This Week in InDesign Articles, Number 8
Some excellent new scripts, videos, and articles about InDesign that you'd better know about!
Safari is about to burst under the weight of all these articles I’ve kept open for you. (Yes, I know there are better ways to bookmarks articles, but I’d never remember to look for them again. I need stuff right in front of my face reminding me, or else it never gets done.)
- Ever wondered why InDesign has a Pencil tool? You must watch this video of Gareth Hinds roughing out a page of his graphic novel in InDesign! (In a later video, he exports to jpg, prints, and then uses a “real” analog pencil).
- Keith Gilbert reminded us that you can change the order of the Glyphs panel, which may help you find characters faster.
- Need a set of predefined layers when you create documents? Here’s a script that adds layers automatically! Even cooler, you can set up “sets” of layers and then choose which set you want when a new document opens.
- Thomas Silkjær has made a bit of gold again with this free script for making custom frames behind blocks of text. This is quite amazing, actually. For example, if you want a light blue frame behind a paragraph, and the paragraph breaks across two columns… this script can still do it for you! If you use it for a real job, please click the Donate button on his site.
- Thanks to CreativePro.com for pointing out this awesome hour-long, free webinar recording that Michael Murphy did on the topic of making Acrobat Forms with Adobe InDesign. If you do forms, you need to watch this.
- I really enjoyed seeing this reminder of how designers specced type in the “bad ol’ days.” It drove me to go buy a used copy of How to Spec Type by Alex White. (WorldCat.org can tell you where you can find that book in a nearby library.)
- Anne-Marie pointed out this page at Adobe.com that shows the PDF Compatibility Levels. Very handy!
- Are you planning on upgrading to Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)? If so, check out my friend Jeff Carlson’s book on the subject.
Well, that’s enough for today. I still have some other new goodies here that I need to read (thanks to Mike Rankin’s Publicious blog). In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these!
This article was last modified on December 19, 2021
This article was first published on August 20, 2009
