Yabb-Adobe-Doo

I can almost finally quit complaining about the way InDesign handles Text Wrap. Over the years I’ve gotten used to it and learned the workarounds of what I thought was a poorly designed tool from the get go. But now Adobe has revamped the Text Wrap Pane (palette) so that I only have one complaint left…and I’ll get to that in a bit.
But for now, let’s celebrate InDesign CS3’s new Text Wrap functions, like the ability to sync all four sides of a bounding box when setting the wrap distance. Remember how you used to have to enter p9…tab…p9…tab…p9…tab…etc. Unless, of course, you are paid by the hour, in which case it’s p9…grab mouse and highlight next box…p9…grab mouse and highlight next box…p9…etc.
Some of you probably just selected the Wrap Around Object button and set the one value to go on all four sides. This trick was faster, but the corners were rounded and didn’t always give the desired results.
Well, now it’s fixed.
Watch the video to see it in action.
The bigger new feature for me is the ability to have the text flow along only one side of the object it’s wrapping, just like Quark XPress does. But in Adobe’s typical style, they one-upped them by allowing you to select which side the text flows.
That’s right, you can tell InDesign to flow the text on the right or left side of the object, or to flow where there is the Largest area.
And for those of you who might do books, you have the nifty choice of having the text flow toward or away from the Spine. This is only offered if you are using the Facing Pages option when building your book.
You won’t know you can control this unless you look for it, because the default setting is to flow text on Both Right and Left Sides, which is how it has behaved since the beginning. Look for the menu on the Text Wrap Pane.
There is more subtle fix that many may not feel. This is for the Master Page users in the room.
Have you ever built a Master Page with an object on the page you want to have force a wrap on the document page. But then when you flowed text onto the corresponding document page it ignored the Text Wrap. Yep. And it wouldn’t recognize the object on the Master Page unless you did an Override on the document page? Frustrating.
Well, it’s frustrating, no more. Nowadays, with CS3, you can put an object on the Master Page and apply the Text Wrap to it and it will work on the document page automatically. And in case there are a few sick people out there who actually liked the way it behaved for the past seven years, you can change it back in the Text Wrap flyout menu. Just select the object on the Master Page you want to have behave the old way and select Apply to Master Page Only.
So what is it I still have to complain about? No keyboard shortcut for Ignore Text Wrap. You know what I’m talking about…you want to put a text box over a graphic that has Text Wrap applied to it but the text keeps disappearing. You have to go to Object> Text Frame Options and click on Ignore Text Wrap. It might be a little quicker to hit Cmmd + B (Ctrl + B Windows), but not much. I want a short cut to toggle the Ignore Text Wrap on or off.
Until Adobe fixes this feature, we have to thank brilliant InDesign mind Dave Saunders for coming up with a script for us that does it. Here it is for you. Just drop this into your scripts folder and assign a shortcut to it and it will do the job.
If you want it, just go to www.yabb-adobe-doo.com/files and either Ctrl + click (Macs) or Right Click (Windows) on the file named ToggleTextWrap.jsx and selectDownload Linked File.
Well, time to wrap up this article…haaaaaaaa…get it…wrap up this article…Text Wrap…wrap it up…get it…oh, my, that’s funny…wrap it up…sometimes I slay myself…okay…that’s enough.

If you’ve never heard of an Agate, or you didn’t know people were still using them, then this new feature of CS3 probably doesn’t mean much and you may want to stop reading right now.
Watch the video about Agates here
I don’t use agates…never did. So why am I writing about agates? Because it proves, once again, that Adobe is listening to us.
I remember the time I was training at a newspaper in Canada on InDesign CS2 and someone asked “How do I set InDesign for agates instead of picas.”
“Under Preferences> Units and Increments,” I quickly replied, not knowing if InDesign offered agates, but if it did, that’s were they would be. I knew they had ciceros, and I thought if they had ciceros, they HAD to have agates.
“It’s not here,” they quickly pointed out, with great disbelief that InDesign wouldn’t offer such an oft-used system of measurment.
Well, every day of that Canadian training tour was met with the same question: “Does InDesign have agates.” At which point I could confidently reply, with as much sympathy as I could muster, “No…with deep regret, I have to inform you that it does not.”
Honestly, I didn’t think anyone still used agates until that trip.
In fact, I was so upset with myself for not having my thumb on the pulse of the industry’s need for agates, that the next week I was doing a seminar in Boston to about 100 newspaper people and I had to ask: “How many of you are using agates?” Not one hand was raised. Someone asked “What’s an agate?” and someone else shouted out “They still have those?”
Yep.
So you know, an agate is the equivalent of 5 1/2 point type and was used as a common measure of column length in newspapers.
So back to my real point…if Adobe cares enough to put agates in the new InDesign because of a select group of users (and I’m not saying that only Canadians use agates, I’m sure they are used in Albania and Liechtenstein, as well) then they are really trying to create a piece of software that meets our needs….all our needs. And if you need agates, we’re going to give it to you.
You want to be able to place multiple files at once? Okay, we can give you that. You want a better Text Wrap, okay, we’ll get on that.
You may say “Yea, but I’ve been asking for a better Text Wrap since InDesign came out in 1999,” and I’d agree. But they did it…and a lot more in that time.
So if Adobe is listening to us, the question then is, are you talking? There has been functionality changed in Adobe products in the past that I didn’t like, and I’m convinced it’s because the wrong people were talking. If you want this software to behave the way you want, you need to let them know about it.
An example is the renaming of the Black Channel in a grayscale image. It’s not gray…it’s black! Why? Because it’s going to print in black and look gray due to the dots.
Ignore me…I’m venting.
Adobe has set up forums for us, the average users to go for information and idea exchange. Have a look at http://www.adobe.com/support/forums and you’ll notice there are forums for all the applications as well as the Creative Suite as a whole. Follow the rules and know that this is a great opportunity to be heard.
And heard you will be. I was amazed during the beta testing at how quickly someone from Adobe replied to my bug reports. They wanted more info, or sample files, etc., but I knew there were people on the payroll reading my forum submissions. And they will read yours, too.
So when the next version of Creative Suite comes out and you don’t like something about it, don’t go around with a bumber sticker that reads “Don’t blame me, I didn’t report my complaints and suggestions to the Adobe forums.” You’ll just have to live with it.
And as a “thank you” to Adobe for listening to us, from now on I’m going to use agates. Not for my InDesign documents, because I use inches and picas too much. No, I’m going to start using agates in all other parts of my life. When my kids ask me “how much longer” when we’re on a trip, I’m going to say “Oh, about 37.2 billion agates…or so.”
When asked how tall I am next time I’m arrested, I’ll kindly tell the officer “991 agates.”
You try it…just know that there are 14 agates in an inch, 36 inches in a yard and 1760 yards in a mile.
The rest is simple math.

What’s the big feature in InDesign CS3?
You know the one I’m talking about. Everytime Adobe releases new software there’s that one new thing that, when demonstrated, makes everyone in the room sound like their at a fireworks display… “ooh…aaahh!”
For me it’s a combination of the Multi-file placement feature and the ability to place InDesign documents inside other InDesign documents.
Big stuff.
First, the Multi-file plac-a-lizer.
Watch the video
So here’s the scenario: You’re at your desk, you just finished putting frames on an 11” x 17” spread for a product brochure you’re doing and just as you’re done, the photos and text come in. “Finally,” you mumble under your breath.
All you have to do to finish this bad boy up and hit the road is drop in 20 photos, a couple of text files and a few logos…and thanks to InDesign CS3, you can go File> Place and select the whole shootin’ match and you’ll see a thumbnail of each graphic, text, etc. so you know where to drop ‘em. Click, click, click and a bunch more clicks later you’re on your bike heading home to catch the game, or movie or whatever you do after work.
And just like any new feature release, it only takes 15 minutes before someone says “Yea, but will it do this?”
Thus is the case with Jeremiah Shimshak with the Winona Post in Winona, MN, who writes:

If part of your daily routine is converting RGB or CMYK images to black and white, you’re going to love a new adjustment tool in Photoshop CS3…called the…um…Black & White adjustment tool.
Watch the video to see it in action.
There are tips-a-plenty all over the internet on how to convert to grayscale. Most customers I watch work just use the standard Image> Mode> Grayscaleand get it out the door. Others will often create an action to convert an image to LAB mode, select the Luminosity Channel, then Image> Mode> Grayscale and discard the A and B channels. Others do all sorts of other nasties to get the job done.
The big challenge is that certain colors that look different in RGB become the same shade of gray in grayscale.
This new tool gives you total control over the different colors and how they translate to grays. For example, if you have a red shirt on a blue background, it could easily become nothing but a continuous gray. With the new tool you can have the red become dark and the blue become light…with the simple movement of a slider.
Look at the rainbow graphic, Figure 1.

Today’s the big announcement from Adobe…the largest in history (although Multiple Master fonts was a big one, too). Here in Austria it’s 8 a.m., which means, according to my advanced math skills, we’re about 13.5 hours away from the big event.
Out of curiosity I headed over to wwww.adobe.com and boom, it’s already updated with Creative Suite 3. They show new packaging, new collections, new software, new pricing, new features, new integration and new icons, by golly. Go spend some time there, checking it out. Feel free to turn on mute after about 38 second, though.
So what’s the big deal? Adobe has done upgrades before, and some of them pretty major. Well, one big thing is that Creative Suite 3 is really geared for cross-media, making it easier than ever for guys like us to create for print, web and video with integrated software. This is important for the veterans and newbies, alike. Some of the new tools and integration between products is unmatched, which veterans will eat up as solutions to problems they’ve faced for years. But if you are new to the web or video world, now is a great time to get started, due to the ability to easily jump to the other products and use skills and assets you’ve had for years.
I think it’s time we expanded our skill sets. I think it’s time for all of us print-minded folk to start creating for web…and it’s time for web-minded folk to push into video and multi-media…and vice-versa. We’ve been doing the same ol’ thing for long enough and it’s time for us old dogs to learn a few new tricks.
I’ve used Flash on a very limited basis and found it to be a hoot. It was made easier because of my ability to use Illustrator for a lot of the creation. I’ve enjoyed the web arena, as well, and a lot of that is now made easier by using Photoshop and Illustrator. The bottom line is that if you know Photoshop and Illustrator, that’s enough to get you started in new areas, because they share so much. And if you like Bridge, it REALLY is cross application.
Even though I’m most comfortable building documents for print, I can see how a broader knowledge is makes us better designers…and if you are an agency or a freelancer, the more you know, the more work you can keep to yourself.
Anyone who currently creates exclusively for print is at risk. The day is here when most clients are doing print and web. If you are doing the print production and a different freelancer is doing the web, it’s just a matter of time before one of you chooses to broaden your business offerings…and the first to do it will get the whole enchilada.
The new suites even come with software that lets you test files on mobile phones. Yep, the days of using Adobe to just create a flier or catalog are over…Adobe is giving us so much more, now.
So head over to www.adobe.com and take a stroll through the stuff.
There is even a software selector in case you don’t know which collection is right for you. You click on the things you want to do and it recommends which software you need. I was disappointed they didn’t have an option to choose if you wanted to create garbage and work really slowly, then it would show you Quark XPress.
Other big Adobe news today, http://kuler.adobe.com has been updated and is improved. One of the cool new features of Illustrator CS3 is integration with Kuler online. And if you’re already a Kuler fan, and a Mac user, you must get the Kuler Widget for your dashboard from http://kuler.adobe.com/links/kulerWidget.zip.
That’ll give you something to do today while you wait to watch the announcement. Oh, and make sure you watch the announcement with a bunch of snobby coworkers, and say “I knew about that” after everything Adobe shows.

I was walking through the Dallas airport yesterday and noticed a vending machine for iPods and accessories. I walked over and checked it out. It had all the goodies: video iPods, Shuffles, Nanos and various cases, cords, etc.
My first thought was that I don’t have enough quarters for the 80 gig video version, and even if I did, would I have enough time to drop all 1,396 of them into the slot. That’s when I noticed that Apple had the foresight to put a credit card reader in the machine.
My second thought was of the bag of M&Ms I didn’t get the day before from one of these darn machines.
I can just picture myself shaking it, screaming at it to “give me my iPod…give it to me now!!!” …repeatedly pushing the Coin Return button…sticking my finger in the hole over and over just to see. Shaking it and yelling at it some more “You piece of crap vending machine from hell…give me my $349 iPod.”
Wouldn’t be funny if the iPod was $349 but they added $9.95 for shipping and handling…that’s an expensive drop.
They’ll vend anything, these days. I’ve seen Ice cream, phone cards, personal hygiene products, baseball cards, candy, drinks and Motorola phones.
I think they should have a machine to vend small domestic animals…Vend-A-Pet. Of course the fish would have to be on the bottom row, so the tanks don’t break when they drop out of the little spiral holder thing. It would also make sense to put the cats on top, as it is well documented that cats have an incredible ability to land safely from very high altitudes. Also in there would be puppies, turtles, snakes and ferrets all looking cute behind the glass, begging for freedom.
I do believe that the behavior of a vending machine is directly driven by your Karma. Good karma = treat, bad karma = tough titty, no M&Ms for you, pal. If I ever get ripped off by a machine, the first thing I do is look internally. I go inside myself and examine my behavior over the past 24 hours and I reflect on the cars I cut off trying to exit the freeway, elderly people I didn’t help across the street or not feeling sorry for Anna Nichol Smith and her mess of a life the world seems so interested in. I don’t feel sorry for Phil Spectre, either.
So, before I ever approach an iPod vend-o-matic and pump in 350 smackers, I better have behaved like a cub scout the week before.

Adobe blew it.
They made the big announcement about the announcement March 27th about the release of Creative Suite 3 this Spring…I’m sure you’ve all read or heard about it.
If not, check it out: Adobe Creative Suite 3 To Be Announced March 27th
I think they should have milked it a bit more…created even more buzz.
They should have come out on March 5, when they posted this to the their blog, and said “We will have a major announcement next Thursday.
Buzz, buzz, buzz…
On Thursday, make an announcement like “Thank you for coming, we would like to announce that after much discussion, Adobe will not be including a new version of PageMaker in the next generation Creative Suite, whenever it may or may not be released…good day.”
Buzz, buzz, buzz…
Then announce another major announcement for the following Tuesday.
When Tuesday rolls around: “Adobe has the luxury of choosing between three fine web page creation applications to be bundled with Creative Suite 3 …Dreamweaver, GoLive or a newly reworked PageMill. We are not at liberty to release our decision at this time, nor are we confirming or denying that there will, in fact, be a Creative Suite 3 in the near future, or that it will, in fact, be named Creative Suite 3. Thank you for coming.”
Keep this going for a few good weeks, announcing possible intentions of Adobe Streamline X for OSX, a rebirth of Dimensions Elements and LiveMotion Pro or possibly TypeTwister for Flash. The list could go on and on to include ImageStyler 3D and ATM Super Deluxe, which is both a font manager and a cash machine.
Then, just when the entire design world is going insane with discussion, announce Creative Suite 3 which will run on Windows Vista, Mac Intels and Commodore 64s.
Announce a Spring delivery…but don’t promise which year.

If you haven’t seen it, yet, there is an Adobe commercial/video on YouTube that is a teaser of something on the horizon. You can also see the corresponding spinning box webpage at http://www.whatisinthebox.co.uk/. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Take a break, check it out, then come back…I’ll wait.
Humm…Hmmm…dumm…dee…dum…
Okay, sooooo whadayathink?
Obviously there is an attempt to create interest in something that may happen with Adobe in the near future, but what, you may ask.
They’ve been saying for a long time that we’ll see Creative Suite 3 this Spring. However, according to Wikipedia…
Astronomically, some Western countries consider spring to begin with the vernal equinox (around March 20 in the Northern Hemisphere, and September 23 in the Southern Hemisphere), and ends with the summer solstice (around June 21 in the Northern Hemisphere and December 21 in the Southern Hemisphere). Such conventions are by no means universal, however. In Chinese astronomy, for example, the vernal equinox instead marks the middle of spring, which begins around the time of Lichun (around February 4). In the Irish Calendar it is counted as the whole months of February, March and April. In meteorology, it is (also by convention) instead counted as the whole months of March, April, and May in the Northern Hemisphere and September, October, and November in the Southern Hemisphere.
So this doesn’t really tell us when to expect CS3.
But if I put the two together, Spring + goofy video of people playing with glowing boxes, we start to put the pieces of the riddle together. And perhaps it’s safe to say we might soon hear and see something exciting from Adobe regarding Creative Suite 3.
Or maybe they bought Quark.
So, out of curiosity, what do you think is in the box?

I’ve noticed a lot of new InDesign users are a really new. I don’t mean new converts from Quark XPress or PageMaker…or even Microsoft Publisher. I mean new to the “desktop publishing” world, altogether.
Perhaps I’m seeing it more now because PageMaker used to absorb this type of new user. Maybe it’s because InDesign has finally taken its place as the respected tool of the industry.
Regardless of the reason, there are people buying and installing InDesign who have no prior knowledge of layout, design, tools, fill, stroke, frame, PDF, etc. They are sitting down at computers and realizing very quickly that before them on the screen is a very powerful tool that has a learning curve…and it’s even bigger for a newbie.
So here is my question to all of you experienced users: Where do we begin? If you had to give one bit of advice to a new user who knows nothing about print production, design, layout, InDesign, Photoshop, Illlustrator, you name it…what would it be?
Of course there are the obvious things, like the basic tools, or fill/stroke, or what is a frame and how do you fill it with photos and text.
But you probably wouldn’t jump right into Edit Keyboard Shortcuts, now, would you. Or XML, or Data Merge (unless they were doing something that specifically needed that).
So, where does the new user start?
When we talk about publications, I’m a firm believer in the power of templates. I would, therefore, recommend a new user understand what a template is, what it can do for them and what goes into one. These would include, Styles, Master Pages, Swatches, design elements, page numbers, frames, preferences and more.
“Your cheating” you say, noting that this would show the new user nearly ten items, not the “one thing” I asked about. I said “one bit of advice” not show them one feature.
So now I continue.
If the user were heavy into design I would focus on that. Perhaps they have a history of design, but the computer is new to them. I would get this person right into the “toys” that will make them want to learn more about the program and keep them growing. I wouldn’t spend all day on Story Editor and Preferences.
But what if someone is a wordsmith? I don’t think I would waste my time on Mixed Ink Groups, but rather focus on the nifty editing and typography tools of InDesign.
Just some thoughts…and now I turn it over to you.
Pretend your mom, or your aunt Josephine has just bought a new iMac and the Creative Suite to work on the church newsletter, as well as some other projects. What’s would you tell them to get them started in the right direction as quickly as possible?
And don’t say “Just let me do it.

Have you ever done things the hard way?
You know, like the project where the customer wanted extra space between paragraphs, so you put in an extra hard return after each? The when the customer wanted a little less space, so you went in and selected the returns and dropped the leading…line… by line… by line… for over an hour. Then when you showed the proof, they asked for a little MORE space.
Then you discovered the Space Before/Space After feature…ouch!
Or remember discovering Style Sheets AFTER you completed the 120 page directory with last names and phone number in bold…and the customer changed their minds on fonts 53 times?
Oh, the pain.
But what about the people who do these things on purpose?
I was at a publishing company once and help one of the employees set up a way to automate a lot of the card creation, only to go back a month later and he wasn’t using it. He said “Well, I wasn’t getting in my 40 hours, so I just went back to the old way.”
Go figure.
Have are you guilty of using the Delete Anchor Point Tool in Illustrator to get rid of all those extra points on a path instead of Object> Path> Simplify, the whole time watching the clock for five o’clock to roll around?
So, whether you have a war story of how you USED to do things the slow way or a technique on doing things the slow way just to get in the hours, please let us hear them. Or, you may have a slow technique to share just to be stupid…we welcome that, too.
If we use your suggestion or story in a podcast or cartoon, we’ll send you a free Deadlines Suck! T-shirt… and who doesn’t want one of these?
C’mon… I know you all have some great submissions. If you are too shy to post, feel free to email the story to me and I’ll post it for you, under an assumed name. Or you can start your post with “I have a friend who…
I have to tell you, I can’t wait to hear from you on this one.

With the recent announcement of iPhone, Apple has added yet another product in its long line of “i” gadgets. There is no question the iMac, iTunes and iPod have revolutionized the world as we knew it and they are hoping to do the same with their version of the cell phone, the iPhone.
I fear, however, that Apple is running out of ideas for more “i” products, and I think it’s up to us, the clever and consuming public, to create a comprehensive list of new gadget proposals.
I’ll start.

I get a lot of requests for InDesign templates.
Illustrator has them now as well as other programs, but what about InDesign?
Now, I’m not much of a template guy. Generally I start with a blank page and put my own ideas on it. But there are times when it would be nice to have at least some of the project done for me.
InDesign doesn’t ship with templates, but there are ways to get some, even for free, if you need.
If you happen to have converted to InDesign from either PageMaker 7 or PageMaker 6.5 Plus, you have an entire library of templates that can be opened in InDesign and edited at will.
If you haven’t thrown them away already, go find your old PM install disks and drag them over to your computer.
There aren’t thumbnails of them, but you can open them in InDesign and resave so a thumbnail can be created for future use (CS2 only).
There are templates for business cards, ads, presentation folders, newsletters, etc. You can also choose between A4 and Letter size.
If you don’t have PageMaker lying around, or you don’t like what it offers, do a simple internet search for InDesign Templates and you’ll find truckloads of listings…a lot of which are free.
I can’t vouch for the quality, but it might be a good place to start if you’re a beginner.
Remember, however, that using Templates doesn’t excuse you from knowing the program in depth. There is a difference between a template that simply puts text and graphic frames down and you fill in the blanks and a template that relies on the full power of InDesign.
If the template you download is using Object Styles, Nested Styles, Tints, Master Pages based on Master Pages, Auto Page Numbers and more, you would be better off having a strong knowledge of these features before getting too far into it. Otherwise the document is going to feel like it has a life of its own and you don’t know why it is behaving the way it is.
When I build templates for projects, I like to incorporate as much as I can into it to make my life as easy as possible…and it’s all about me.
So just be aware…a template isn’t a replacement for an ability to build a document. It is merely a shortcut to get you there.
And the quality of the template is only as good as the builder or their intent for it when it was built.

The big news all over the web is the new name for Harry Potter 7 “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”
But have you been following Adobe’s new release of Creative Suite this Spring? Well they’ve finally released the new name.
After much anticipation from the entire publishing world, Adobe has announced they will name the new Creative Suite “3″, or “Creative Suite 3″ or “CS3″ in keeping with the CS and CS2 nomenclature.
I’m surprised, yet excited by the new name.
I wasn’t sure if they would skip a number like the Travelling Wilburys did on their second album.
I was hoping they would name it Creative Suite cubed (3)…get it? And the packaging could be a cube instead of the traditional box, kinda like Apple did with the iPod. I had a similar hope for CS2 that they would put it in a square box (CS2=creative suite squared) but that didn’t happen either.
So, there you have it, Creative Suite 3 is the new name…I don’t know when the movie version will be released.

Presents are fun. Whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year, presents are a great way to celebrate.
Our friends at Adobe have given us a good one. They’ve made Photoshop CS3 a public beta, which means we can all play with it…and it’s free.
Keep in mind there are risks and it’s not the final version (which will not be free). But this time of year, when you’re in the office with nothing to do and all your friends are on holiday, it will be great fun to play with.
So go to http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/family.html where you can read all about it and download the public beta.
In the coming weeks, we can all chime in and talk about our favorite new toys in Photoshop, which should release with the rest of a new Creative Suite 3 this spring.
Happy holidays to all…and have fun retouching the family photos.

Let’s all head over to kuler.adobe.com together and check out something that is rapidly changing the way we view websites. Go ahead…I’ll wait a minute.
We’ve already discussed what The Kuler and does in a previous article. What I want to throw at you today is how The Kuler is constructed and how that same technology is changing the way we use the www.
Historically, when you click on a button on a website to activate an action, you have a wait time for the button to send a signal to the site, the site has to figure out what the next action is, then the data is sent down to the user again over the network. Depending on network speed, this can become a frustrating experience…but one we’ve all grown accustomed to.
So while you’re at The Kuler (that’s what I call it, we’re still talking about www.kuler.adobe.com) click on buttons and notice the reaction time of the site. When working in the Create area, moving the sliders to create different colors and choosing different rules is instantaneous.
The only buttons with a lag time are the ones where the site needs to go to kuler.adobe.com to get new data. For the most part, however, most of the information the site needs to work is downloaded to the user’s computer for quicker use of the site.
If you like lingo, throw around the term “client side rendering” and you’ll impress your friends. Say something like “I sure prefer the new Flash sites, because they offer client side rendering and give me a faster, more pleasant surfing experience.”
Or you could say “You’re so old fashioned browsing those server side sites where you have to wait forever to have the sites update from page to page.”
You’ll sound so smart.
The reality is this: Flash technology has allowed website programmers to push more of the site’s work onto the user’s machine (client side) so that it acts like a program running on the machine instead of just a workstation linked to the server. This is in sharp contrast to sites that rely on data stored on the server (server side) that gets downloaded to the local machine when an action takes place, like a button being pushed.
After you play with The Kuler for a bit, venture over to www.leoburnett.com and be amazed at what could never be done in the server side world. Move your mouse over the pencil and the site comes alive. Move the pencil over various areas and let it sit or click your mouse for different responses.
After you’ve wasted about a half hour there, stroll over to www.www.adobe.com/creativemind/, another great example of a client side Flash site which gives you, the visitor, an experience you couldn’t enjoy in the old days.
Now it’s your turn. What are your favorite Flash sites? Share with us so we can all find new ways to waste time at work “working.”

I had a customer one time who had a magazine cover go bad because they wanted a spot UV over an arrow, but didn’t set the art to overprint. When a bigillion of the magazines came off press and there was just a big white arrow on the cover instead of the photo with a shiny arrow over it, she threw up right there on the floor.
Don’t let this happen to you. Take control of your files with an understanding of how to make things overprint, or not, depending on what you are wanting.
Watch the video OVERPRINTING for a quick overview of InDesign’s default and customizable settings.
One of the main things you want to know is that InDesign will overprint ALL blacks if you leave the default setting alone. If you go to preferences and turn it off, it will knockout ALL blacks. Those are your choices…on or off. Hmmmm…
I always check with the printer or service bureau outputting my file to see if their RIP is set up to knockout and trap overprints if they are in the PDF file. I suggest you ask the same question.
The reason that’s important is that you can knockout and trap overprinted black if it’s in the file, but you can’t overprint knocked out black later if you decide you need it.
Should you decide you want black to overprint sometimes and knockout others, and you want to control this manually, here’s a little trick. Create a swatch called Knockout Black and make it 99.9 percent black. You can then use Black for all objects and type you want to overprint and use Knockout Black for all objects and type you want knocked out. The 99.9 percent black will plug up to solid on press.
It’s also important to familiarize yourself with the Attributes Palette, where you can manually set overprinting on fills and strokes of type and objects. Just remember that for type you need to have the type highlighted with the Type Tool, not just selected with the Selection Tool.
When checking your work, depend on your Separations Preview Palette, a video of which is available called…uh…Separations Preview Palette.

I remember the days when we would output a file as separated to the laser printer to see if anything was going to show up on an extra plate if the job was CMYK. While the job spooled, we would watch the progress bar and if it mentioned a fifth (or often more) color, we would either stop the printing or let it continue and look at the printout to see where the extra color was.
We would also use this trick to check for CMYK blacks like type that had been colored as “register” instead of black, etc. or grayscale images that were really RGB or CMYK.
A lot of innocent trees gave their lives for the pursuit of perfect film output.
We no longer need to rely on luck or laser printers for precise output. Using InDesign’s Separations Palette will give you a good headstart in resolving output issues, like the ones listed above or others, like proper overprinting and knockouts.
Keep in mind that some of the overprint issues may be resolved based on your RIP (Raster Image Processor) settings, but it never hurts to see what’s going on in a file before letting it go, either as a PDF or native file.
Let’s give it a go…
Open up a document in InDesign and go to Window> Output> Separations Preview (CS2) or Window> Output Preview> Separations (CS1). I wanted to be clear on the two versions since they are SOOO different, and I don’t want you confused.
After this palette launches, select Separations from the drop down menu and you will see a list of all colors used in the document.
To the left of the colors is an eyeball, which you can toggle off and on again to see where that color is…or isn’t.
I often toggle off the Black to make sure that what’s black disappears. If it doesn’t, I know there is an unexpected CMYK black. In which case I go to that image or text and change it to meet my output requirements. Simple.
I also toggle off and on varnish plates to make sure they are overprinting as they should. This also works with foil, opaque inks, spot UV or any other special application that is to overprint the image below.
Just remember that the Separations Preview activates the Overprint Preview mode which hides your guides and frame edges. If after you’re done using it you wonder where all your guides have gone, just go to View> Overprint Preview and you’ll be back where you started.
If you want to watch a video that gives you an overview of the Separations Preview Palette, we’ve created one and aptly named it Separations Preview Palette.