Creative suite
Creative Suite: Controlling fill and stroke
05/10/08 18:43
A few simple shortcuts to make working with fills and stokes a little easier. (In Photoshop's case, make that foreground and background).
X – This will toggle between fill and stoke at the foot of the tool pallette.
Shift-X This will transpose fill and stroke.
D - This will set an object back to its default white fill and black stroke.
, – This will fill and object with the last used fill.
. – This will fill an object with the last used gradient.
/ – This will clear an object of fill or stroke.
J - This will toggle between selecting object fill and text fill in the swatches pallette.
X – This will toggle between fill and stoke at the foot of the tool pallette.
Shift-X This will transpose fill and stroke.
D - This will set an object back to its default white fill and black stroke.
, – This will fill and object with the last used fill.
. – This will fill an object with the last used gradient.
/ – This will clear an object of fill or stroke.
J - This will toggle between selecting object fill and text fill in the swatches pallette.
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Creative Suite: Reset preferences
05/07/08 18:42
From time to time things stop working in InDesign.
Point in case: I was training a group of four people earlier this week and for no apparent reason some of the InDesign tools refused to work properly for one person only.
At times like this the very first thing that I do is close the document and then re-open it. If this doesn't do anything I would then quit the program and relaunch it. If this doesn't work I would then reset InDesign's preferences.
To do this, launch InDesign and then hit Apple-alt-shift-cmd and hold these keys down until a prompt appears asking if you want to reset preferences. More often than not, this will do the trick.
It's a handy thing to know. Especially when it's Friday afternoon and ten minutes before a deadline.
Point in case: I was training a group of four people earlier this week and for no apparent reason some of the InDesign tools refused to work properly for one person only.
At times like this the very first thing that I do is close the document and then re-open it. If this doesn't do anything I would then quit the program and relaunch it. If this doesn't work I would then reset InDesign's preferences.
To do this, launch InDesign and then hit Apple-alt-shift-cmd and hold these keys down until a prompt appears asking if you want to reset preferences. More often than not, this will do the trick.
It's a handy thing to know. Especially when it's Friday afternoon and ten minutes before a deadline.
Creative Suite: Toggle colours
19/05/08 18:40
Creative suite: Up and down magic
28/04/08 18:38
I'm constantly surprised by how few people are aware of the following feature. It runs throughout the entire Creative Suite, be it Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.. If you don't already know it, this tip will radically change the way that you work.
Simply ensure that your cursor is in any field in any dialogue box or palette (panel in CS3) and use the up and down arrows to intuitively change the value of the field. For example, place your cursor in the font size field of Illustrator and the font size will go up or down in 1pt increments. Alternatively, place your cursor in the rotate field of InDesign and the selected object will rotate in 1º increments.
It's a really good way of working. And once you're used to it, this will become second-nature to you.
NB If you want to go up or down in x10 increments simply hold down the shift key as you use the up and down arrows.
Simply ensure that your cursor is in any field in any dialogue box or palette (panel in CS3) and use the up and down arrows to intuitively change the value of the field. For example, place your cursor in the font size field of Illustrator and the font size will go up or down in 1pt increments. Alternatively, place your cursor in the rotate field of InDesign and the selected object will rotate in 1º increments.
It's a really good way of working. And once you're used to it, this will become second-nature to you.
NB If you want to go up or down in x10 increments simply hold down the shift key as you use the up and down arrows.
Creative Suite: Selecting text
29/03/08 17:55
You'll have to excuse me if the following tips are a little too simplistic for you, or you already know them. Not only do they apply to the entire Creative Suite, they also apply to any program out there.
The reason I'm publishing these tips is that I know for a fact that if you don't already know them they will make your life a whole lot easier. Proof of this comes from the reaction I usually get from a good 70% of people that I train in any software, be it InDesign, Illustrator, Quark or whatever. Many people are generally shocked that it’s so easy to select type. You may be too, but if you already know this you'll wonder why I'm wasting everybody’s time.
Selecting type
There are many ways of doing this, of course. The vast majority of people simply insert their cursor into the text and drag, taking care not to pick up any stray spaces at the beginning or end of the selection. Others do the clever thing: they hit Apple-left arrow to select a word, or Apple-down arrow to select a paragraph. All well and good, but here’s the best way of doing it:
Two clicks of the mouse to select a word
Three clicks of the mouse to select a line.
Four clicks of the mouse to select a paragraph
Five clicks of the mouse to select all words (including any over-set type)
Double-click on a word and then drag (keeping the mouse held down) to select a range of type that starts and ends anywhere within a paragraph
(Indesign Only) Position your cursor anywhere within the type and hit Shift-Apple-Home to select all the type from that point upwards. Hit Shift-Apple-End to select all the type from that point downwards
(QuarkXpress Only) Position your cursor anywhere within the type and hit Apple-alt-shift-up arrow to select all the type from that point upwards. Hit Apple-alt-shift-down arrow to select all the type from that point downwards
Apologies once again if all this is old news for you. And double apologies if I've offended any Adobe acolytes by mentioning QuarkXpress. But what the hell... Those guys need help :-)