There are lots of different preferences when it comes to text and how it is used. You may be familiar with how some of the tools are used because simple word processors may use them. Sometimes you want to justify the text to make the columns appear nicer and remove the raggedy edge (this is called the rag), and other times you want to edit the spaces in between the words, lines and even the letters. This is where InDesign stands out in comparison to other word processors.

Here are a couple tips on how to wrangle all that stray text for your next project.

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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

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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.

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When I start a document, I always start with a few things before I can put my ideas down, planning and forward thinking are incredibly valuable when time is of the essence. Here are some quick tips I see many designers skip.

1. Plan what you want first. Do not design in any programs. This means use sketches, doodles, or any idea before you get into the tools. The Creative Suite is merely a design tool for which to carry out the wishes of the designer.

This includes making sure you aim for the right number of pages (this is especially important with pagination in booklets and magazines), bleed and page size.

2. Set your styles. This will determine what your document will look and feel like before you put the content in. This would include your body copy style (font family, size, leading, kerning, etc), all your headers and sub heads (I usually start with about 4 sub heads for large documents), image styles (borders, shadows, etc), and page numbering. I am a huge stickler when it comes to consistency, I think it should be exactly the same on each page and shouldn’t change any time.

This will save you hours later on when you see something isn’t consistent. I’ve forgotten to count before hand and screwed up a large magazine before, trust me on this one.

3. Set your margins. Do not let anything cross this line! A good starting point is a minimum of 0.125″ usually. A quick method I have used in the past is take the tallest capital letter in your main article title and double it. This is the width to start with. Larger banners will need a bigger margin, obviously.

4. Never “Eye Ball It”. You are a precision designer charged with a precision job, now’s the time to show it and not “guess” the distance. There are a couple different ways to make sure you can stick to this staple:

• Use guides. “Eye balling it” is what separates us as designers from the amateurs.  Little differences effect design projects in the largest of ways.
• Make little boxes that do not have any fill or stroke to a specific size and measure the distances to make sure everything is consistent. e.g. the space between a header text box and a three column body copy text box.
• Crack out your ruler to measure a sample if you need to. A calculator and thickness gauge are also important manual tools.