Author: angielokotz

New Year Thoughts 2014

It’s a new year. I look back at my–more and more–infrequent posts and think I had better start blogging regularly. But, as I get older, I realize that many of my thoughts are not worthy of preservation. I don’t want to make resolutions, but there’s a few things that I think everyone should do to help make the world a little better.

  • Do something civic-minded:
    • Attend a neighborhood meeting
    • Canvas for a candidate
    • Run for office
    • Volunteer for something
  • Learn something new:
    • A new program
    • A new language
    • How to knit
  • Move:
    • Park far away and walk
    • Dust off your bike; see if you still remember how
    • Grab some soup cans and lift them while you watch TV
  • Clean up enough so that if guests showed up at your door you could invite them in, but not so much that your mother would feel at home in your house
  • Meet a friend regularly. Give them a hat you knit yourself.
  • Say “Yes” when people ask you to do something

That’s what I plan on doing this year. Maybe I’ll get some inspiration to write.

 

Finessing Files in InDesign: Nonbreaking Space

Sometimes You Need a Break; Sometimes You Don’t

Spaces are often taken for granted. They are thought of simply as the delimiter of words in a sentence. But spaces are powerful. For instance, the days of putting two spaces between sentences are long gone, but the need for that space equivalent is still here. In fact, there are now more types of spaces available than most people have ever thought of: em spaces, en spaces, thin spaces, figure spaces, and more. Today I am contemplating the nonbreaking space.

Continue reading Finessing Files in InDesign: Nonbreaking Space

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.

Playing in the Cloud … the Adobe Cloud.

Be careful what you share in groups … you may have to demonstrate what you know.

The other day I made a comment on my local Adobe user group site that I was playing around with Muse, that I liked the interface, that it reminded me of InDesign, that it was easy to use, blah blah blah.

They said, “Wow, great, could you demonstrate it to us?”

“Erm …”

Be careful what you share … you may have to demonstrate what you know (or don’t know!)

So, I did what any red-blooded newby Muse-user would do and I said, “Sure.”

Now here’s the thing: I am not an expert Muse-user. I am barely a beginner Muse-user. So, am I really qualified to demonstrate to my user group what I know?

Continue reading Playing in the Cloud … the Adobe Cloud.