InDesign – The Graphic Mac http://www.thegraphicmac.com Apple, Adobe, Graphic Design, Resources Sat, 17 Nov 2018 14:27:16 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.2.2 http://www.thegraphicmac.com/wp-content/uploads/cropped-favicon-32x32.png InDesign – The Graphic Mac http://www.thegraphicmac.com 32 32 30361562 Getting an InDesign Story’s Word Count http://www.thegraphicmac.com/getting-an-indesign-storys-word-count/ Wed, 21 Nov 2018 15:00:13 +0000 http://www.thegraphicmac.com/?p=14305 If you work on any sort of project that has editorial content, the writer, your client, or someone involved in providing the text content is likely to ask you for a word count. For many designers, that means copy & pasting some bogus text from the design into an app like MS Word or Apple Pages to get a character, word, or paragraph count.

That’s just silly and unproductive.

Simply hit F6 or open the InDesign Info Panel manually by visiting the menubar Window>Info. Now all you need to do is click in any text box with the Text Tool active and take a look at the Info Panel.



As you can see in the image above, you’ll be shown the character, word, line, and paragraph count in the selected text box.  In the image, I have a text box selected that contains 882 characters. The Info Panel tells me that I have 629 of those characters showing, and 253 more that are hidden because I reduced the size of the text box and the text is overset. If the text box were not reduced and all the characters showing, the Info Panel would simply say 882 characters.

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Add Bleed to Your Image Right Inside InDesign http://www.thegraphicmac.com/add-bleed-to-your-image-right-inside-indesign/ Mon, 19 Nov 2018 15:00:14 +0000 http://www.thegraphicmac.com/?p=14309 I’m fairly O.C.D. about things when it comes to my InDesign layouts. For example, having bleeds is not enough, they must be EXACT amounts, no more and no less.

Here’s a great way to fix images that bleed inside InDesign… no switching to Photoshop or fiddly image resizing is necessary!

I won’t go into a whole lot of detail, but take a look at this (annoyingly) silent video…

… then download the free script.

You’re welcome.


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Switch InDesign Paragraph Styles Quickly http://www.thegraphicmac.com/switch-indesign-paragraph-styles-quickly/ Fri, 09 Nov 2018 15:00:31 +0000 http://www.thegraphicmac.com/?p=14292 This video tutorial will show you how to switch InDesign paragraph styles quickly and easily.

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Coming Soon to InDesign… http://www.thegraphicmac.com/coming-soon-to-indesign/ Fri, 12 Oct 2018 14:00:18 +0000 http://www.thegraphicmac.com/?p=14264 Adobe shows off new feature in sneak peek video…

I’m not sure this is going to be useful to anyone but the most green of designers. No experienced designer is going to be happy with the results, no matter how intelligently they are.

Still, a nice addition if it gets you half-way there.

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Extending the InDesign Pasteboard http://www.thegraphicmac.com/extending-the-indesign-pasteboard/ Wed, 26 Sep 2018 15:00:04 +0000 http://www.thegraphicmac.com/?p=14159 If you’re the type that places all your images and text onto the pasteboard (the space around the actual page) before you start your design/layout work in Adobe InDesign, then this tip is for you.

InDesign pasteboard size

You can expand the pasteboard space by hitting Command + K to open the Preferences dialog and select the Guides & Pasteboard tab from the list. Simply change the Minimum Vertical & Horizontal Margin amounts to the size you want your pasteboard to be and click OK.

Now you have all the elbow room you need!

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Quickly Switch to InDesign’s Text Tool http://www.thegraphicmac.com/quickly-switch-to-indesigns-text-tool/ Wed, 12 Sep 2018 16:00:43 +0000 http://www.thegraphicmac.com/?p=14075 Any time I can save myself from moving the mouse from one end of the screen to the other I consider it a big win. This little shortcut saves me a lot of mousing around with a 27″ hooked up to a MacBook Pro.

InDesign text tool shortcut

To quickly switch to the text tool in Adobe InDesign when you are working with the Select or Direct Select tools (the arrow tools), simply double click the text box.

As an added bonus, the cursor will appear wherever you double clicked in the text box. Click three times in rapid succession and it will select the word directly under where your cursor triple-clicked.

Of course, if you just want to switch to the text tool to create a new Text Frame when you have an arrow tool active, just hit the T key.

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InDesign Text Frame Options Shortcuts http://www.thegraphicmac.com/indesign-text-frame-options-shortcuts/ Mon, 10 Sep 2018 16:00:56 +0000 http://www.thegraphicmac.com/?p=14087 InDesign’s Text Frame Options dialog box contains a few features/options you may find yourself using often, such as adjusting the column width of your text frame, adding inset spacing, adjusting the frame justification, adjusting your baseline options, and more. There are two ways (I know of) to quickly access the Text Frame Options.

A quick way to access them is to hit Command + B with the frame selected. But a quicker way is to Option + Double Click with either of the Selection tools active.

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Adobe is at it again… http://www.thegraphicmac.com/adobe-is-at-it-again/ Tue, 04 Sep 2018 17:41:35 +0000 http://www.thegraphicmac.com/?p=14093 Adobe is like your kids that just can’t stay out of trouble. You love them, but you just want to kill them sometimes (that’s a bit extreme, but you get the idea).

Adobe empire

Adobe has announced that they’re going to do what they want to do, and you’re going to like it, or else…

The next major release of Creative Cloud will not support macOS 10.11 (El Capitan) or lower in order to take advantage of the latest OS advancements in modern operating system versions. The word “support” is important. That means that while they may or may not actually run on those OS versions, Adobe will simply not care if they do or don’t, nor will they help you if they don’t.

I find their reasoning believable, yet obnoxious at the same time considering Full Screen mode in macOS has been around since 2010 with the release of macOS 10.7 (Lion) and they still haven’t implemented the ability to use it with any of their apps.

But that’s not all. Unofficially, you can expect a price increase for your Adobe CC subscription in the near future. I have no evidence supporting that, but I know it’s going to happen.

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InDesign Guide Snapping http://www.thegraphicmac.com/indesign-guide-snapping/ Mon, 03 Sep 2018 15:17:47 +0000 http://www.thegraphicmac.com/?p=14100 Did you know that Guides in Adobe InDesign will snap to the edge of an object when you have that object selected?

Pull a guide out of the rulers to the edge of a selected object and watch it snap into place.

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How to make pretty number lists in Adobe InDesign http://www.thegraphicmac.com/how-to-make-pretty-number-lists-in-adobe-indesign/ Wed, 29 Aug 2018 15:00:39 +0000 http://www.thegraphicmac.com/?p=13250 This is something I see people asking all the time. How do I make the numbers in a number list line-up with the period after the number instead of being left justified.

It’s a simple paragraph style. As you can see in the image above, it’s just a matter of a few simple adjustments. Just go to your Paragraph Style Options and click on the Bullets and Numbering tab in the left column. At the bottom, adjust the Bullet or Number Options to your liking.

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