Whenever I teach InDesign I usually begin by having the students create a new document while we explore the interface. As we explore the new document window I usually I ask my class what they think a slug is, but rarely do they know. Some of my favorite answers over the years include ?if you pour salt on them they melt? and ?my husband catches them with a bowl of beer and they drown.? While both of those options are interesting (and if I have to pick a way to go, the second option might be tempting), it also points to the lack up understanding of the slug.
Fortunately InDesign’s slugs are not slimy, but they are a special area of the pasteboard that can be included when you output (PDF, Print, etc). Typical uses of slugs include notes and/or file information. Mike Rankin wrote up a great article last year on using notes.
Using Slugs for Document Information
Keeping track of information of every printout while you work can be tough. There is a lot of information that you may have to record for other people. This can include the file name, job number, etc. I have seen business handle this in a variety of methods varying from stamps, envelope, or nothing at all. While these techniques may work, it can be a pain to manually fill out every time you print out something.
Rather than manually writing out all of this information, it is far easier to record this information inside a text frame in the slug.
Information that I include on my slug
- File Location (which includes its name)
- Job#
- Client
- Project Type
- Publication
- Dimensions
- Bleed
- Creation Date
- Creation Author
- Modification Date
- Modified By
- Routing Information
Text Variables Make Life Easier
While most of these fields need to be manually filled out each time, it is possible to automate some of the fields with InDesign?s text variables (type > text variable > insert variable). The file location information can be automated by file name text variable. You will need to customize the options to include file path. David Blatner?s wrote up a post on this a few years ago.
Creation date and modification date can also be automated with the text variables as well. I would recommend that you modify those variables to ensure a consistent look.
It would seem at first that document size and bleed would be options for text variables, but alas this is not the case. Hopefully in the future they will be options and it will be one less thing to worry about as you create and edit documents.
After your slug is setup you can save it as a snippet, put it in a library, and/or save your file as a template for easy assess for yourself and other co-workers.
This article was last modified on December 17, 2022
This article was first published on March 14, 2010
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