December 31, 2011

Placing a multiple page PDF, or multiple artboard Illustrator file into InDesign

You can place many types of objects into InDesign including Adobe Illustrator files and pdfs. I've always struggled with placing pdfs with multiple pages, or Illustrator files with multiple artboards. In the past if I wanted to import other than the first page of a pdf, I'd save just that page by itself, then place that file in InDesign. This is a very inefficient way to manage files. I recently discovered a way to import other pages or artboards into InDesign.

1) In InDesign go to File > Place


2) In the pop-up dialogue box you will see three options at the bottom. (In CS4 there are only two check boxes)
CS5

CS4


Check the box that says "Show Import Options"

3) In the window, find and select your PDF or Ai file you want to import. Click "Open"

4) In this second pop-up window you will see import options for the file. Select a single page/ artboard or a range. Then click "OK"



Note: InDesign will remember that you checked the "Show Import Options" the next time you go to place a file. You will see this screen each time until you uncheck the box.

September 30, 2011

Unlink Text Threads in Indesign

In Indesign you can flow text from one text box to another which allows the story to dynamically move as you add or remove text. If you decide that you don't want the text boxes to be linked, here is how to unlink the text boxes, or unflow the text.

1) Select at least one of the text boxes that contains flowing text.

2) Go to Window > Utilities > Scripts

3) In the Scripts panel navigate to Application > Samples > JavaScript > SplitStory.jsx
Double-click on the "SplitStory.jsx" text.

4) Your text will now live within its current box. It will not flow from one to the other.

August 2, 2011

Bridge Italicized Keywords

Why are my keywords in Bridge italic? Why do my keywords disappear from Bridge? Aaah, keywords can be frustrating, but they don't need to be.

In Bridge some keywords are temporary, appearing when you view an image that is tagged with that keyword and disappearing when you restart Bridge. These are keywords that were added by other users. If you do not have the same keywords saved to Bridge, then they will appear in italic, indicating that they are temporary.

Ok, here's an example.
In Bridge I have selected a photo of some farming equipment (I believe it is a combine).
Notice in my keywords pallet there are many keywords that are checked. The two words at the top. "Farm" and "Grain" are in normal type. The keywords under the category "Other Keywords" are italic. The italicized words are not part of the permanent keyword collection. They appear when you select an image that has been tagged with those keywords. They will remain (in italic) in my keywords panel until you close bridge.


If you want the keywords to display all the time in Bridge, then you must make them permanent. Here's how.

1) Right click the keyword. (It does not have to have a checkmark in front of it). Choose "Make Persistent"

2) Now the keyword "Agriculture" is not italic. This means that if we close Bridge and reopen it, the keyword will still be there.

3) Close Bridge and reopen. Notice that "Agriculture" is still on the list, and all the other italic words are no longer there. That's because we made it persistent and it now permanently in our Bridge collection.



To remove a keyword, just select the keyword and then click on the trashcan icon in the bottom right-hand corner. The keyword will be removed from Bridge. If you then select an image that had previously been tagged with this keyword, it will appear in italic.


June 21, 2011

Importing a Library in Bridge

How do I import keywords into Bridge?
Importing keywords is very easy and it is beneficial in a group setting, like my office for example. We want everyone tagging images to have access to the same set of keywords. This reduces the number of mistakes due to hand-keying in terms. The library can be created and imported by following these easy steps listed below. They can also be found on Adobe's site here (scroll down a bit) or on This Site (better step-by-step instructions).

1) In a text editor such as Word or Pages, create a plain text document. This file type will have the ending .txt.
OR
You can also create a system of keywords in in Excel.
2) Add your keywords, with these restrictions:
• Place one keyword per line
• Create sub categories by indenting keywords
You can put your keywords in any order, but Bridge will automatically alphabetize them.
In my example I have a list of pets. Notice the order they are in.

3) In Bridge, go to your keywords panel and click on the small drop-down arrow in the top right-hand corner. Click on Import.

4) Find the document on your machine and then click "Open".

5) The keywords are now added to your list. In my pet example, I had "Pets" as the main category. You will see that's the only item in my new keyword list. I need to click the little arrow beside it to see the sub categories.

Notice in the expanded list below that the items are alphabetized. The category "Birds" comes first, etc.

Notes:
• When importing keywords, you will not overwrite the existing keywords that you already have in Bridge
• If you import a set of keywords, modify the text file and re-upload, it will only add new keywords. It will not overwrite, even if you're uploading the same-named text file.
• To Delete keywords you must drag the keyword to the trashcan icon within Bridge. Or select the keyword and click the trashcan icon.

April 13, 2011

Adobe Acrobat Selected Form Field Color

In Adobe Acrobat there are two coloring options in the fields:


• The background of the field.(default is blue-grey)

• The color of the field while the user is entering information. (default is transparent)


This post covers the second option. If you're interested in eliminating the blue-gray background in all fields, visit this post.


Here's the PDF with form fields added.


When I select the first field, the grey coloring disappears.


1) To change the color while editing, go to Edit >

Add or Edit Fields


2) In this example I'm going to change the color for the "Name" field.

Right click on your field and select "Properties..."


3) Click on the "Appearance Tab"

Then click on "Fill Color"

I chose orange.


4) Back in the document close the form editing by clicking on the icon in the top-right corner.



Now when my cursor is in the "Name" field, it turns orange. When I tab out, or the field is no longer active, it will go back to the grey.

Adobe Acrobat Form Field Highlight Color

I recently made a form in Acrobat, but didn't want the fields to be highlighted with the blue-gray color that is the default. It took me some time to find the option that I wanted.

In Acrobat you are able to control two coloring options in the fields:

• The background of the field. (default is blue-grey)
• The field while the user is entering information. (default is transparent)

This post covers how to change the first option - to change it from the blue-grey. If you're looking for information on field color when it's active (onfocus) then check out this post.

Here's my PDF after adding the fields in Acrobat Pro:

1) To eliminate these boxes go to Acrobat > Preferences


2) Along the left-hand side go to "Forms"
You will see two colored boxes on the right. These control the color of the fields. I have them circled in the image. You may also want to uncheck the box that says "Show border hover color for fields"



Now my PDF looks like this:
*Please not that this changes how the forms look on your computer only. If you change the color on your machine, it will still look blue-grey on another machine with the default settings. In the same way, you may leave the color set to default, but on another person's machine, they may have their color set to magenta. The fields will show up as bright pink on that computer.

March 24, 2011

Undo Firefox Update

I recently updated Firefox to 4.0 and much to my dismay, I couldn't use the browser after the update. I received a little pop-up warning telling me that I can't use this application with my current OS. I'm on a Mac running Tiger. The new update doesn't work a machine that's this old.
To revert Firefox to it's original state, I just needed to find a previous version of Firefox and install it. Firefox's website provides a nice little walk-through to find previous versions of Firefox. ANY version of Firefox, and in any language, for any platform.

Once you read the instructions, visit their FTP site to download the version that you want.

March 14, 2011

Ignore Text Wrap InDesign

The Text Wrap feature is great for flowing text around an object. This is applied to the image, and all text that encounters the object will be forced to wrap. However if you want some text to overlay the image, or come within close proximity, it must be allowed to break that Text Wrap Frame.

Here's how:

1) Create your text box and object and set your object to "Text Wrap". In this example I have it to wrap around the bounding box and to have a .125" offset the entire way around the object.


2) Select the text box that you want to ignore the Text Wrap. (In my example I want the words "Duis Autem" to appear overtop of the image.) Right click on the text and select "Text Frame Options"


3) In the pop-up window, click on "Ignore Text Wrap", then click "OK"

4) Now the text ignores the wrap.