Finessing Files in InDesign

It is fun to find talented designers/layout artists and guide their hands as they work in InDesign. It is also interesting to hear their questions. I have worked at typesetting/desktop publishing for so many years that I do certain tasks as a matter of course, keeping in mind that an extra hour spent at the beginning will save precious minutes over the course of a series of books, or even during the edit phase of a project.

So, the next few blog entries will feature ways to create smarter styles so that text reflow in the editing phase of a project will go more smoothly. You will find discussions about times to use a Nonbreaking Space, how to set up a No Break Character Style, and even a very shallow discussion about Using GREP to Control Bad Breaks before they crop up. I hope you find some of these tips useful.

Alternate Layout Makes Designing Easier with InDesign CS6

Tell me if this sounds like your work flow. Traditionally when we publish a novel, we release it first in hardcover, and later in paperback and ebook form. With our current workflow we have been creating a file for the cover of the hardcover book, and archiving it. We de-archive the hardcover file and cannibalize it when it is time to resize and redesign to the paperback size. The ebook cover is then created by cropping the front of the paperback cover. All these covers are separately created, collected, filed and archived. This process is not optimal. Sometimes different designers are called to work on the iterative covers and they may not have the proper fonts or images at hand to make the changes.

This all changes with the CS6 workflow.
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