Book Description
Over 50 recipes to go beyond the manuals and explore the incredible potential of iWork to do the job of a full creative suite.
- Explodes the widely held view that iWork is simply Apple's version of MS Office by revealing the amazing creative power of this office suite
- Use iWork to create high quality documents for professional printing or internet use
- Written for both the new and experienced iWork user, this book is a step-by-step guide to creating dazzling graphics, unique clip art, logos, and sophisticated designs to rival top-end professional programs
In Detail
iWork is Apple on a shoestring: iWork costs a fraction of the price of full creative suites and yet is packed with the potential to achieve the same results.
With its word processing and design application called Pages, spreadsheet program Numbers, and presentation creator Keynote, the elegance of iWork is its intuitive behaviour which makes it easy to learn and popular with Mac users.
While Pages can open Word documents and be exported into Word, Numbers doesn't stumble over Excel and iWork documents can be created and viewed on portable devices. Lesser known is iWork's ability to give users great design capability which is comparable to top-end programs such as InDesign and Quark.
"iWork for Mac OSX Cookbook" is the 'missing manual' which shows users how to exploit iWork's full potential. By taking a lateral approach to this relatively inexpensive software, you can find solutions to all your professional and creative needs, from designing logos and brochures to producing a high quality monthly magazine.
This cookbook begins with simple ways to format and organize text with stunning graphic highlights and drop caps, as well as showing how easy it is to import and export MS documents in a couple of clicks.
This well-illustrated, step-by-step guide then shows you how to create your own unique clip art, logos, and photo cut-outs and even how to draw your own pictures for home or professional projects, such as cards or magazines.
Packed with the author's own tips and his 'beyond the manuals' approach to iWork, this book will convince you that, whatever you're working on, this is the only productivity suite you need.
Table of Contents
- iWork for Mac OS X Cookbook
- Table of Contents
- iWork for Mac OS X Cookbook
- Credits
- Foreword
- About the Author
- Acknowledgement
- About the Reviewers
- www.PacktPub.com
- Preface
- 1. Lateral Thinking
- 2. Working with Text
- Introduction
- Changing font (typeface) using toolbar, menus, or Font Panel—when to use which
- Blank paragraphs versus spaces after paragraphs
- Fitting more text on a page than it can hold
- Using tabs to stop text sticking to the edges of a colored background
- Creating smudged highlights for text
- Creating drop caps with the Custom Image bullets
- 3. Working Across Platforms and Applications
- Introduction
- Dragging a Word file onto the Pages icon to open it
- Opening the Excel documents in Numbers, editing them, and exporting them back into Excel
- Keynote and PowerPoint—working together
- Using screenshots and PNG files—shortcuts, options, and tricks
- Fitting files of other formats into iWork documents
- Making JPEG images from iWork documents
- Making a good PDF from an iWork document, and CMYK PDFs for professional printing
- Dragging and dropping files from one application to another
- 4. Where to Find Shortcuts and How to Remember Them
- 5. Working with Photos: Tips and Tricks
- Introduction
- Placing, cropping, editing, moving, and resizing photos
- Masking photos, and the magnifying glass trick
- Masking versus Image Fill—when Image Fill is easier than Masking
- Background images—setting a photo as the background and finding suitable photos
- Removing and changing the background in photos with Instant Alpha
- Using "patches" to improve photos
- Making cutouts with edited masks
- 6. Graphic Design—Working with Clip Art and Making Your Own
- Introduction
- Making symbols from Character Palette into clip art—where to find clip art for iWork
- Using elements of iWork templates as clip art—clipping a photo to a hand-written note
- Making your digital photos into a piece of clip art
- Putting images inside letters—filling letters with photos and other graphic images
- Turning a star into a thought bubble—how to edit shapes
- 7. Graphic Design: Making Your Own Logo
- Introduction
- Editing basic shapes to create a logo
- Adding or deleting editing points to create a heart shape
- Drawing logos with the free draw tool: Picasso's dog
- Rectangle, oval, and arrow: stacking, editing, and finding the right color
- Drawing a human shape and turning it into a logo
- Making your own images by tracing photos and other images: drawing a Robin
- Writing letters for your logo with the draw tool: the principles of a good logo
- 8. PDFs and Professional Printing
- 9. Planning Large, Long-term Projects
- Introduction
- Preparing a full set of promotional literature
- Creating a custom bulleted list when planning a brochure
- Designing the title in print or electronic format
- Using iWork templates to create your own media placeholder
- Using styles to create a company brand look
- Setting the document size—what to keep in mind when preparing a book in iWork
- 10. Designing from Scratch: Beyond Templates
- Editing a shape to create a graphic design element
- Drawing curved lines to enhance the graphic detail in a design
- Using flowing colors for graphic headings
- Using the color picker to create a custom color palette
- Fading an image from side to side with an overlapping object
- Setting custom document dimensions
- Using columns and Text Boxes to lay out text
- Designing repeating elements such as footer and object co-ordinates, and creating sections
- 11. Mastering Numbers: Tips, Techniques, and Fun
- Introduction
- Rearranging rows and columns
- Hiding columns instead of deleting them
- Adding up selected cells
- Setting and using formulas in financial documents
- Making documents secure and private
- Adding pictures to cells
- Using color coding—changing table row colors and setting cells to change color automatically
- Using clip art and photos in charts—the unbeatable visual effect of Numbers documents
- 12. Keynote Uncovered: a Few Techniques
- Index