Getting Started in InDesign

Create new document

We'll go through this together in class. To launch an application, find it's icon in the appropriate directory and double-click on it. Then create a new document from File Menu > New. Now you have a fresh blank page.

Type or Text... the first part of the layout equation

At left of your workspace is the InDesign Toolbox. Different tools do different things to the objects and type in your layout.

To put text on your page, use the Text Tool. Use your cursor to click on the T in the toolbox, then click and drag the mouse diagonally down and right to "draw" or create a text box on your blank page. Begin typing.

Use the Character Palette (right) to change type styles. Palettes are used to control aspects of items in your layout, such as type size or alignment. To apply a new style or attribute to your text, select the type by highlighting it - click and drag across the text - with your cursor, then select or change the attribute in the Character Palette.

Menus drop down from the top of the screen and control many of the same aspect that Palettes do, and a few more that they don't.

Pictures... the second part of the layout equation

Placing pictures (graphics) in InDesign Use Selection Tool (black arrow in upper left of Toolbox), go to File > Place. Locate and select a graphic from the hard drive or a disk. When the graphic has been imported into InDesign and is ready to be placed on the page, the cursor will change from an arrow to a paintbrush when the graphic is loaded. Click once on the page to "place" the graphic. (Tip: when clicking the mouse to place an image, click outside any text boxes or graphics. If you click inside, the new graphic will be placed inside and replace or move the existing item.)

Important Concept: Links

When you place pictures in an InDesign layout, you don't acutally make a copy of the graphic in your document. What you see on the page in your InDesign document is not actually the graphic file itself: it is a preview, a low-resolution representation of the graphic. InDesign creates a link to the original graphic and displays the preview to keep file sizes small.

Think of a link as a little breadcrumb trail, or a leash, or an umbilical cord... something that InDesign uses to connect to and keep track of graphics placed in a document. Because InDesign does not store a copy of the placed graphic file within your layout document, the link keeps track of all its data. If the document is printed with an outdated or broken, it can produce undesired results.

The Links Palette (at right) keeps track of all the graphics you place in your document. InDesign needs to know where the original graphic file is in order to successfully print a graphic in its proper resolution. Printing a document with a without its links (a.k.a."broken" links) can result in unattractive "bitmapped" or "jaggy" graphics. The Links Palette displays status of all the links in your document, and allows you to update or link them to different files.

Save early, save often

Be sure to save your document (file) frequently while working. Work from the computer's Documents folder, then after finished working save and close your file. Then copy the file to your Flash Drive or Memory Stick.

The safest mode of working in our lab is to work from the Documents folder. In case of an accidental freeze, crash or log-off, your files will remain there temporarily. (If you crash while working from the desktop you will lose your work.) Working from a flash drive is also not recommended -- it's much slower than working on the hard drive.