What It's For

InDesign is a layout program primarily used for desktop publishing (arranging the formats for newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and HTML versions of print documents). It can hold up to 9999 pages of text and graphics. QuarkXpress is the other main desktop publishing program; Aldus Pagemaker, the old industry standard, was retired by Adobe and replaced by InDesign.

These instructions will teach you to make a letter-sized, 2-section, 3-page, 3-columnnewsletter with facing pages, a banner on each page, text, block quotations, graphics, and page numbers. This lesson will be followed by instructions on how to generate a webpage and an FTP file in InDesign.
How to Use It

1. Open InDesign
2. Go to File |New |Document
3. In the window that appears, set your page specifications: 3 pages, 3 columns each, with facing pages. Select the Master checkbox. (If you need to add more pages, you may do so later.)
4. Because you chose "facing pages," your pages will be displayed in pairs, the first page by itself. To move from one paired set of pages to another, either scroll down or click on the desired pages in the Pages Palette in the top right corner.
5. Setthe boundaries for the elements of all of your pages by dragging guidelines down/over from the rulers and placing them on the master pages. (To go to the master pages--essentially your template pages--click on the A-Master pages on your Pages Palette).
6. Drag one horizontal guideline to indicate where you want the bottom of your banner to be.
7. Drag another to indicate where you want your columns to begin under the banner.
8. Drag another to line up the page numbers
9. Drag a 4th to line up the bottom of the columns above the top of the page numbers.
10. If the guidelines only appear on one of your 2 master pages, repeat above steps for the 2nd master.
11. Add a banner that you want to appear on every page to the masters. Either use a graphic banner from Photoshop or else create a text banner in InDesign.
12. To import a graphic for a banner into InDesign, go to File |Place and, in the pop-up window, choose the appropriate image file.
13. Drag the place cursor to create a box lined up with the guideline you placed for the banner. The box should be big enough to contain your banner.
14. The banner will appear in the box. Make sure the banner is aligned to the guideline.
15. Repeat for the 2nd master page.

OR

1. To create a text banner in InDesign, use the A (text) button on the toolbar on the left.
2. Use the cursor to drag a rectangle whose base is aligned with the banner guideline you created.
3. Click within the text box and begin typing. To format the text (size, font, italics, or bold), use the Character tab on the Type Palette.
4. Make sure your banner is aligned with the guideline,
5. Select text box and choose Edit/Copy. Paste text box into 2nd master page.
6. Add page numbers to all of your pages. Click on the A (text) button of the toolbar to the left and drag a text box where you want the page numbers to appear (lined up with the guideline you created for the page numbers).
7. Go to Type/Insert Special Character/Auto Page Number
8. Repeat for the 2nd master page.
9. Now you can enter your text and graphics elements. Your life will be simpler if you sketch roughly how you want the pages to look and place the interruptions of the text (graphics, block quotations) FIRST.
10. To import your graphics, go to File/Place and, in the pop-up window, choose the graphics file you wish to use.
11. The paintbrush cursor will appear. Use it to draw a square large enough to accommodate your graphic.
12. Go to the Text Wrap Palette and choose the formatting that suits your best (the 2nd and 4th from the left are the most standard).
13. Repeat steps 11-13 for remaining graphics.
14. Place your block quotations. Click the A (Text) button on the toolbar at left to draw a text box in the desired location. Click within the box to type out the quotation. (Alternately, after drawing the text box, go to File/Place and select a file to be entered into the box.)
15. Set the box off from the rest of the text by drawing heavy, black lines above and below it. Use the line-draw tool from the toolbar at left (3rd button from the top right column) to draw the lines.
16. After drawing each line, use weight function of the Stroke Palette to make the line thick (~5 pixels).
17. While holding the SHIFT key, click on both lines and then on the text box. All 3 elements are now selected. Go to Object/Group.
18. Now, with your grouped block quotation highlighted, use the Text Wrap Palette to choose the wrapping format you prefer.
19. Repeat steps 15-19 for your remaining block quotations.
20. Now you may enter your body text. Go to File/Place and choose the word processor document you wish to include. (It is not recommended to compose in InDesign--better to import files from MSWord)
21. Your cursor will change to the text-insert cursor. Draw a rectangle within the first column of the first page and align it at the top and bottom with your guidelines. Your text will fill the column.
22. Assuming that your text is longer than 1 column, a small red box will appear at the bottom right of the new column, Click on this box to get the text-insert cursor.
23. Drag a box that fills the 2nd column from top to bottom guideline, as before.
24. Repeat steps 21 - 24 until you run out of text. When you come to graphics or block quotations, drag right over them--because you have already set their wrapping properties, the text should automatically arrange itself around the object.

Appendix

To add graphics to the existing project:

1. Go to File/Place and choose the appropriate file.
2. Draw a box anywhere in or outside of the text to place the picture.
3. Drag the picture (using the black arrow from the toolbox on the left) to its final resting place in your document.
4. Use the Text Wrap Palette to make the text wrap around your graphic.
5. If the object that you want to work with is behind another object:
6. Go to Object/Arrange/Send to Back to submerge the intervening object.

To add a page to your document:

1. Use the Pages Palette and click on the arrow at the top right.
2. Select insert page and specify where.

To create sections within your document:

1. Click on the first page of the new section in the Pages Palette.
2. Go to Layout/Numbering and Section Options.
3. Select the numbering style to be applied to the new section.
4. Give the new section a name.

You have now completed your InDesign project!

Web Pages and PDF files

Once you've created a file in InDesign, you can save it as a web page (HTML) or as a PDF file. To do this, you must go to the File menu and choose Export; from there, you can select what format you would like to export the file to.
The advantage of PDF is, well, you can create PDF files. The advantage of the web page is that if you are creating a web page and an equivalent printed page, InDesign allows you to do so with one document. This would be particularly useful for journals and newsletters that have a print and a web copy.

The disadvantage of this method, however, is that once your web page is in InDesign, you cannot use another program to work on it. Why? Because everything on the page is saved as an image, including the text. So when you open up an InDesign page in Dreamweaver, you may be able to move things around and change their size, but you cannot actually change any of the text itself.