Double Vision

Want to work on something in detail without losing sight of the big picture? InDesign has a solution for that.

In the lower right hand corner of InDesign CC 2015 is a button with two rectangles. Clicking on that button splits the view. (Or if you prefer menus, go to Window > Arrange > Split Window.) So you get you two views of one document in the same window. 

In the lower right hand corner of the window is the split view button.

You can also easily scroll to different pages and copy and paste from one section to another. Or even work on a master page while you look and the pages in the document.

It comes in handy, especially on a large screen, and saves time when working on complex documents.

Every Wednesday, I post a quick tip on an Adobe app.

The definitive guide to rounding corners in InDesign CC 2015

Over the last two weeks, a 2010 post of mine on rounding corners has suddenly become very popular.* I wrote it for CS4 and posted an updated version for CS5. But I wanted to revisit the tip and update it for Creative Cloud 2015.

The process for rounding corners is actually more complicated than I expected and is different depending on what shape you are working with.

Rounding corners on a square or rectangle

Rounding the corners** on a rectangle is straightforward and there are actually a couple of ways to do it.

The yellow box method: When you click on a rectangle with the selection tool, a yellow box appears near the upper right hand corner. Click the yellow box and diamonds appear at the corners. Drag the corners inward to round the corners equally.

To round only one corner, click the yellow box and then, while holding down shift, click and drag on the corner you want to modify.

(1) Click the yellow box in the upper right hand corner to edit the corners. (2) Drag the diamonds to change the amount of the corner effect. (3) Hold the shift Key to change only one corner.

The dialog box method: If you prefer a little more precision, you can go to Object > Corner Options… and set the rounded corner to a specific value. And it’s easy to round one corner.

Set the amount and style of your corner effects with the corner options dialog box. Uncheck the chain icon to set corners independently.

The control palette method: You can set a rounded corner value for all four corners in the control palette.

View fullsize

The corner controls are easy to find... It's the only icon in the Control Palette with blue dots.

Rounding all corners on polygons that are not squares or rectangles

So rounding corners on rectangles is easy, but what if you don’t have a rectangle. It’s still easy, but different.

The yellow box method: Doesn't work. The yellow box appears only for rectangles. Triangle, trapezoid, hexagon… no yellow box.

The dialog box method: Works just like it does for the rectangle with one, major exception. You can’t round individual corners.  All of the corners have to be exactly the same.

Try to change the corner size or shape on a shape other than a rectangle and all but one input field is faded out.

The control palette method: Exactly the same as the rectangle method, with no control over individual corners.

Rounding individual corners on a polygon

So let’s say I want to round selected corners on any polygon. None of the normal methods will work, but thankfully, Adobe provides a script for this.

The scripting panel (Window > Utilities > Scripts) contains an Application folder with sample scripts in Applescript and Javascript. Select the “CornerEffects.applescript” or “CornerEffects.jsx.”

The top part of the dialog box essentially provides the same options as the “Corner Options” dialog box. And the offset box allows you to adjust the size of the corner. The Pattern combo box defaults to “all points,” but take a look at the options available: first point, last point, second point, third point, odd points, even points and more…

When applied to a box, it gives you the ability to round or bevel selected corners. Sometimes, it takes a little trial and error to figure out which point the “first” point is. The first point usually seems to be point in the upper left and then selection moves counterclockwise. 

Pretty much the only way to make these shapes in InDesign is with the Corner Effects Script.

You can also use the odd and even points patterns on a star shape. “Odd points” effect the inside points. “Even points” modify the outside points.

That should help you round any corner you need. As an aside, Adobe Illustrator has a completely different and superior corner rounding process. Personally, I hope that Adobe adopts the Illustrator method in InDesign.

Every Wednesday, I post a tip for an Adobe app.

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* Google works in mysterious ways.

** You can do more than just round corners. You can bevel them or create several different effects. But most people just want to round them.

Checking out the library

Adobe added a new* library feature across all of Creative Cloud. It’s easy to use and I think it will become a really integral part of design workflow in the Adobe world.

A library of random Sketchbook B assets.

At first, the library appears to be just another palette in the vast forest of palettes. But it's easy to add images, color palettes, style sheets and more to the new library via drag and drop or by clicking the icons at the bottom of the palette.

Library assets are then accessible from most Adobe desktop and mobile apps.** Drag a logo into your library in Illustrator... place it in InDesign or Photoshop.

It's also an integral part of Adobe's vision for how mobile devices fit into the design environment – an easy way to share assets between different types of devices. For example, Adobe Comp CC, a mobile layout app, uses your library to pull appropriate graphics, stylesheets and color palettes, on your phone or tablet. Even if those graphics were created in InDesign or Illustrator.

Try it out. You might find that it's a useful feature to have if you have a client library that you need to share between apps or designers.

Every Wednesday, I publish a quick tip for an Adobe app.

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* I remember a similar feature in Quark Xpress years ago. But the benefit of the new library is how you can access it from any Adobe app.

** It looks like other, non-Adobe apps can access the library, too. But I don't think anyone supports it yet.

Hidden alignment

When you open the Align palette in InDesign, you have two groupings: Align Objects and Distribute Objects. But a third option is hidden in the flyout palette: Distribute Spacing. And I find it far more useful than Distribute Objects.

To find the hidden option, go to the flyout menu on the Align palette and select Show Options. Now, you'll have a palette with another row of options for Distribute Spacing.

Let’s say you have five rectangles of different widths. Something like this:

You want to change the spacing between them. If you select them all and click the “Distribute horizontal centers” button in the Distribute Objects section. The result would look like this: 

If you select the same rectangles and select the now uncovered “Distribute horizontal spacing” button in the Distribute Spacing section, you get this:

I find that most of the time, I’m looking for the hidden Distribute Spacing option. I have no idea why Adobe would hide that function and I’m always surprised how many InDesign users – some of them very experienced users – have no idea that function is there. It’s a big time saver.

Bonus tip: If you need a specific distance between a group of items, check the “Use spacing” option, set your distance, click the horizontal or vertical Distribute Spacing button and it’s done.

Sketchbook B's Wednesday Creative Cloud Quick Tip is back. You can find all of the previous tips over here.

InDesign CC 2015: Paragraph Shading

Adobe has released the 2015 version of Creative Cloud. And that, of course, brings new versions of InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. Lots of blogs are covering the headline features, but I often find that the small improvements often impact my workflow the most. I’m still exploring the applications, but figured I'd start posting new features as I discover them.

The first one in InDesign that jumped out at me is paragraph shading. You can now apply shading to any paragraph… so no more drawing a color block behind a block of text you want to highlight.

The blue box is created using paragraph shading. Here, I've ALSO inset the paragraph margins.

A couple of obvious advantages to this:

• If you want to shade a paragraph within a long block of text, it will move and resize automatically as you make changes.
• It can be completely controlled and modified through style sheets, making it infinitely more powerful.

You can apply basic paragraph shading from the Control Palette or Paragraph Palette, but to gain full control, select “Paragraph Shading…” from the flyout menu on the Paragraph palette. The dialog box provides options to use a tint, set an offset and control how the shading is applied.

The full paragraph shading dialog box offers more options.

There is also an option for “Do not Print or Export*,” which is pretty cool if you want to highlight a passage that needs to be updated, but don’t want it to print. (I often set text that needs to be updated in 100% magenta. Now I have the option to shade it…)

* Not sure about the capitalization here, Adobe...