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 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 3–4.

   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 InDesignCIB folder on your hard drive.

   Note

   If an alert informs you that the document contains links to sources that have been modified, click Update Modified 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 parent page spreads.

   Note

   To better view the interface onscreen or in print, the screen captures in this book reflect the Medium Light interface rather than the default setting of Medium Dark. In addition, some screen captures illustrate User Interface Scaling for a closer look at interface elements. You can modify interface settings in Preferences.

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

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

First, you will experiment with creating a new document the simplest way.

1. Choose File > New > Document or click the New File 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. Each preset stores settings such as commonly used page sizes, default color swatches, and different measurement units (pixels for Web and Mobile, for example). The choice 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 starting a new project 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.

   Tip

   You can use any supported unit of measurement in any dialog or panel. If you want to use a measurement unit that differs from the default, simply type the indicator for the unit you want to use, such as p for picas, pt for points, px for pixels, cm for centimeters, mm for millimeters, and either in or “ (inch marks) for inches, after the value you enter in a box.

   

3. Choose Print and click Create. Examine the workspace. For example, choose Window > Color > Swatches, and notice that the default swatches are CMYK.

4. Choose File > New > Document, click Mobile, and then click Create. Notice the differences between this new document and the one created using the Print category. For example, compare the colors in the Swatches panel and the units of measurement on the rulers in the two documents.

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

Creating and saving custom document settings

Now you will create a preset for an eight-page newsletter. Part of the preset includes document settings, such as the number of pages, page size, columns, and margins. You can save the correct details for any particular project in a preset, rather than having to set them up again each time. 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. Click OK.

2. Choose File > Document Presets > Define.

3. Click New in the Document Presets dialog.

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

   • In the Document Preset field, type Newsletter.

   • For Intent, choose Print.

     

   • In the Number Of Pages field, 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 area, type 3 for Number, and for Gutter, click the down arrow once to set the gutter at .125 inches.

   • In the Margins area, 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 field 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 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 standard 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 that will extend to the edge of the paper in the finished piece, such as pictures or a colored background. The bleed area is trimmed and discarded after the printing process.

   

6. Click OK in both dialogs to save the document preset.

Creating a new document from a preset

Each time you create a new document, you can choose a document preset as the starting point rather than specifying multiple document settings, such as the number of pages, the page size, the number of columns, and more. In this exercise, you’ll use the Newsletter preset that you just created.

1. Choose File > New > Document.

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

   

3. Click Create at the bottom right of the dialog (not shown).

   InDesign creates a new document using all 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 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 area displays thumbnails of the document’s parent pages. A parent page is like a template that you can apply to any page in a document. Parent pages contain elements, such as headers, footers, and page numbers, that appear on all document pages. (You’ll work with parent pages later in this lesson.) The area 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 printed 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. In the Pages panel, the page thumbnails 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 (outside cover) is to the right of the center line, which represents the spine. Page 2 (inside cover) is to the left. All odd number pages are to the right of the spine, and all even number pages are to the left.

Working with parent pages

Before you add graphics and text frames to a document, you may want to set up the parent pages, which serve as templates for your document pages. Any object that you add to a parent page automatically appears on the document pages to which the parent page has been applied. Setting up parent pages is a strategy to make it easier to keep a design structure consistent throughout a document, rather than starting over with each new page or duplicating the last page you worked on. Parent pages can also automate page numbering, contain repeating elements so that you have to create and position them only once, and have the advantage that any changes to these elements also appear on the document pages based on that parent page.

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

Applying parent pages to document pages

Now that you have set up the parent 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 parent. You will apply the B-2-column Layout parent to several pages in the newsletter, and then you’ll apply the None parent page to the cover page, which doesn’t require header or footer information and thus does not require a parent page.

You can apply parent pages to document pages by dragging parent 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 parent in the Pages panel. Make sure that all parent pages and document pages are visible in the panel.

2. Drag either the highlighted parent page name or the accompanying spread icon of the B-2-column Layout parent onto the icon of document page 4; then release the mouse button. The page thumbnail changes to display a B, indicating which parent is applied.

   

3. Select page 5 in the Pages panel. From the Pages panel menu (), choose Apply Parent To Pages. From the Apply Parent menu, choose B-2-column Layout. The value 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 parent page, as well as the header and footer elements from the Based On parent 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 parent page spread, which was inherited by the B-2-column Layout parent.

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

6. Drag the parent page icon [None] onto the icon of document page 1. All of the parent 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, type 6 in the Pages field, choose After Page from the Insert menu, enter 4 in the accompanying (page number) field, and then choose [None] from the Parent 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, as well as to delete and add pages.

1. In the Pages panel, click page 12 to select it. Notice that it’s based on the A-3-column Layout parent. Drag the page 12 icon upward onto the icon for page 11, which is based on the B-2-column Layout parent. 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 parent, and the page that was previously page 11 is now page 12 (displays a B because the B parent is applied). 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 that will be a separate section of the publication. This section will be slightly narrower and shorter than the newsletter.

1. Select the Page tool (). Double-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 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. Close the Pages panel if it obstructs your view of the spread.

   

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 that begin again after the insert 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. From the Pages panel menu (), choose Numbering & Section Options, or choose Layout > Numbering & Section Options. In the New Section dialog, 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 area of the dialog. 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. This is what we want for the special section, but not what we want for the newsletter pages.

Now you’ll learn how to return to original numbering style for the newsletter pages that follow the special section and also 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 parent 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, make sure that Start Section is selected.

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

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 numbering pattern in that document.

6. Choose File > Save.

Overriding parent page items and placing text and graphics

Now that the framework of the 12-page publication is in place (the eight-page main section and four-page narrow insert section), you’re ready to lay out document pages. You’ll learn more about creating and modifying objects in Lesson 4, “Working with Objects,” and about importing text in Lesson 6, “Flowing Text,” and graphics in Lesson 11, “Importing and Modifying Graphics,” 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 parent is assigned to pages 2 and 3, these pages include the guides, headers and footers, and placeholder frames from the A-3-column Layout parent.

   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 (File > Place) 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 InDesignCIB 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 all 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. There’s a (4) after the loaded text icon, indicating that you have four items to place.

4. Position the loaded text icon over the placeholder text frame on page 2 (not directly on the guides). 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 when importing text into a layout. If you click within an existing frame, InDesign uses that frame rather than creating a new text frame. Graphics frames behave the same way but show the graphics icon.

   

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 last, click within the graphics frame on page 3 to place Graphic_2_GardenTools.jpg.

   

   

   

   

6. Choose Edit > Deselect All, and choose View > Fit Spread In Window.

   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 parent 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 sheets of paper as the blade cuts through the stack. To get a perfect edge every time while allowing for the mechanics of cutting paper in stacks, you must ensure that any artwork that you want to extend to the edge of the paper in the finished piece 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. Bleeding objects past the trim 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 don’t.

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

2. Choose View > Screen Mode > Normal (if you’ve changed to a different view) 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. Scroll right to page 3. Look at the photo of the strawberries on the far right. See that the image ends exactly at the edge of the page. This image needs to be extended at least up to the red bleed guide. Click this photo with the Selection tool, in an area away from the content grabber. Pull the center-right handle of the frame farther to the right to make the graphics frame big enough to meet or pass the red bleed guide.

   

   

5. Next, look across the top of the spread. 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. Try clicking the green graphics frame with the Selection tool. You won’t be able to select it since this item is on a parent spread. Because this is a parent page object that needs to be correct on every page, it’s more efficient to fix it on the parent page since you need to fix it only once. Navigate to the A-3-column Layout parent by double-clicking it in the Pages panel. Now you can select the green frame. Pull the center handle upward to make the frame 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 frame is now big enough to bleed off the top. Every document page that uses this parent page, and the parent pages based on this parent, will now bleed correctly without you having to fix each one. This demonstrates another advantage of using parent pages: make a correction once and it’s automatically done on all pages using or based on that parent page. Imagine how much time you’ll save if several pages need the same correction or any type of change, especially in long documents.

   

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.

2. Choose View > Screen Mode > Preview to hide the pasteboard and all guides, grids, invisible characters, and frame edges. Press the Tab key to hide any panels so that you have an unobstructed view of the spread. Preview is the closest onscreen view that shows best how the pages will look when printed and trimmed to size.

   Tip

   You can’t use the Tab key to hide and show the panels when you’re working with text using the Type tool.

   

3. Press the Tab key again to redisplay the panels, and then 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 parent page for the document. Base it on the B-2-column Layout parent, name it 4-column Layout (InDesign will automatically make the Prefix C), and then modify it so that it contains four columns instead of three. Apply the new parent page to any of the newsletter’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 lie flat when the trifold is closed. This example is typical of when it’s very helpful to use different page sizes within one InDesign document because the design needs to be adjusted on the narrower panel that will fold in behind the cover.

  

  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 drive. 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 in reader order. This layout is also an example of a document setup where Facing Pages is turned off.

  

• Try making a parent page for the special section in the newsletter. This time, make it an independent parent page (not based on another parent page) because the special section will look different. Make the page size 7.5 × 10 to match the size of the pages in the special section. Add elements, such as a footer, that might be included. Apply this parent page to pages i through iv in the newsletter.

  

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

  

  The following example shows a footer added to the new parent page so that the special section will show a separate footer and page numbers from the rest of the newsletter.