InDesign at Sunshine A Quick-ish Guide
What is InDesign?
“Adobe InDesign is a desktop publishing and page layout designing software application produced by Adobe and first released in 1999. It can be used to create works such as posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers, presentations, books and ebooks.”
Wikipedia
Sunshine currently uses InDesign for 3 things:
• staff-generated articles and photographs
• News
• Published on app and email
• Documenting range of stock
• Documenting number of stock
• Published on Issuu for internal
• Documenting kinds of offers for Sunshine Club members
• Uses images of staff with items
• Published on Issuu for Public
Basic Functions To Remember
Starting a new file
File > New > Document...
Saving a file
As counter-intuitive as it sounds, saving an indesign file does not mean that you can publish it just yet. Instead you are going to need to export your file if you want it as a PDF. Having it as an .indd file just means you can access the working version of the file, just like a .psd version on Photoshop.
Do you want a booklet style document?
(Think Catalogue or flipbook) Click this box If not, make sure it’s left unticked
Tranforming your file into a PDF File
File >Export...
Default PDF version for easy reading
Exporting single pages to be distributed as an email or for the app (newsletter)
Affects which pages are exported or how many pages are exported. Want specific pages exported? Click ‘range’ and then use commas to separate the specific page numbers (eg. 1, 3,4,7,100)
Do you have a hyperlink for your audience to click on or a page in the document to redirect to? Make sure this is ticked
Basic Functions To Remember
Your Blank document to start off with
Every document has this box. This is the margin. If you are creating a document that you are planning to print off, Make sure your content is within this box so that nothing gets cut off accidentally whilst printing
Affects the toolbar. ‘Typography’ is ideal for our work as it’s easy to work with and contains only what you need for creating a document
Parents (formerly masters) affect the look of each page you add while working. Edit your layout on the parent pages to affect every page. Super useful if you want a template that looks the same throughout the document (Tip: You can add more parents for variety; Simply rightclick and click on ‘New Parent...’)
Basic Functions To Remember
A note on quality
Working Document
Preview toggled on
In the interest of maintaining high performance, InDesign will intentionally lower the quality of images and vector illustrations on your working document. THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOUR FINAL DOCUMENT WILL BE PIXELATED! Once you export your document, your images and illustrations will be shown at their original resolution.
Final Document
While you work, you may need to use guides or rulers to align text and images, or use frames to map out your layout, which can obscure your working document. If you want to preview what your document might look like without guides or frames, press ‘W’ to toggle the preview. You can tell that the preview is toggled on when the background of your workspace is a lighter shade of grey
Basic Functions To Remember
Working With Type
This button is known as ‘leading’. This will affect the space between lines of text. It will default to ‘auto leading’ with a standard amount of space depending on the size of the type Note: This is NOT the same as a paragraph change
Left and Right Indent: Shift every single line in a paragraph to the left or right for a more uniform look
Instead of using the spacebar for a paragraph change, this allows for a more clean look and will affect every paragraph change
Want to make sure none of your text is broken up within your text box? Un-click this button.
Add columns instead of seperate text boxes if you have a lot of text. The bottom box affects the space between columns
Important to remember!
You cannot change the size of the text by scaling the text box up or down. You change the size by changing the font size. However, if you want to change the size of the text to fit the size of an image, click the ‘free transform tool’ on the toolbar or press ‘E’. Remember to hold ‘shift’ to proportionally scale your items up or down
Basic Functions To Remember
Working With images
By default, every single image or illustration that you place into InDesign will come in a frame. Frames are shown around the item in blue. The actual image dimensions are shown with a brown outline; double click the item to view this.
You cannot automatically scale an image or illustration. With Auto-fit un-ticked, any scaling or resizing you do will only affect the frame and not the image. Super useful if you need to crop anything.
To scale an image whilst keeping everything in frame, make sure that auto-fit is ticked, so that scaling up and down affects both the frame and the image.
Basic Functions To Remember
Working With images
You can design your layout before placing a single image by using the frame tool. This way, you can play around with the text and then edit the images later on. Then, all you need to do is drag and drop your images into the frame. You can also drag and drop images into pre-existing images to replace them because, as noted, the ‘images’ are already framed.
If you’ve placed an image and it’s too big for the frame?
Content Aware Fit tool
Basic Functions To Remember
Your Keyboard Crib Sheet
Ctrl & R
Toggle
Ruler on and off
Toggle Preview Mode
Free Transform tool
Ctrl & G
Group together text and shapes
Ctrl + OR Ctrl -
Zoom in or out of your working document
Ctrl & Q
Quit
InDesign
Hold Shift
When increasing or decreasing the size of an object/ text box to keep the proportions the same
Ctrl & S
Saves your work in order to avoid losing progress
Alt & Drag
Duplicate an item
Ctrl & Z
Undo an Action
Ctrl & C / Ctrl & V
Ctrl & N
Create a new document
Copy and then paste an object or text
Move objects across the board precisely
Sunshine Club Exclusive Flipbook
Before you even open the flipbook, have the following things been completed?
• Created the promotion
• Activated the promotion
• Taken images of the promotional item(s)
• Taken a photo of a staff member with the promotional offer
• Created the paper POS for the promotion and given to Eoin or till staff
To reduce stress and easy-to-spot mistakes, make sure these are done
The flipbook covers a range of departments and are colourcoded for easy reading:
Includes Weber, Gozney, Ally Rose, etc
Includes decorations and homegoods
Includes compost, plant/lawn food, etc
Includes any plants and goods featured in houseplants room
Includes watering, mowers, hand tools, etc
Includes any plants featured in nursery
Includes food and drink
Includes any items brought out during bulb season
Sunshine Club Exclusive Flipbook
Anatomy of Flipbook spread
Department name with Sunshine logo
Picture of staff clearly holding item(s)
This is easily changed by dragging and dropping your new image
Offer with original price (ideally consistent font size :P)
Name of item(s)
Sunshine logo should be behind any photos, text or image
Page numbers have been set up so that you don’t need to manually change the page number; it changes by itself
Background colour-coded based on department
Sunshine Club Exclusive Flipbook
Adding and taking away pages
For an easy workflow, it is easiest to edit the pre-exsting pages with the new offer by replacing an expired promotion. However, you may need to add in more pages or take away pages entirely.
The simplest solution is to duplicate a preexisting page and edit on that.
Once you’ve duplicated, make sure every other page is colourcoded correctly
To get rid of a page
Can be used to hide an offer that is temporarily being taken off
You shouldn’t be placing offers wherever. For easy flow of reading for customers, make sure your flipbook offers follow an order as outlined in the contents page. As the page numbers change, you will need to manually change the page numbers on the content page.
Sunshine Club Exclusive Flipbook
A little Bit More About the Contents Page
You can create hyperlinks to redirect customers who want to view specific department pages.
On the working document, you will notice that there are boxes over the content page shapes that are red. Why?
The hyperlink has been put into a seperate layer for ease of editing
To edit or create a new hyperlink
On layer 2, create a box over the item you want to hyperlink. Then, right-click > Hyperlink > Edit/Add Hyperlink
Once this window appears, you can edit the hyperlink that will redirect to your desired page. Each time you edit the flipbook, you will need to check that the hyperlinks redirect to the correct destination
Sunshine Club Exclusive Flipbook
Common mistakes to catch before you export
So you’ve finished editing the flipbook. Make sure you catch these issues before you export!
Page 6 is missing the Sunshine logo in the background
Pages 8-9 are missing the Sunshine logo in the background. Additionally, the department name on page 8 is oriented incorrectly
The department name is missing a small Sunshine logo
Sunshine Club Exclusive Flipbook
Exporting and naming your document
3 File >Export... Ctrl + E OR
Name your file based on the publishing date (today’s date)
As previously mentioned, you can change which pages get exported, etc. Make sure that ‘Hyperlinks’ is clicked. Make sure the file extension is Adobe PDF (print)
Product Catalogues
Anatomy of a Catalogue Spread
Catalogues are used internally to check the range of stock available in-store, as well as check the number of stock yet to be sold
Close-up detail or lifestyle imagery of item
If there are variations in size or colour, include them in this small section. Make sure to include stock number & barcode
Make sure to note down whether the item is limited in stock or sold out
Dimension, weight & suitability
Name of Item
Studio-Quality Image of Item
Number of Stock
Product Code
Barcode Price of Item Colour of Item
Scannable
Product Catalogues
If You’re Creating a New Catalogue
File > New > Document... Ctrl + N OR
Pick an A4 size for the document. Make sure that ‘Facing Pages’ is clicked so that you can create spreads. Leave it empty for the moment.
Open a pre-existing catalogue document. Here, you’ll be able to copy the parent design and paste it into your new document. Right click on the parents you want to copy and press ‘Move Parents...’
On your new document, you can change your pages to have the design of those parent pages you just copied over. Right-click the spread you want to change and then click ‘Apply Parent to pages...’. Pick the parent and it will apply it to the chosen pages. The parent template you’ve applied onto your pages is ‘locked’. To start editing your template, use Ctrl + Shift + Click to activate the items you want to edit!
Select your new document and press OK!
Product Catalogues
If You Need To Change Number Of Stock on the document
This master file allows you to access the info necessary to understand what’s been sold and what’s left. There is a shortcut on the desktop to access it
The thing you need to look out for; If you check at regular points of the week, it’s easier to track how much has been sold- say, Monday, Wednesday & Friday
For simple numeric changes, Open your PDF in Acrobat and click on ‘Edit PDF’. From there, you can type the new number. Don’t forget to save afterwards!
If the number of stock falls to 1 left or is completely sold out, you will have to edit on Indesign. For those items with one left in stock, include a little label next to the item. If sold out, create a box that covers the barcode with a ‘sold out’ label. Export the document as usual.
Uploading to Issuu
Sunshine uses online publisher Issuu to upload our catalogues and flipbooks as it’s easy to access for both the staff and public.
If You Need To Update a Catalogue
On the landing page, locate the catalogue you wish to update.
Once clicked, you should be given the option to ‘re-upload’ and replace the file with a newer file
When this window opens, you can pick your new file.
Once you’ve checked through and are happy with the way it looks, click on ‘Publish changes’
Uploading to Issuu
Sunshine uses online publisher Issuu to upload our catalogues and flipbooks as it’s easy to access for both the staff and public.
If You Need To Publish a New File
On the landing page, locate the ‘upload’ button
When this window opens, you can pick your new file.
Give your new publication a title and a description. Additionally, you can control who gets to see your file. With our subscription, we are able to publish files both publically and privately, but we are limited to 5 unlisted publications at any time
Once you’ve checked through and are happy with the way it looks, click on ‘Publish changes’
If you have any more questions, look on the Adobe forums for help!