Use Layers to Organize My Content?

Layers are great for keeping order in your documents. They behave a little differently in InDesign than in Photoshop or Illustrator, but they essentially perform the same function: they enable you to group assets on individual layers within a single document. Even if designers say, “I don’t use layers,” they really do, as a layer is automatically created when you start adding content onto your page. If I am creating a multipage document, I create a layer for each page to keep the assets for that page together and separate them from the assets on other pages. The layers are automatically color-coded by default, and all the frames on a layer are assigned the color of that layer, which makes it easy to see what group of assets I’m working with at any given time. I can always tell if there is a rogue element on the page or if an element has been placed on the wrong layer because the frame color will be different than the others on that page. This is a really great way to keep tabs on your content. You could always have all of your images on one layer (as in the example above) and all of your text on another—it’s all about preference. That’s the beauty of layers: you are in control.