Today I am going to show you how to set up a new document in InDesign which will outline the steps I took to get a 7 panel accordion fold brochure. For those of you who do not know, an accordion fold is also called a “Z” fold because it zig zags in on itself. This is useful for large brochures with the need for either large surface area or multiple panels or pages in an interesting format. Brochures and maps are very common accordion folds.
A simple 3 panel accordion fold
Everyone who works with Adobe InDesign realizes there must be more to this fantastic program. It is so versatile on it’s own, but if you dig deeper, there is still lots to learn. Here are 25 quick tips on how to improve and get more out of your experience.
25. Cmd-D (Ctrl-D) is the keyboard shortcut to place an image.
24. If Caps Lock is activated when you insert placeholder text, a different passage of Latin will be used.
23. InDesign will automatically update a linked image after it has been edited using Edit Original within InDesign, but will only flag it if edited otherwise.
22. Cmd-Option-Shift-C (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-C) is the keyboard shortcut for fitting content to frame. Cmd-Option-C (Ctrl-Alt-C) is the keyboard shortcut for fitting a frame to content.
The Tragic WandIt may be ok to use during mock-ups…but that’s it. Never ever ever do you touch this tool. It makes you lazy and the results are terrible. End of discussion.
