Thinking about design and CRAP March 3, 2009
Posted by ggustavs in : Asides , add a commentQuick review of things to keep in mind while designing/editing, as well as words of advice from your sage instructor… (more…)
Meta-library. Your TA is sleepy. February 17, 2009
Posted by ggustavs in : Tutorials , 1 comment so farFirst of all, my apologies for slacking off and not putting up notes for the last few classes. Not that you need them anyway, but I’ve been told they were helpful. If you want notes, just drop me a line.
Second, in the library today, you learned about InDesign libraries. Use them, love them, use the time you save to play with other features.
To make a library:
Troubleshooting InDesign Conversion Issues February 12, 2009
Posted by ggustavs in : Troubleshooting , add a commentAccording to one site, you should be able to move your file smoothly between CS4 and CS3 by exporting it with the Interchange format. Instead of exporting a .pdf, you will be exporting a file which any version of InDesign (theoretically) should be able to translate to its own specifications.
Simply follow the chain:
File > Export > Save As Type: InDesign Interchange
Please let me know if this helps.
One Man’s Search for the Truth… February 12, 2009
Posted by ggustavs in : Asides , add a commentDroogs! Dwellers of the blogosphere! Technical communicators!
I was sent a link to a very entertaining web log (blog, even) documenting one man’s struggle to find out just what Cisco is launching. A car, perhaps? While this blog is part mockumentary, part employees of Cisco goofing off, and part advertisement, it might be a fun way to procrastinate… erm, that is, to thoroughly research the ways in which one might use a blog.
So here ’tis: Tech Edge Weekly
More Tutorials, Yay! February 10, 2009
Posted by ggustavs in : Tutorials , add a commentOkay guys,
I whipped this up while Professor Solberg was giving the presentation, so please forgive the poor design and presentation. Or use it as a sample of how not to design a manual. Anyway, here I present to you:
You’ll appreciate knowing some of these tools before you approach the terrifying-yet-wonderful world of FrameMaker.
Introduction February 3, 2009
Posted by ggustavs in : Bureaucratic and the like , add a commentHello, droogs!
Welcome to spring semester and English 381. I’ll be one of your TAs for the course, alongside the brilliant and talented Drew.
I’ll be hanging out in classes to, well, offer assistance, and I’ll also hold office hours for an hour after class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’d also be happy to schedule alternative meeting times as needed.
This promises to be an exciting semester, and I promise that the software isn’t nearly as terrifying as you may have heard–just read the manual (or ask the TAs… or just play with it until something happens…)
Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you!
-Gwen
Flyer Creation 101 February 3, 2009
Posted by ggustavs in : Tutorials , add a commentGreetings, droogs!
In Thursday’s class (held in Goodell 613), we had an InDesign demo. For anyone who a) missed class or b) couldn’t quite keep up, here’s a recap:
Opening a Document:
1. In your Start Menu, find Adobe’s InDesign and click (oohh, the forbidden word) to open it.
2. Create a New Document. When the New Document box pops up, leave the default options in place.
Basic Prep:
You may need columns and lines to aid in your creation process…
Columns:
1. From the Layout drop-down menu, select Margins and Columns.
2. In the pop-up box, increase the column number to 5, leaving other defaults in place.
Lines:
1. From the View drop-down menu, select Grids and Guides, followed by Show Baseline Grid.
OR
2. Click the ruler at the top of the window and drag your mouse down. You can do this multiple times if you need more than one line.
Creating and Manipulating Text
1. With the Text tool (the big T in a box on the left of the screen), create a large box across the top of your flyer.
2. Type “UMass.”
3. Adjust the size and font using the drop-down boxes above your flyer so that you have large, readable text.
4. Highlight the text and select the color tool (it looks like a color palette) from the toolbar on the right side of the window.
5. Click the small icon in the upper left corner (a downwards arrow and three horizontal lines) to change your settings to RGB.
6. Either use the eyedropper to select a dark maroon, or if you know the official RGB values for the UMass maroon, type those in. (NB: You can find the values for UMass official colors at http://www.umass.edu/webdev/tools_colors.html)
7. Now create a second box, large but not all the way across your page.
8. In a sans serif, large font (Arial, 60 pt would work), type PWTC.
Adding an Image
1. Download the images from Professor Solberg’s e-mail to your desktop or other easily located folder.
2. Make sure that you do not have any frames selected.
3. From the File Menu, select Place, and then choose the image of the chapel door.
4. To move the image, use the selection tool.
5. To change the size of the image, use the direct selection tool. (Hint: Hold down the shift key to avoid distorting the shape of the image.)
Adding Shapes and Lines
Rectangles
1. Select the rectangle tool.
2. Create a rectangle filling the entirety of the fifth column. You can do this by either clicking a corner and dragging to the opposite corner, or creating a smaller rectangle and using the selection tool to pull the sides out.
3. Select the rectangle and use the color tool to fill your rectangle with the same maroon color as the “UMass” text.
Ellipses
1. Select the ellipsis tool (from the rectangle tool’s drop down menu) and create an ellipsis in the blank space on your page.
2. Select the text tool and type something in the ellipsis.
3. Use the selection tool to select the ellipsis.
4. In the toolbar above, type in 90 degrees as your rotation value.
Lines
1. Use the line tool to create a horizontal line next to your image (hold down the shift key to keep the line level).
2. Right click your line, and select Stroke Selection from the drop-down menu.
3. Choose a large value to create a thick line (HINT: Thick lines are usually a terrible design choice, but this is just a lesson in basic tools!!)
4. Right click your line again, and then select Transform, followed by Shear, from the drop-down menus.
5. Select an angle. You have beveled lines!
Saving and Exporting Your File
Save
1. To save a file in progress (so that you can edit it later), select Save or Save As from the File menu.
2. Name your file, and save it with the extension .indd This will create a large, memory-consuming file, but you can edit it in InDesign later.
Export
1. To export a completed file, select Export from the File menu.
2. Name your file, and export it as a .pdf This creates a smaller, more compact file, but you will not be able to edit it in InDesign.