documents is H.264 (such as MP4 or M4V). To start the movie immediately, select the movie and turn on Play on Page Load on the Media panel.

Issue 45
December 2011

What do you do if you want to print the eighth page of your document, but the document begins on page 15 and is set to roman numerals? Don’t fret! Just print page “+8”. The plus symbol means “the absolute page number in this document.” 

Issue 46
February 2012

Want to see how your page looks to someone who is color-blind? Export the page as a PDF, place it in Illustrator, then choose from the View > Proof Setup > Color Blindness menu.

Issue 47
April 2012

Don’t like the bright cyan ruler guides you get when you drag them from the rulers onto the page? Choose Layout > Ruler Guides to change the default color.

Issue 48
June 2012

You don’t have to enlarge a text frame to see and edit overset text. Press Command/Ctrl+Y to view the story in the Story Editor, and overset text appears at the end of the story next to a red vertical line.

Issue 49
August 2012

When creating a PDF form in InDesign, make sure you visit Object > Interactive > Set Tab Order, so that your audience can tab from one field to the next correctly.

Issue 50
September 2012

Give your friend a membership to CreativePro (use discount code: FRIEND) so they never run out of tips!