Getting started

In this lesson, you’ll set up an eight-page newsletter with an insert and then place text and graphics on one of the document’s facing-page spreads.

1. To ensure that the preferences and default settings of your Adobe InDesign program match those used in this lesson, move the InDesign Defaults file to a different folder following the procedure in “Saving and restoring the InDesign Defaults file” on pages 4–5.

   Note

   If you have not already downloaded the project files for this lesson to your computer from your Account page, make sure to do so now. See “Getting Started” at the beginning of the book.

2. Start InDesign. To see what the finished document looks like, open the 03_End.indd file in the Lesson03 folder, located inside the Lessons folder within the InDesign CIB folder on your hard drive.

   

   Note

   If an alert informs you that the document contains links to sources that have been modified, click Update Links.

3. Scroll through the document to view other pages. To see the guidelines and placeholder frames on the pages, choose View > Screen Mode > Normal. Navigate back to pages 2–3, which are the only document pages you’ll lay out in this lesson. You will also lay out a pair of master page spreads.

4. Close the 03_End.indd file after you have finished examining it.

   Note

   The screen captures in this book show the Medium Light interface. Interface elements such as panels and dialog boxes will be darker on your screen if you are using the default interface.

5. To ensure that the panels and menu commands match those used in this lesson, choose Window > Workspace > [Advanced], and then choose Window > Workspace > Reset Advanced. To begin working, you’ll learn how to create a new document.

Creating a new document

1. Choose File > New > Document or click the Create New button on the InDesign home page.

2. Notice the categories: Recent, Saved, Print, Web, and Mobile. The Print, Web, and Mobile categories store document settings, called presets, that are appropriate for each purpose. The presets store settings such as commonly used page sizes and different measurement units (such as pixels for Web and Mobile). Your first choice to make is governed by the intent of your layout. The Recent category stores your recently used settings so that you can use them again. The Saved category stores presets that you make. Choosing one of these saved document presets when you’re creating a new document saves time and ensures consistency. This feature allows you to store the setup for many different projects so that they are always ready to use.

   

3. Choose Print and click Create. Examine the workspace.

4. Choose File > New > Document, click Mobile, and then click Create. Notice the differences between this new document and the first one you created. For example, look at the colors in the Swatches panel and the units of measurement on the rulers.

5. To close both files without saving, choose File > Close and click Don’t Save.

Creating and saving custom document settings

Now you will create a preset for an eight-page newsletter. Part of the preset includes frequently used document settings, such as the number of pages, page size, columns, and margins. Make sure you have closed all files first.

1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Units & Increments (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > Units & Increments (macOS). Change the Horizontal and Vertical settings to Inches to follow along with the steps in this lesson.

2. Choose File > Document Presets > Define.

3. Click New in the Document Presets dialog box.

4. In the New Document Preset dialog box, set the following:

   • In the Document Preset box, type Newsletter.

   • For Intent, choose Print.

   • In the Number Of Pages box, type 8.

   • Make sure that the Facing Pages option is selected.

   • Choose Letter for Page Size.

     Note

     Gutter is the term for the space between columns.

   • In the Columns section, type 3 for Number, and for Gutter, click the down arrow once to set the gutter at .125 inches.

   • In the Margins section, make sure that the Make All Settings The Same icon in the center of the margin settings is deselected () (broken chain) so that you can enter custom settings for each margin. Type 1.3125 for Top, .375 for Bottom, .5 for Inside, and .25 for Outside.

     

5. Click the triangle to the left of Bleed And Slug to display additional controls. Highlight or delete the text (0 in) in the Top box of the Bleed option, and then enter 0p9 (the picas measurement system). Then ensure that the Make All Settings The Same icon () is selected (unbroken chain) so that the same value is used for the Bottom, Inside, and Outside. Press the Tab key and notice that InDesign automatically converts measurements expressed using other measurement units (in this case, picas and points) to the default equivalents (in this case, inches). (The default Bleed value is one-eighth of an inch [.125], or 0p9.)

   Tip

   The bleed values specify an area outside the perimeter of each page that is used to print design elements, such as pictures or a colored background, that extend to the edge of the paper. The bleed area is trimmed and discarded after the printing process.

   

6. Click OK in both dialog boxes to save the document preset.

Creating a new document from a preset

Each time you create a new document, the New Document dialog box lets you choose a document preset as the starting point, or you can specify several document settings, including the number of pages, the page size, the number of columns, and more. In this section, you’ll use the Newsletter preset that you just created.

1. Choose File > New > Document.

2. In the New Document dialog box, click Saved at the top and then click the Newsletter preset.

   

3. Click Create at the bottom right of the dialog box.

   InDesign creates a new document using all of the specifications from the document preset, including the page size, margins, columns, and number of pages.

4. Open the Pages panel by clicking its icon in the panel dock () or choosing Window > Pages. If necessary, drag the bottom of the panel downward until all eight document page icons are visible.

   Tip

   You can also create a new document based on a document preset by choosing File > Document Presets > [Preset_Name]. If you press the Shift key when selecting a preset, the New Document dialog box is bypassed and a new document based on that preset opens.

   In the Pages panel, the icon for page 1 is highlighted, and the page number below the icon is displayed within a highlighted rectangle to indicate that page 1 is currently displayed in the document window.

   The Pages panel is divided into two sections by a horizontal line. The upper section displays thumbnails of the document’s master pages. A master page is like a template that you can apply to any page in a document. Master pages contain elements, such as headers, footers, and page numbers, that appear on all document pages. (You’ll work with master pages later in this lesson.) The section below the line of the Pages panel displays thumbnails of document pages.

   

5. Choose File > Save As, name the file 03_Setup.indd, navigate to the Lesson03 folder, and click Save.

About page numbering

There are two kinds of page numbering in any kind of multipage print publication. One is a result of the way paper folds to create the physical pages, regardless of anything printed on the pages. The other is the label placed on the pages. The label, or folio, that appears on the document pages can have many possible configurations and can differ from the physical pages. For example, the label can have sections that restart the numbering with each section, such as Roman numerals in the front of a publication. The page thumbnails in the Pages panel show the physical structure of a document, and the numbers below the thumbnails show the label.

Any printed material that has a spine, such as a magazine or a book, follows a structure dictated by folding paper. The simplest example is to fold a piece of paper in half. Each resulting rectangle is a page. If you nest two folded pieces of paper into each other and staple them at the fold (the spine), you have created an eight-page booklet. The first page (the cover) of this booklet is to the right of the fold (the spine). Open the first page and you have one page to the left of the spine (or fold), page 2, and one page to the right of the spine, page 3.

When you create a document with facing pages, InDesign shows you this structure in the Pages panel. Page 1 is to the right of the center line, which represents the spine. Page 2 is to the left. All odd number pages are to the right, and all even number pages to the left.

Working with master pages

Before you add graphics and text frames to a document, you may want to set up the master pages, which serve as templates for your document pages. Any object that you add to a master page automatically appears on the document pages to which the master page has been applied.

In this document, you’ll create two master page spreads to contain elements such as headers, footers, and placeholder frames for text and graphics. By creating multiple master pages, you allow for variation within a consistent design theme.

Applying master pages to document pages

Now that you have created all of the master pages, it’s time to apply them to the pages in the document. By default, all of the document pages are formatted with the A-3-column Layout master. You will apply the B-2-column Layout master to several pages in the newsletter, and then you’ll apply the None master page to the cover page, which doesn’t require header or footer information and thus does not require a master page.

You can apply master pages to document pages by dragging master page icons onto document page icons in the Pages panel or by using an option from the Pages panel menu.

1. Double-click the name of the B-2-column Layout master in the Pages panel. Make sure that all master pages and document pages are visible in the panel.

   

2. Drag either the highlighted master page name or the accompanying spread icon of the B-2-column Layout master onto the icon of document page 4. When page 4 is displayed with a black border, indicating it’s the page to which the selected master will be applied, release the mouse button.

3. Select page 5 in the Pages panel. From the Pages panel menu, choose Apply Master To Pages. From the Apply Master menu, choose B-2-column Layout. 5 will already be entered for To Pages because you selected the page first. Click OK.

   

4. Double-click the page numbers 4–5 (below the page icons) in the Pages panel to display this spread. Notice that both pages have the two-column layout of the applied master page, as well as the header and footer elements that you placed on the parent master page. Also notice that the correct page numbers are displayed on each page as a result of the Current Page Number characters you placed on the A-3-column Layout master page spread, which was inherited by the B-2-column Layout master.

5. Double-click the icon for document page 1. Because it’s based on the A-3-column Layout master, it includes header and footer elements, which aren’t required on the cover of the newsletter.

6. Drag the master page icon [None] onto the icon of document page 1. All of the master page objects are no longer visible on page 1.

7. Choose File > Save.

Adding new document pages

You can add new pages to an existing document. Next, you’ll add six additional pages to the newsletter. Later in this lesson, you’ll use four of these pages for a special section within the newsletter that uses a different page size and separate page numbering.

1. From the Pages panel menu, choose Insert Pages.

2. In the Insert Pages dialog box, type 6 in the Pages box, choose After Page from the Insert menu, enter 4 in the accompanying (page number) box, and then choose [None] from the Master menu.

   

3. Click OK. Six blank pages are added in the middle of the document. Lengthen the Pages panel so that you can see as many document pages as possible.

Rearranging and deleting document pages

You can use the Pages panel to rearrange the sequence of pages and delete extra pages.

1. In the Pages panel, click page 12 to select it. Notice that it’s based on the A-3-column Layout master. Drag the page 12 icon upward onto the icon for page 11, which is based on the B-2-column Layout master. When the small arrow near the hand is pointing to the right, indicating that page 11 will be “pushed” in that direction, release the mouse button.

   Notice that page 11 is now based on the A-3-column Layout master, and the page that had previously been page 11 is now page 12. Pages 13 and 14 remain unchanged.

   

2. Click page 5, and then press the Shift key and click page 6.

3. Click the Delete Selected Pages button () at the bottom of the panel. Pages 5 and 6 are deleted from the document, leaving it with 12 pages.

4. Choose File > Save.

Changing the size of pages within one InDesign document

Next, you’ll create an insert within the newsletter by changing the size of four pages in a “special section” of the publication. This section will be slightly narrower and shorter than the newsletter.

1. Select the Page tool (). Click page 5 in the Pages panel, and then press the Shift key and click page 8. The icons for pages 5–8 are highlighted in the panel. These are the pages whose size you will change.

   

2. In the Control panel, set the reference point to the center left position (), and enter 7.5 for W (Width) and 10.5 for H (Height). Choose Edit > Deselect All.

3. Double-click page 8 in the Pages panel, and then choose View > Fit Spread In Window. Notice that the spread now contains pages of unequal size.

   

Adding sections to change page numbering

The special section you just created will use its own page numbering system. You can use different kinds of page numbering within a document by creating sections. Next, you’ll start a new section on the first page of the special section, and then you’ll adjust the page numbering of the subsequent newsletter pages so that they continue the original numbering.

1. Choose the Selection tool (). In the Pages panel, double-click the page 5 icon to select and display it. This is the start of the special section with the smaller pages.

2. Choose Numbering & Section Options from the Pages panel menu, or choose Layout > Numbering & Section Options. In the New Section dialog box, make sure that Start Section and Start Page Numbering At are selected and that the Start Page Numbering At value is 1.

3. Choose i, ii, iii, iv… from the Style menu in the Page Numbering section of the dialog box. Click OK.

   

4. Examine the page icons in the Pages panel. Starting with the fifth document page, the numbers below the page icons now appear as Roman numerals. The numbers in the footers of the remaining document pages that contain footers also appear as Roman numerals.

Now you’ll learn how to return to original numbering style for the newsletter pages that follow the special section and to continue the numbering from the page prior to the first page of the special section.

1. Select page v in the Pages panel by clicking its icon once. This is the first page that returns to the original page size.

   Note

   Single-clicking a master page icon or a document page icon targets the page for editing purposes but does not cause that page to be displayed in the document window. If you want to navigate to a page, double-click its icon in the Pages panel.

2. Choose Numbering & Section Options from the Pages panel menu.

3. In the New Section dialog box, make sure that Start Section is selected.

4. Select Start Page Numbering At and specify a value of 5 in the accompanying box. This resumes the numbering from the document pages (1–4) that precede the special section.

   

5. Make sure that 1, 2, 3, 4… is selected in the Style menu, and then click OK.

   Now the pages are correctly renumbered. Notice that a small black triangle is displayed above pages 1, i, and 5 in the Pages panel. These triangles indicate the start of a new section. In this document, we returned to the original page numbering at page 5, but the numbering could be another pattern. The important point to note is that whenever you see the triangle above a page in the Pages panel, it indicates a section change, regardless of the particular numbering pattern in that file.

6. Choose File > Save.

   

Overriding master page items and placing text and graphics

Now that the framework of the 12-page publication (the eight-page main section and four-page narrow section) is in place, you’re ready to lay out document pages. You’ll learn more about creating and modifying objects in Lesson 4, so for this lesson, we’ve simplified the layout process to minimize your work.

1. Choose File > Save As, name the file 03_Newsletter.indd, navigate to the Lesson03 folder, and click Save.

2. In the Pages panel, double-click the page numbers 2–3 below the page icons and choose View > Fit Spread In Window (if necessary).

   Tip

   Double-clicking the page number label below a page or spread in the Pages panel is another way to navigate to a page or spread. The view magnification is not changed.

   Notice that because the A-3-column Layout master is assigned to pages 2 and 3, these pages include the guides, headers and footers, and placeholder frames from the A-3-column Layout master.

   To import text and graphics created with other applications, such as a text file from Microsoft Word or an image from Adobe Photoshop, you use the Place command or the Quick Action from the Properties panel (you’ll learn about other ways to import in later lessons).

3. Choose File > Place. If necessary, open the Links folder in the Lesson03 folder, located inside the Lessons folder within the InDesign CIB folder. Click the Article1.txt file, and then Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (macOS) Article2.txt, Graphic_1_HoneyBee-1.jpg, and Graphic_2_GardenTools.jpg to select these four files. Click Open.

   The pointer changes to a loaded text icon (), with a preview of the first few lines of the Article1.txt text file that you are placing.

4. Position the loaded text icon over the placeholder text frame on page 2 (not directly on the guides). Notice that the icon changes to a type block with parentheses around it when you hover over the text frame from the master page, and that there’s a (4) after the loaded text icon, indicating that you have four items to place. (It’s hard to see the change to parentheses unless you zoom in to around 150–200% or more.) Click to place the Article1.txt text into the frame.

   Note

   Parentheses are displayed when InDesign recognizes a preexisting frame beneath the loaded text icon or the loaded graphics icon when importing text or graphics into a layout. If you click within an existing frame, InDesign uses that frame rather than creating a new text or graphics frame.

   

5. To place the three remaining files, click within the text frame on page 3 to place the Article2.txt text file, then click within the graphics frame on page 2 to place Graphic_1_HoneyBee-1.jpg, and then click within the graphics frame on page 3 to place Graphic_2_GardenTools.jpg.

   

   

6. Choose Edit > Deselect All.

   To save time, you’ll import a snippet with the remaining objects to complete the layout of the spread.

7. Choose File > Place. Click the Snippet2.idms file, and then click Open.

8. Position the loaded snippet icon () outside the upper-left corner of the spread, where the red bleed guides meet. Click to place the snippet.

   

9. Choose Edit > Deselect All, or click an empty area of the page or pasteboard to deselect all objects.

10. Choose File > Save.

Next, you’ll override two master items on your spread—the two text frames that contain the header text—and then replace the placeholder text with new text.

Printing to the edge of the paper: using the bleed guides

A very important concept to keep in mind when setting up a document is whether any elements will print all the way to the edge of the paper. If so, you need to account for how that is accomplished in commercial printing. The bleed guides that we set up in the newsletter template are there to enable you to do that.

In commercial printing, pages are printed on large paper, rather than on single sheets as on an office printer, and pages are arranged to fold correctly on bindery machines. For example, the pages could be printed two-up on a small digital press, or eight-up on a typical large offset press. Throughout the printing process, tolerances are built in to allow for slight variations in the manufacturing process—for example, during the trimming process (cutting the pages to exact size). Adding bleed is a strategy to compensate for these slight variations.

Sheets of printed material are cut while in large stacks, and even with a very sharp industrial blade, it’s impossible to cut exactly to the edge of an image hundreds or thousands of times. Therefore allowance must be made for the slight movement of stacked paper as the blade cuts. To get a perfect edge every time while allowing for the mechanics of cutting paper in stacks, you must ensure that any artwork that will print to the edge extends past where the blade will cut the printed sheet. The blade must cut through printed artwork. That extra artwork is in the bleed area.

Bleed guides help you make sure artwork is large enough because they show the minimum distance the items must extend. Using bleed produces a clean edge because the blade cuts through printed image, not unprinted paper. It’s best to add bleed while you are building a file because you may have a photo or other art that is not big enough to extend past the page edge, and it’s better to deal with that early in the process, not right before it’s due to print. You will now learn how to check that design elements extend sufficiently beyond the page edge and how to fix them if they do not.

1. Using the Selection tool (), double-click the page 2 icon in the Pages panel to display it.

2. Choose View > Screen Mode > Normal and focus on the red bleed guides.

3. First look at the bottom photos on the left and right. Notice that the photos on the left of the spider web and the ladybug extend to the red bleed guide, which means there is enough image to get a clean edge when the paper is cut.

4. Now look at the photo of the strawberries on the far right of page 3. See that the image ends exactly at the edge of the page. This needs to be extended at least up to the red bleed guide. Click this photo with the Selection tool. Pull the right handle of the frame farther to the right to make the graphic frame big enough to meet or pass the red bleed guide.

   

5. Next look across the top of the spread. See how the green graphics frame on the left is lower than the blue graphics frame on the right. It ends at the top trim but actually needs to bleed up.

6. Click it with the Selection tool. You won’t be able to select it since this item is on a master spread. Navigate to the A-3-column Layout master by double-clicking it in the Pages panel. Now you can select the green box. Pull the center handle upward to make the box bigger. Stop either at the red bleed guide or slightly past it.

   

   Tip

   You can choose View > Screen Mode > Bleed and page through an entire document to check if bleed has been applied throughout a document where needed. This is a best practice during the production cycle and especially before sending a file to a print service provider.

7. Navigate back to page 2 and notice that the green box is now big enough to bleed off the top. Every document page that uses this master page will now bleed correctly without you having to fix each one. This demonstrates another advantage of using master pages: make a correction once and it’s automatically done on all pages using that master page. Imagine how much time you save if there are many pages that need the same correction (or any type of change).

   

8. Choose File > Save.

Viewing the completed spread

At this point you’re ready to hide guides and frames and see what the completed spread looks like.

1. Choose View > Fit Spread In Window, and hide any panels if necessary.

   Tip

   To hide all panels, including the Tools panel and Control panel, press Tab. Press Tab again to redisplay all panels. (You can’t do this when you’re working with text using the Type tool.)

2. Choose View > Screen Mode > Preview to hide the pasteboard and all guides, grids, invisible characters, and frame edges. Preview is the closest onscreen view that shows best how the pages will look when printed and trimmed to size.

   

3. Choose File > Save.

Congratulations! You have finished the lesson.

Exploring on your own

A good way to reinforce the skills you’ve learned in this lesson is to experiment with them. Try some of the following exercises. They’ll give you more practice with InDesign techniques.

• Create another master page for the document. Base it on the A-3-column Layout master, name it C-4-column Layout, and then modify it so that it contains four columns instead of three. Apply the new master page to any of the document’s full-sized pages that don’t contain objects (folios 1, 4 or 5–8, not the smaller insert pages).

• Not all types of printed materials have a spine like the newsletter example in this lesson. Another common type is a trifold (or six-panel), where there are three panels that fold into the size of one panel. The panel that folds behind the cover must actually be slightly narrower so that the paper will lay flat when the trifold is closed. This example is also a good illustration of when it’s very helpful to use different page sizes within one InDesign document.

  

  A sample file of a trifold is included with this lesson. Open the file named 03_Trifold_Template.indd in the Lesson03 folder, located inside the Lessons folder within the InDesignCIB folder on your hard disk. Click the pages with the Pages tool and notice which ones are narrower. Also examine the Pages panel, which shows three pages next to each other and the page numbering. This layout is also an example of a document setup where Facing Pages is turned off.

  

• Try making a master page for the special section in the newsletter. This time, make it an independent master page (not a based-on or child master page) because the special section will look different. Make the page size 7.5 x 10.5 to match the size of the pages in the special section. Add elements, such as a footer, that might be included. Apply this master page to pages i through iv in the newsletter.

  

  InDesign will display a warning about the master page size. In this case the special section is the same size as the new master, so there really isn’t an issue. Select Apply To All and click Use Master Page Size.

  

  The following example shows a footer added to the new master page.