InDesign Tip: Making Unequal Column Guides

InDesign won’t let you create unequal columns within a single text frame (for that kind of layout, you’d have to thread separate frames together). However, you can easily set up unequal column guides to assist you.

Just navigate to the document or master page where you want the unequal guides to appear. Then choose View > Grids & Guides and deselect Lock Column Guides.



Then you can drag the column guides to the desired position. When you have them where you want them, you can re-lock them in that location to prevent them from moving accidentally.



Art-boards: So many art-boards in Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5

When creating your project design in Adobe Illustrator CS5, you can use the multiple artboards feature to break up your design. When importing (File>Import>Adobe Illustrator File) your project into Flash Catalyst, individual artboards convert into unique pages in Flash Catalyst!

Ground shadows for 3D

Easily turn on ground shadows for 3D objects using 3D>Ground Plane Shadow Catcher. In the 3D (Scene) panel, set the Quality drop-down menu to Ray Trace (Draft or Final) to start the render and actually see the shadow. In the 3D (Lights) panel, turn shadows on or off for individual lights using the Create Shadows checkbox, and then adjust the Softness. In the 3D (Mesh) panel, you can adjust the shadow Opacity. Choose Snap Object to Ground Plane from the 3D panel's flyout menu if necessary to see the shadow.

Share color swatches in Adobe Fireworks CS5

Fireworks can now share Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE) files with Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and Kuler. Use the Swatches panel in each application to save or open swatch libraries.

InDesign Tips: Handle Special Characters Easily With Custom Glyph Sets

You can create a library of often-used symbols or special characters—for instance, a collection of currency symbols—by creating a glyph set. Choose New Glyph Set from the panel menu, and name it.



Then select a glyph in the panel, and choose Add to Glyph Set. Being able to look at your custom-made sets (choose View Glyph Set from the panel menu) saves you from having to scroll through the entire font’s worth of glyphs.

Adobe InDesign CS5 - No more missing fonts!

When you include the fonts as part of the Package command (File>Package), InDesign now generates a Document Fonts folder. When you open an InDesign file that's located in a folder that also includes a Document Fonts folder, InDesign will automatically install the fonts the document needs! And when you close the document, the document fonts are automatically uninstalled for you. So is there ever a reason not to enable the Copy Fonts checkbox in the Create Package Folder dialog?

Adobe Illustrator CS5: Learn the numbers

While working with the Perspective Drawing tools, you can use 1รข€"4 on your keyboard to change the active plane (the number four key deactivates all the grids). To see which plane is active, look at which side is highlighted in the Plane Switching widget. The number five key also has a function: Use it with the Perspective Selection tool (Shift-V) to drag objects perpendicular to the grid plane.

SWF size history in Adobe Flash Professional CS5

You can now keep track of the size of your SWF in the Properties panel using SWF History. Every time you publish a SWF you'll see a running log of your publish size, date, and time. Three data points are displayed in the Properties panel but if you click the Log button you can see up to 100. You'll also see an alert icon if your SWF increased in size by more than 50%.

After Effects CS5 : Zoom with the mouse scroll wheel

To zoom in to or out from the center of the view, place the pointer over the panel and move the scroll wheel accordingly. To zoom in on or out from a specific point, place the pointer over the panel and hold Option (PC: Alt) as you move the scroll wheel.

Finer control of keyframe edits @ Adobe Premiere Pro CS5

This feature improves the control and precision when dragging keyframes in a confined space. For example, audio gain values can jump dramatically in coarse amounts when dragging an audio volume rubber band or keyframe in the confirmed vertical space of an audio track. To more precisely set the gain value, drag while holding down modifier keys to yield finer control of the rate of change in the parameter value. Hold down Option (PC: Alt) to change the numeric value by 1; hold down Command (PC: Ctrl) to change the numeric value by 0.1.

Working with the Library - Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5

No need to keep your voice down. With the Library panel in Flash Catalyst you can share and import other components made by other Flash Catalyst users quickly and easily. From the Library panel, click the Export Library Package icon or Right-click and select Export Library Package. To import another library use the same controls, but choose Import.

Use the Material Drop tool to easily load and drop materials in Photoshop

Material editing workflow is easier now with the 3D Material Drop and 3D Select Material tools in the 3D panel. With the 3D Material Drop tool, Option-click (PC: Alt-click) a material to load it and then click anywhere to drop it to another part of your model, another 3D mesh, or another 3D layer. Use the 3D Select Material tool to help target the right material as indicated by the material picker thumbnail in the 3D panel.

Adobe Fireworks CS5: Slicing improvements

You can now Edit>Copy and Edit>Paste Attributes from one slice to another, saving you time in what can be a tedious workflow. Slice names are now case-sensitive, so changing the case of a letter in the slice name will now change the slice name.

View links in Bridge and Mini Bridge

If you want to place an image that you used in another InDesign document, go to either Adobe Bridge or the new Mini Bridge panel (Window>Mini Bridge) in InDesign, and navigate to that InDesign file. Right-click on the document thumbnail and choose Show Linked Files. Magically, you'll now see thumbnails of all the placed files inside that InDesign document. Select the item(s) you want to use and drag them into your current document.

Taper strokes in Adobe Illustrator CS5

The Width tool (Shift-W) lets you drag strokes wider or narrower on any part of a path. You can add multiple width points to go wide to narrow to wide again. The Width tool is easy-to-use, but don't let that stop you from exploring all the functionality possible with this tool via shortcuts. For example, pressing the Option (PC: Alt) key while dragging will allow you to create an asymmetrical stroke width.

Adobe Photoshop CS5: Content-Aware Fill

From fixing gaps in a panorama to removing unwanted objects, the new Content-Aware Fill (CAF) feature delivers amazing results, but there are a few tricks to know. Ask the possible CAF does a great job with reproducible patterns: Sky, sand, grass, stone, etc.; less so with man-made objects. When in doubt, use a small selection and try running it and re-running it; each pass will likely get you closer. Sometimes expanding a selection will help dramatically. No matter what the result, CAF will get you further and faster than ever before.

Streamlined video workflows in Adobe Flash Professional CS5

You can now preview your video live on the Stage. As soon as you import a video you'll see a preview of the first frame. Right-click on the video to play, pause, and rewind. If a skin was used to add playback controls then you'll be able to use them on the Stage, as well. This is especially helpful if you're working with video assets that have alpha transparency. You can also add and view cue points in the Properties panel while previewing the video.

Playback/Pause resolution settings in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5

You can adjust the resolution of playing or paused assets. Right-click the Source or Playback Monitor, select Playback or Pause Resolution, and then choose Full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, or 1/16. This gives more control over monitoring experience. For example, with higher resolution footage, you can set Playback Resolution to a lower value for smooth playback (e.g., 1/2), and set the Pause Resolution to Full. This allows you to quickly check the quality of focus or edge details when playback is paused.

Applying Alt-W for Preview in Windows

It started with a simple request from my co-author Diane Burns. She was about to teach a class basic InDesign the next day, but all the people at the company are on Windows machines.

She wanted two simple screen shots to show how to add A new command to Toggle between Preview and Normal for when someone is in a text frame. I immediately understood the request. I see many students with errant Ws inserted in their text because they tried to invoke the Preview command while in a text field.


Let After Effects handle the math in After Effects CS5

Most text fields for input of numerical values in After Effects will perform basic calculations for you. For example, you can enter 1920/2 to set a property to half of 1920. After Effects will do the math for you and set the property value to 960.

Linking it up @ Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5

When working with larger bitmap graphics, you can set them up as external linked images to keep your Flash Catalyst project file size small. You can also make changes to these linked files after the project is published without reopening the project in Flash Catalyst. Convert an embedded bitmap image to a linked image by selecting it and setting it in the HUD, or Right-click on the image in the Library panel.

Target lights with a simple click!

Easily position lights now in Photoshop CS5 Extended by using a keyboard shortcut. With a 3D Light tool active, select the light widget that you want to reposition, and then Option-click (PC: Alt-click) on the 3D object to select the new target of the light.

Draw a triangle in Adobe Illustrator CS5

How do you make a triangle? Some people do it with the Pen tool (P), others by creating a square and deleting an anchor point. The fastest way to draw a triangle is with the Polygon tool (nested with the Rectangle tool [M]). While drawing a polygon, hit the Down Arrow key on your keyboard multiple times to reduce the number of sides.

Grid Place for multipage documents in InDesign

It's now possible to place pages from a multipage PDF, INDD, Illustrator file, etc. as a grid. In the Place dialog (File>Place), enable the checkboxes for Show Import Options and Create Static Captions, and then navigate to your multipage file. Choose the range of pages you want to place in the next dialog and click OK. With the loaded Place cursor, drag out an area for your grid, subdivide the area into columns and rows using the arrow keys, and then release the mouse button to place the pages.

Mobile authoring and Adobe Device Central integration

Fireworks is a screen graphics design application and can be used to create optimized graphics for any device. With the explosion of mobile devices, set-top boxes and proprietary electronic devices, there are more screens in the world now than ever, with no signs of slowing down. Fireworks CS5 designs can easily be previewed with Adobe Device Central.

FXG export from Adobe Flash Professional CS5

You can export a selection or the entire Stage using a new file format called FXG. This format offers improved fidelity as well as compatibility with Illustrator, Fireworks, Flash Catalyst, and Flash Builder. Simply select Export Image or Export Selection from File>Export.

Sharpen as it should be

Following in the footsteps of the updates in CS4 to the old Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools, CS5 features a new logic for the Sharpen tool. Now pressure-sensitive, brush-based sharpening is more powerful and less destructive (no artifacts). Just select Protect Details and the Tablet Pressure options in the Options Bar. In fact, this is the most sophisticated sharpening algorithm in Photoshop!

Export frame from Source and Program Monitors

The Export Frame buttons in the Source and Program Monitors offer a rapid frame export workflow that bypasses the Adobe Media Encoder. Position the playhead at the desired location in a clip or sequence and click the Export Frame button. In the Export Frame dialog name the exported frame, choose a file format, and browse to a location for saving the exported still image to disk.

After your layers to composition features

To align selected layers to the center or edge of a composition, choose Composition in the Align Layers To drop-down menu in the Align panel (Window>Align), and then click the icon corresponding to the desired type of alignment.

10 Bad Habits to Break in Photoshop

Photoshop is an extremely versatile application and offers and endless number of ways to accomplish the same task. With so many ways of producing the same effect, it can be difficult for users to understand which technique is the best for the task at hand. In this tutorial, we will explain 10 bad habits that you can break in Photoshop to help you work a bit more efficiently.

Essential Tips for Working With Photoshop Masks

You can apply masks to layers in Photoshop documents to reveal content underneath. Layer masks(which you create with painting or selection tools) can have soft edges. Vector masks (which you create with the Pen and shape tools) have sharp edges. Here are some essential tips to remember when working with masks in Photoshop.

Using InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop Together: Linking and Embedding Files

Many of my students ask why Adobe doesn't just combine InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator into one super-application that can do everything—layout, images, paths, etc. Well, actually there is such an application. I call it “InDe-Illu-Shop.” But you don’t open it with a single click. You open it by launching each application separately; then, you use them as a single application.

In this first article on using InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop together, I’ll cover how to use each program as your main layout tool. In future articles, I’ll cover moving vectors between the apps, coordinating colors, working with the interface, layers & text, and exporting and printing.

Creating a Pattern Brush in Illustrator CC Using a Raster Image

Making corners for Pattern brushes, once something so pesky and nearly impossible to figure out, can now be quite fun in Illustrator. You can create a Pattern brush from any vector or raster image, and for this example I chose a portion of a photograph of the golden gate from the palace of Versailles. This Pattern brush is fairly simple to make and apply to the path I’ve chosen. Some auto-generated corner tiles work well here, but for more complex images you may need to make adjustments to the image in Photoshop, as well as in Illustrator for the auto-generated corner tiles to work seamlessly.

Convert and Expand InDesign Artwork into Illustrator Paths

In an article you can see what if you want to do something like put an image inside the stroke, or do some other clever trick that requires that the stroke be outlined? You need to remember that InDesign has an older sister named Illustrator! These siblings are meant to work together.

Here's my original artwork, created by applying a fat dash stroke to a circle:




Illustrator Brush Tips

While searching through my archives for art pieces to show in my new course for lynda.com, Artistic Painting with Illustrator: Natural Media Brushes, I found this “watercolor” image created with transparent calligraphic brushes back in Adobe Illustrator 10, in 2002.



No more related file overload

If you're working with a dynamic CMS framework such as WordPress or Drupal, you may find yourself overwhelmed with files in your Related Files bar. Click the icon to the far right of the Related Files bar to filter your view options by file type, or even better, by custom filter. Only working with your design? Turn off all file types besides CSS. Need to find Files bar.

Vector graphics: The optimizer!

When importing vector graphics into Flash Catalyst, all aspects of the graphics, the strokes, fills, and paths, are all represented by code. When publishing your final project, you can optimize its performance by converting these vector graphics to optimized graphics using the Flash Catalyst Heads-up Display (HUD). The HUD is the gray and black floating panel that changes its options based on the currently selected object. If you're handing your project off to Adobe Flash Builder 4, optimizing your graphics will extract all of that vector code into an external file.

3D Overlays in Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended

When you have any of the 3D tools active, you can turn on 3D overlays from the bottom of the 3D panel to view the 3D Axis (the widget for manipulating meshes, lights, and cameras), light widgets, material and mesh bounding boxes, and a ground plane. Go to Photoshop (PC: Edit)>Preferences>3D to change overlay settings. To use the 3D Axis for meshes, lights, or cameras, select the right tool to invoke the 3D Axis for that property. For example, when you select one of the 3D Light tools in the 3D (Lights) panel and click on a light widget, the 3D Axis will now rotate and move the selected light.

Checking QR Codes

You can use the new Generate QR Code command in InDesign CC to quickly and easily create QR codes.

But how do you verify the information represented by the QR code without using a code-reading app on a mobile device?

Simple: just just hover your cursor over the QR code object you’ll see that the tooltip will reveal its contents!








Flash Catalyst integration with Adobe Fireworks CS5

Flash Catalyst is a new interaction design tool for the Adobe Flash Platform. In Fireworks CS5, you can export a selection, an entire page, or all of your pages to an FXG 2 file and take that into Flash Catalyst where you can then add structure and interaction. FXG files can be imported into Flash Catalyst, Flash Professional, Illustrator, and Photoshop, or even added to a Flash Builder project.

Presentation mode in InDesign

Press Shift-W to switch into the new Presentation mode. This will hide the user interface and center and fit your document into the screen. Any extra screen area will be colored black. Press G to change the background to grey, press W to change it to white, and press B to change it back to black.

Paint inside

Use Draw Inside with the new Bristle Brush to fill any shape with beautiful brushstrokes. This brush creates painterly strokes by mimicking the appearance of actual bristles from an artist's brush, but the strokes are still vectors so they're fully editable and scalable. To find the Bristle Brushes, open the Brushes panel (Window>Brushes), click on the flyout menu, and choose Open Brush Library>Bristle Brush>Bristle Brush Library. Click on a brush in the Bristle Brush Library to add it to the Brushes panel, and then double-click on it in the Brushes panel to open the Bristle Brush Options dialog.

Working with keyframes in a tween span

To easily move a property keyframe to a different frame in the same tween span or a different tween span, Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) the property keyframe to select it, release the Command (PC: Ctrl) key, then click-and-drag the keyframe to the new location. (If you want to copy the keyframe, Option-drag [PC: Alt-drag]). The trick here is to release the Command (PC: Ctrl) key before you drag the keyframe to avoid selecting additional frames.

Selecting hair in Adobe Photoshop CS5

Significant changes to the Refine Edge dialog take masking hair to a new level. The choices are daunting, but the steps are simple: make a selection with the Quick Selection tool (W); Option-click (PC: Alt-click) to remove unwanted areas; then continue to Select>Refine Edge. Using Black & White (K) from the View menu, choose a 10-15 pixel Radius, enable the Smart Radius checkbox, and voila. Use the Option-click (PC: Alt-click) method with the new Refine Radius tool (E) located in the Refine Edge dialog to refine the final mask.

Preserving Bullets and Numbers in Exported Text

If you plan to export an InDesign story to an RTF file, you’ll need to convert the automatic numbers (or bullets) to text—otherwise, they’ll be stripped out of the converted document.

To preserve automatic bullets and numbers, select your list and choose Type > Bulleted & Numbered Lists > Convert Bullets and Numbering to Text.



Or simply right-click and choose from the menu at your cursor.



You will now be able to select the numbers or bullets as text. The numbers will no longer be “live,” but they will survive intact when you export the story.

Field display settings in the Source and Program Monitors

The Source and Program Monitors can now be set to display the first, second, or both fields for interlaced footage. This can be useful when you need to grab a frame to use as a still. This was a top feature request from law enforcement investigation and forensic users.

Use Imagineer Systems mocha for After Effects for motion tracking

After Effects includes the mocha for After Effects (mocha-AE) standalone motion tracking application from Imagineer Systems. This planar tracker handles motion-tracking jobs that would be difficult with the built-in After Effects motion tracker. So, whether you need to replace a billboard on a bus or the contents of a mobile phone screen, try mocha for After Effects.

Interactive, cross-browser previews

Pausing drop-down menus in place, Ajax data in a particular state of display, tabs in a particular open/closed configuration, etr page right to BrowserLab to view it in all of the available browsers across operating systems.

Round and round we go

A huge timesaver, and a giant benefit to working with Flash Catalyst, is its integration with other Adobe Creative Suite design tools. By selecting a vector or bitmap graphic in Flash Catalyst and Right-clicking on it, you can quickly bring it into Adobe Illustrator CS5 or Adobe Photoshop CS5, make changes, then automatically merge the changes back into Flash Catalyst. This roundtrip editing lets you use familiar design products to easily add interactivity to your static artwork.

Scaling to Specific Size in InDesign

You know you want to scale an object (text frame, graphic frame, path, or group) to a particular width or height, but what percentage should you type in the X% or Y% fields of the Control panel to achieve that size?

It’s easy: replace the 100% in one of those fields with an absolute value – the size you want it to be. For example, if you type 10cm, InDesign will do the math for you, figuring out what percentage it should scale the object(s).

Punch out holes in your extrusions!

In the Repouss dialog you can manipulate the constraint (sub-path) using any of the Internal Constraints tools to either punch it out to make a hole or add separate extrusion parameters. You can also add constraints to an existing Repouss object by drawing a selection or path and choosing either 3D Repouss Create Constraints From Selection(s) or Selected Path(s). You can also use the Add(Selection) or Add(Path) buttons in the Internal Constraints section of the Repouss dialog.

Text layout in Adobe Fireworks CS5

Text is part of nearly every design, and for Fireworks CS5, lots of refinements have been added to the already impressive text layout features. A favorite is the new noncontiguous selection feature after selecting some text characters in a text object using the Text tool (T), press-and-hold the Shift key and click-and-drag to select additional noncontiguous characters.

Mind the gap in Adobe InDesign CS5

At the position of the gap, and the frames on either side of the gap will adjust at the same time the uniform gap width will be maintained! Hold down the Shift key to only adjust the two closest items relative to the gap. Hold down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key to resize the gap instead of moving it.

Masking reversed in Adobe Illustrator CS5

Instead of creating complex artwork and then drawing another object on top to mask that artwork, you can now simply click on any object and change the drawing mode to Draw Inside (Shift-D) at the bottom of the Toolbox. After you've set Draw Inside, the selected object will mask everything you draw. Draw Inside also supports the Paste and Place commands pasting inside an object has finally come to Illustrator.

Display full color when editing a single channel

As you may know, images are made up of channels on which color detail is stored. By default, all the channels in a Photoshop document are selected to show the full color of the image. Sometimes, though, you need to work an individual channel in the Channels panel for editing purposes. What isn't necessary is for you to view just the color on the selected channel while editing it.

After you select the channel you want to edit, simply press the Tilde key [~]. Now, you can view the image in full color while editing only the selected channel.

Display full color when editing a single channel

As you may know, images are made up of channels on which color detail is stored. By default, all the channels in a Photoshop document are selected to show the full color of the image. Sometimes, though, you need to work an individual channel in the Channels panel for editing purposes. What isn't necessary is for you to view just the color on the selected channel while editing it.

After you select the channel you want to edit, simply press the Tilde key [~]. Now, you can view the image in full color while editing only the selected channel.

Delete layer masks quickly and skip the warning with this trick

You decide you don't want a layer mask after all and click and drag it to the trash to delete it. But Photoshop prompts you with the warning, asking if you want to apply the layer mask before you delete it. In all fairness, Photoshop's just looking out for you, but you don't have to receive such oversight. If you're sure you don't want to apply the mask before deleting it, then bypass Photoshop's warning by pressing [option] ([Alt] in Windows) as you click and drag the layer mask to the trash.

To spring or not to spring

In Flash Professional CS5 you can now add springiness to any IK Bone in an armature. The Strength (stiffness of the spring) and Damping (rate of decay of the spring effect) properties of bones give real physical movement by integrating dynamic physics into the IK Bones system. However, it may be desirable to turn off Spring for bones without having to set both values to zero on every bone. To do this, select the Timeline layer that the armature is in to reveal an Enable checkbox for Springs in the Properties panel

Working with Photoshop & InDesign

Knowing Photoshop is one thing, but knowing how Photoshop can be used across the whole Adobe Creative Suite is another. In this three part series, we will be focusing on the features that will help you become more productive when using Photoshop in conjunction with InDesign, Dreamweaver & Illustrator.

By looking at the features that often get overlooked and by demonstrating how you can use them in conjunction with other CS programs, it will make you a much more efficient designer.

Content-Aware Scaling


When you are required to include a photo in your InDesign layout but the photo isn’t working to the layout you had in mind, a useful trick is to take advantage of the CS4 feature of Content Aware Scaling. This feature allows you to keep the important details of the photo without ruining too much of the composition of the original photograph. Select what area you want scale, then go to Edit, then Content-Aware Scaling. Remember to use the “Protect Skin Tones” option when working on people as this usually yields the best results – click the human silhouette icon to turn it on.

Display full color when editing a single channel

As you may know, images are made up of channels on which color detail is stored. By default, all the channels in a Photoshop document are selected to show the full color of the image. Sometimes, though, you need to work an individual channel in the Channels panel for editing purposes. What isn't necessary is for you to view just the color on the selected channel while editing it.

After you select the channel you want to edit, simply press the Tilde key [~]. Now, you can view the image in full color while editing only the selected channel.

Delete layer masks quickly and skip the warning with this trick

You decide you don't want a layer mask after all and click and drag it to the trash to delete it. But Photoshop prompts you with the warning, asking if you want to apply the layer mask before you delete it. In all fairness, Photoshop's just looking out for you, but you don't have to receive such oversight. If you're sure you don't want to apply the mask before deleting it, then bypass Photoshop's warning by pressing [option] ([Alt] in Windows) as you click and drag the layer mask to the trash.

Navigate through Excel 2007 in seconds

When you're adjusting to Excel 2007's drastic interface changes, you might find yourself lost more often than you'd like. Experienced Excel users accustomed to earlier versions can suddenly feel as if they're novices. Talk about frustrating!
Instead of stopping to look in the Help files or on the Internet every couple of minutes, find your way to frequently used Excel tasks in seconds with our handy reference table. Cut it out and keep it by your computer for fewer headaches.


Multilayer Opacity and Fill-and so much more

The ability to select multiple layers and adjust the Opacity or Fill was at the top of many Photoshop users lists. From text to image data, those living in layers will enjoy massive amounts of time saved. Speaking of layers, you can now choose your own default layer styles (just click the Make Default button in the Layer Style dialog).

Rounded corners in Adobe InDesign CS5

Select a frame and click on the yellow square icon located on the frame edge to enter Live Corner Edit mode. (You can also press the number four key on your keyboard.) You'll now see four yellow diamonds in each corner. Click-and-drag one of the diamonds to adjust the corner radius of all four corners at the same time. To adjust only one corner, hold down the Shift key as you drag the diamond. To cycle through the six different corner styles, Option-click (PC: Alt-click) on one of the yellow diamonds. To exit Live Corner Edit mode, either press the four key again, or deselect the object.

Navigating the motion editor in Adobe Flash Professional CS5

In Flash Professional CS5, there are some new keyboard modifiers to help you move around the Motion Editor.
To pan/scroll horizontally, use Shift-scroll wheel.
To zoom in and out, use Option-scroll wheel (PC: Alt-scroll wheel).
To select multiple keyframes at once, click-and-drag (marquee select) the keyframes.
To turn off Auto-Zoom in the graphs, use the option in the Motion Editor panel's flyout menu.

Live distribute in Adobe InDesign CS5

Ever needed to change the amount of space between a number of aligned items on the page? To do it interactively, first select the items on the page with the Selection tool (notice that CS5 now provides a transformation bounding box around multiple selected items!) Click-and-drag one of the handles of the bounding box to resize all the items in your selection. To resize the space between each item, hold down the Spacebar while dragging.

Test renderings with selections

Sometimes you may want to quickly render for only a selected part of your 3D object to save time and check for specific lighting effects. That's now possible by simply making a selection on the area you want to render, and going to 3D>Progressive Render Selection.

Printing or Exporting Page Ranges With Dashes

Did you know that when you’re printing or exporting a range of pages that includes the first or last page of a document, you can skip that first or last page number in the dialog box? Just leave the range open ended so it starts or end with a dash.

For example, to print from the first page to page 7, you can just enter -7 in the Range field of the Print or Export dialog boxes.



Likewise, you can enter 7- in those fields to print or export from page 7 to the end of the document.



It’s a small thing, but it can add a dash of convenience now and then.

Adjusting Text Spacing Without Tracking

When you need to make more text fit in a given area, do you automatically adjust the tracking? An alternative to tracking text is to adjust the Letterspacing setting in the Justification dialog box.

To do this, insert your cursor into a paragraph, press Cmd-Opt-Shift-J (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-J), then reduce both the minimum and desired letterspacing values.

Before:



After:

The key difference between this process and tracking the paragraph is that (assuming you have the Adobe Paragraph Composer chosen) the spacing will not be exactly the same between each character or word, but rather will be optimized according to the available space and potential line and hyphenation breaks within the paragraph.

While not as convenient and fast as tracking, adjusting the letterspacing yields a better type color. A potential downside is that paragraphs adjusted in this way cannot be easily identified by a color highlight, the way those that have been tracked can.

Natural Shadows on Clipped Images



The original bread image we have was shot on a plain background, but needs to be clipped so it can be used on any background. At the same time, we want to keep the natural shadow, since adding a drop shadow is less realistic and harder to keep consistent with the lighting of the shot.

Collecting Images Without Packaging

Sometimes, way before you get to the File > Package stage of a project, you need to quickly gather a few or all of the layout’s linked high-res images in one place and do something with them—send them to a freelancer, for example, or back them up to an external drive.

Five favorite Excel tips

Whether you’re using Microsoft Excel 2008 or 2004, you need some tricks up your sleeve for easing day-to-day tasks, such as entering data or custom sorting, as well as for special situations, such as using colors not included on the Standard palette. Here are my five favorite Excel tips for everyday use and beyond.

Down to the wire in Adobe Flash Catalyst

Flash Catalyst contains numerous wireframe drawing tools and pre-built components that you can use to create interactive wireframes. Pre-built components are fully functioning buttons, scrollbars, checkboxes, and other user interface items that let you quickly mock up the layout of your finished project. You can find these in the Wireframe Components panel.

Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 - Multiple server projects

The revised Site Setup dialog (Site>New Site) not only helps you get started faster, but it also helps to manage projects that span across multiple servers. Say, for example, your client wants to check everything out on a staging server, but you need to also use both your local machine's Web server as a local environment and a shared team server for your day-to-day work. Just create a new server for each part of your workflow, and then at any point in the project, choose which is your active testing (development) server and which is your remote (publishing) server.

Spellcheck Capitalization in InDesign

Select the Case Sensitive option when you enter a word into a spelling dictionary (Edit > Spelling > User Dictionary) if the word you’re adding is a trade name, proper name, or a word with intercaps, such as “InDesign.”



This way, if the word is used in your document with improper capitalization, it will be flagged as a spelling error.





There's a RAM preview for every occasion - Adobe After Effects CS5

You can specify two sets of RAM preview options in the Preview panel: RAM Preview Options and Shift+RAM Preview Options. For example, you can set RAM Preview Options for full frame rate and full resolution, and set Shift+RAM Preview Options to skip one out of every two frames and preview at half resolution. To preview using Shift+RAM Preview Options, hold Shift as you initiate a RAM preview. Press Option (PC: Alt) while initiating a RAM preview to preview a specified number of frames up to and including the current frame. The default number of frames previewed with this command is five. The preference for changing this number is in the Alternate RAM Preview section of the Preview preferences.

Drag clip to make new sequence

From the Project panel, drag any clip to the New Item icon at the bottom of the panel and release. This will automatically create a sequence with the correct editing mode (RED, AVCHD, DVCPRO, XDCAM, and so on). This is my personal favorite new user interface tip.

How to Design a Clean and Modern Calendar Widget in Photoshop

Step 1: Create New File
Open Photoshop and create a new document of 600x450px. Set the “Background Contents” to “Transparent“.




Faster Formatting With the Eyedropper Tool

Most folks know that the Eyedropper tool can pick up text attributes from any formatted text and apply them elsewhere in the document by dragging. Here’s an easier method. Next time you need to apply attributes to a word with the Eyedropper tool, instead of dragging over the word, simply double click on it. Need to apply formatting to more than just one word? Depending on your Type preferences, triple-clicking will format an entire line or paragraph.

Accessing Find/Change History

Did you know that Find/Change remembers everything you’ve ever entered into its Find and Change fields? (Well, everything since you last rebuilt your preferences.) To access your Find/Change history, open Find/Change and click on the Up/Down arrow icon immediately to the right of either field. Don’t go all the way to the right; those are the metacharacter dropdown menus.



Find/Change history can be useful when you need to run the same Find/Changes in a series of layouts.

10 Pre-Press Tips For Perfect Print Publishing

A lot of designers think CMYK is the way to go when designing for print. We will, of course, always use CMYK-based ink, but this does not mean you have to work with CMYK files. You canwork with RGB images to perfectly optimize your print colors and save a great deal of time in the process.

1. Use RGB Color Mode For Photoshop Images
For several of the following tips to work, you will have to create and save all of your Photoshop images and artwork in RGB color mode. If you’re a veteran designer, you probably think this goes against what you’ve been taught, which is to use CMYK color mode. Well, technology has come a long way, and nowadays RGB color mode is better because it produces a wider range of colors and allows you to use one image for several media, including print and Web.

How To Create a Beautiful Vector Portrait in Illustrator

In this post we've to learn how the portrait is carefully traced and vectorized in Adobe Illustrator to create an interesting vexel style design.



Photo Retouching Tips And Tricks In Photoshop

We have had articles on various tools in Adobe Photoshop but this one is focused more on the techniques rather than the tools provided. Please note that all images used in this article were purchased and are used according to their licenses.

Here is a short overview of the techniques we’ll be covering in this follow-up:
  • Defining Colors
  • Controlling Folders
  • Split-Toning Effect
  • Flexible Vignette
  • Skin Retouching In Camera Raw
  • Setting Lights
  • Distinguished Paleness
  • Dodge And Burn Look
  • Bright Eyes
  • The Orton Effect
  • Optimizing Lasso Selections
  • Aligning Layer Contents
  • Restoring Selections
  • More Photoshop Tips and Tricks

Create Beautiful 3D Graphs and Charts in Illustrator

There is something gorgeous in aesthetically pleasing, visual representation of data. In this tutorial I’ll show you how to put some style into graphs generated in Adobe Illustrator.



Automate Your Designs with Nested Styles in Adobe InDesign



We’re all used to working with style sheets (or least we should be). With each new version of InDesign, there seems to be a new way to style your content. We started with paragraph and character styles, then we got nested styles, followed by object styles, and finally table styles in InDesign CS3. As you can see, nested styles is not really new but it’s something that you should be taking advantage of, so let’s get to it.

Simple skin smoothing in Photoshop

Give your portraits the silky skin effect with Photoshop's High Pass filter by following our quick step-by-step guide.


The before (inset) and after pic. Get great results with the guide below!

Exporting to Other File Formats in Adobe Illustrator



Did you know that there are 13 different file formats to choose from when exporting an Adobe Illustrator file? You can export your illustration to any of these formats so it can then be opened in other applications for further editing. So for example if you need to create a large, high-quality JPEG from your vector illustration, you’d use Export, rather than Save for Web. You can also use the Export function to create PSD files that preserve the layers and live type in your Illustrator document. In this screencast, we look at three of the most common file formats and how to export to them.

Eleven Tricks That Will Help Your Workflow in InDesign

1. InDesign the Calculator
Within the Control or Transform Palette it is possible to calculate and resize objects. The control palette can be found by going to Window > Control, and the Transform palette is found under Window > Object & Layout > Transform. Simply use your number keyboard as you would when using a calculator. For example, to double size of a frame, select the frame and in the width or height option input 55*2 > and hit enter. This will size the frame at 110mm. Remember to active "Constrain Proportions for scaling" option if you require scaling.

Extending Rules Beyond the Frame

Custom anchored graphics are not the only InDesign elements that can exist outside of the text frame while still moving with the text flow. You can make Rules Above/Below extend outside of the frame, too.

To extend a rule above (or a rule below) a paragraph outside the right edge of text frame, set the rule’s width to Column and enter a negative measure in the Right Indent field.



The greater the negative value of the Right Indent, the more the rule will extend beyond the right edge of the frame.


If you enter a negative indent in the Left Indent field, the rule will extend beyond the left edge of the frame.

Note that the Keep In Frame option affects rules with Offset values that would cause them to extend beyond the top of the frame. It does not affect rules that extend beyond the sides of frames.

The context sensitive Properties panel

The Properties panel shows the commands and operations that you can use for the current selection. In Fireworks CS5, there are even more context sensitive controls and nice new features: Easily constrain proportions when scaling width and height; a new Gradient Dither option smoothes Linear and Radial gradients; align strokes with a single click; and new Compound Shape options allow easily combining vectors shapes as they're drawn.

Auto-Fit frame in InDesign

Something every InDesign user learns is that an image in a frame and the frame itself are two separate things. InDesign CS5 introduces a new feature that changes this relationship. Select a frame that has an image in it and enable the new Auto-Fit checkbox in the Control panel. Now when you resize the frame, the image will go along for the ride and scale as you change the frame!

Threading Text Backwards

Just about everyone knows that you can click on the out-port of a text frame to click on or draw another text frame that creates or continues a text thread. But you can also click on the in-port of a text frame—even if it’s the first frame in the thread—to start the thread in a different frame.



This is especially useful when you place a story, then realize you want the headline in its own frame so you can give it a drop shadow.

Dash away all in Flash

The new dash adjustment option for strokes will make dashes look as if they were carefully and correctly placed and evenly distributed on a path and cleanly bisecting any corners, even on complex shapes such as a 20-pointed star. To turn this option on, go to the Stroke panel (Window>Stroke), click the Dashed Line checkbox, and select the second icon to the far right: Aligns Dashes to Corners and Path Ends, Adjusting Lengths to Fit. Want to keep that setting turned on for future object creation? Deselect New Art Has Basic Appearance from the Appearance panel's flyout menu (Window>Appearance).

Instant image update

If you save your project as a Flash CS5 Uncompressed Document (*.xfl), each part of the Flash file can be worked on separately by different people. You'll see a folder with the name of your project instead of a FLA file. You can edit any Flash Library asset contained within the matching library folder. Edit any image in Photoshop, save your changes, and those changes will be immediately reflected on the Stage and in the Library when you return to Flash.

Removing Lines

Phone and power lines are the bane of a retoucher's existence. The new Content-Aware Spot Healing in CS5 has fixed this. Here's how: Using the Pen tool (P), add a path to the line; choose the Spot Healing Brush (J) with Content-Aware selected in the Options Bar; change the brush size to two times the width of the wire; and in the Paths panel (Window>Paths), select the path and click the Stroke Path with Brush icon done!

New DSLR presets

You can now edit the video files from your favorite DSLR natively in Premiere Pro CS5. With a fast USB 2 card reader, you can even edit directly off the camera media. With some cameras all you need is a USB cable connected to the camera no need to transfer the files for a quick rough cut just edit!

Work faster with the Roto Brush tool

When drawing strokes to define a foreground object with the Roto Brush tool (Option-W), begin by drawing broad foreground strokes along the center of the object's features. Next, make at least some rough background strokes on the other side of the object's boundary. Then you can draw a fine stroke along the boundary to attempt to get a precise segmentation.

Artboards: So many art-boards

When creating your project design in Adobe Illustrator CS5, you can use the multiple artboards feature to break up your design. When importing (File>Import>Adobe Illustrator File) your project into Flash Catalyst, individual artboards convert into unique pages in Flash Catalyst!

Multilayer Opacity and Fill-and so much more

The ability to select multiple layers and adjust the Opacity or Fill was at the top of many Photoshop users lists. From text to image data, those living in layers will enjoy massive amounts of time saved. Speaking of layers, you can now choose your own default layer styles (just click the Make Default button in the Layer Style dialog).

Align your layers to composition features

To align selected layers to the center or edge of a composition, choose Composition in the Align Layers To drop-down menu in the Align panel (Window>Align), and then click the icon corresponding to the desired type of alignment.

How to Hand Rag Text Without Going Crazy

Did you ever try to manually break a line in a paragraph only to see the whole paragraph—including the lines above where you’re working—suddenly re-wrap? Kind of defeats the purpose of your manual intervention, not to mention it’s bad for your mental health.

Fortunately, it’s easy to make InDesign mind it’s own business and leave the line endings above your cursor right where they are. With your cursor in the paragraph you intend to hand rag, go to the Control panel and choose Adobe Single-line Composer.



The line endings in the paragraph may change at this point, but from then on, you will be in control. And as an added bonus, you may see that there are fewer bad word breaks to fix with the Single-line composer in use.

Paragraph Composer
Single-line Composer

Controlling the Visibility of Guide with View Threshold

Ruler Guides have a property called View Threshold, that can help you see an uncluttered view of your pages when you’re zoomed out to a low level of magnification. When you’re looking at your document at a zoom level below the threshold, the guide is not displayed. The default threshold is 5%, which also happens to be the lowest level of magnification you can have in InDesign. So by default, your guides will never disappear.



But if you want to take advantage of the feature, choose Layout > Ruler Guides, and increase the threshold value. For example, if you want new guides to only display when you’re zoomed in greater than 100%, set the View Threshold to 101%.



You can also change the View Threshold for existing guides by selecting them, right-clicking, and choosing Ruler Guides from the contextual menu.



Box model beauty

You can now get rich details about how your layout is hanging together with CSS Inspect. Click the Inspect button at the top of your document window, and hover over areas in Live View. The CSS Styles panel will update in real time with the properties of your selection, and you'll get a visual overlay showing your selection's current border, margin and padding settings, and how they affect the elements around them.

Sharing is caring

When creating multipage sites or applications, you often want the object on the first page to show up on one or more of the other pages. Your first instinct is to copy-and-paste it into the pages where itรข€™s needed, but doing that will create multiple copies of the object. To avoid this, Right-click on the object and use the Share to State command to select specific states, or all of them. If you want to remove the object from the state, use Remove from State.

Jumpstart 3D creation from the 3D panel

In Photoshop CS5 Extended, itรข€™s easy to get started with 3D creation from the 3D panel (Window>3D). Use Repoussรƒ© on text layers, masks, selections, or paths to extrude them to real 3D geometries. Take layers and wrap them around 3D shapes and even open 3D models from third-party content providers directly as a Photoshop 3D layer.

InDesign “Save As” Shortcuts

When you perform a Save As, you’re asked whether you want to replace the existing file. To save, oh, a half-second, you can use a keyboard shortcut to answer the alert that appears.

On the Mac, press Return or Esc to cancel, press Command+R for “Replace.”

On Windows, press the “Y” key for “Yes, I want to replace,” and press the “N” for “No, I don’t.”

Do this enough, and you can leave work three seconds early.

Just click it to select it

Fireworks has a simple and powerful selection model. Click on something to select it, regardless of what layer itรข€™s on, even if itรข€™s grouped. Thereรข€™s no need to dig through your Layers panel to try and find a layer. Use the Pointer tool (V) to select an object or its group, the Select Behind tool (press V again) to click repeatedly and select the next object lower in the stacking order, and the Subselection tool (A) to select an object in a group. Wicked simple, and sure to save you time.

How to Wrap Text in Adobe Illustrator

Using Adobe Illustrator, it's possible to wrap text around objects. It doesn't matter what type of object it is. It can be a circle, a star, or a lightning bolt. You can also wrap text around photographs, drawings, and any other imported images. Follow the steps below to find out how it's done.

1. Create your object. It doesn't matter where the image comes from. You can import something from the Internet or draw an original picture using Illustrator.

2. Next, create the area where you will be adding text. Simply draw a rectangle and type in your text.



3. Make sure that your object and your text are in the same layer. Also: your text should be located directly under the object in the layer’s hierarchy.




4. Select the object (or objects) which you want the text to wrap. Follow this path: Object > Text Wrap > Make.





5. Experiment with text/object placement. Illustrator gives you the freedom to wrap text in an infinite amount of ways. Fool around with it until you decide what you like best.




6. Finished.

Gridified tools

While dragging with a frame tool, tap the arrow keys to start sub-dividing the area youรข€™ve dragged out into equal parts. The Up/Down Arrows change the number of rows and the Right/Left Arrows change the number of columns. The default amount of space between each frame will automatically be the same as the Gutter value for the current spread (Layout>Margins and Columns

Join me

In Illustrator CS5 you can join any number of paths by simply selecting them all with the Selection tool (V) and pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J)รข€"you no longer need to select just the end points. A second Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) with the path still selected will close the path.

Magical flowing text blocks

With the new Text Layout Framework (TLF), you can now draw a text block on the Stage and fill it with text. If you have more text than the block can handle, click on the Out Port of the selected container and draw a new text block. The text will flow from one text block to the other just like in Adobe InDesign.

Keeping Bullets and Numbers in Outlined Text

When you convert text to outlines, automatic formatting like bullets and numbers is lost.

A list before converting text to outlines:



And after converting to outlines (notice the numbers are gone):



But you can preserve bullets and numbers if you take action before you create outlines. Select the text or the frame and choose Type > Bulleted & Numbered Lists > Converting Numbering to Text.



Now you can convert the text to outlines and the list numbers will be preserved.

Independently place video and audio

To drag the video and audio portions of a clip to specific tracks, drag the clip from the Source Monitor or Project panel into the Timeline. When the video portion of the clip lies above the desired video track, press-and-hold Shift, then drag downward past the bar separating video and audio tracks. When the audio portion of the clip lies above the desired audio track, release the mouse, and release Shift.

Give OpenGL rendering more memory to work with


Increase the texture memory used for OpenGL rendering to 80% of the installed video RAM (VRAM) on your video card. The default of 200 MB is quite small for modern video cards; values in the 400-800 MB range are appropriate for modern cards with 512-1GB of VRAM. Choose After Effects (PC: Edit)>Preferences>Previews, click OpenGL Information, and enter a new value for Texture Memory.

Client management tools

For keeping you and your clients on top of exactly what Web technology is hot (or not) and optimizing your bids, you can now use the SiteCatalyst NetAverages service to track current Web trends in browser usage, JavaScript and Flash penetration, technology, and more. Just choose the NetAverages option from the CS Live services menu in your Application Bar, and get fresh, current Web usage stats at any time.

Going deep with the Properties panel

In Flash Catalyst, the Properties panel gives you access to all of the basics attributes for an object, such as location, width, height, and others. When you select components like buttons, radio buttons, and checkboxes, there are component properties that can be set as well. You can define button labels and radio button groups, define tooltip text to display when your user hovers over a component, and trigger hand icons on mouse rollovers. Check out all of the options available in the Properties panel.

Depth of field for 3D in Photoshop

Create a depth-of-field effect on your 3D object with the 3D Zoom Camera tool (nested with the 3D Rotate Camera tool [N]). Option-click (PC: Alt-click) the area where you want to set the distance or focal plane of focus. You can also manually set the Blur and Distance parameters in the Options Bar. (The Blur is set to 0 by default, so you'll need to increase the value to see the effect.)

Collaborate with clients and teammates

With the collaboration tools in Fireworks, you can make the feedback process as painless as possible, and look professional and graceful as you do it. There are several different ways to share your work and you can choose the right approach for each situation-Share My Screen, Export Adobe PDF, Preview in Browser, Create AIR File, Demo Current Document, and Export HTML and CSS.

Setting the Default Text Frame Style

You can change the default text frame style to any other object style you create: Just drag the little T icon on the right side of the Object Styles panel down to your new style.


InDesign Tool Hints

The new Tool Hints panel (Window>Utilities>Tool Hints) lists all the hidden modifier key behaviors available for the currently selected tool. For example, look at the Tool Hints panel when the Selection tool is active to discover that to select an item in a group, you no longer have to switch to the Direct Selection tool first. You can just double-click on the item with the Selection tool. To jump back up to having the group selected, simply press the Esc key.

And even more basic

One of the biggest timesavers to ever learn with Illustrator is using the X key to switch between the current Stroke and Fill. Use this, along with the Forward Slash (/) key for no Fill or Stroke, and your life will be so much easier.

Make quick screen captures to use in Photoshop

There are numerous software applications available both as freeware and for purchase that will enable you to take screen captures. Some operating systems even come with a built-in application, such as Grab on the Macintosh.

But if you don't need any fancy features, don't underestimate what your keyboard can help you capture. The steps are slightly different depending on which platform you work on. Once you capture the shot, you can bring it into Photoshop to crop and save the file.

On the Macintosh, you can take a screen capture by pressing [command][shift]3. This captures everything that appears on your monitor. If you only want to capture a specific area of your screen, press [command][shift]4. Then click and drag your mouse pointer around only the area that you want to include in the screen capture and release to capture the shot.

If you take your screen captures this way, they'll be saved directly on your hard drive—usually on your desktop, but you may have to search for the shots as they could be in your user folder. If you press [command][control][shift]3 or [command][control][shift]4, the screen capture is saved on the Clipboard and you can paste it right into your Photoshop document.

In Windows, press the PrintScrn button and a copy of the screen capture is placed on the Clipboard. You can then paste that into a new document in Photoshop.
Once you have the image open in Photoshop, you can crop around what you want to keep, flatten the file, and save it in the file format you need.

Crop out unwanted subject matter for a better composition

Sometimes, no matter how carefully you compose a shot, some unwanted person, item, or area of the subject manages to end up in an otherwise good image. Take for example the third wheel.

While you can easily delete the photo, you can also salvage it with Photoshop's Crop tool. Oftentimes a simple crop, is all you need to get the picture you want!

Quick tips to ace your networking interview

If you're preparing for a job interview for a networking position, it's helpful to practice with some of the kinds of questions you may be asked.

One handy website is the following:

http:// networkinterviews.com

It's a site with a simple list of typical technical networking questions written blog-style.

In addition to preparing for questions you'll be fielding, also think of what to ask your interviewers. A good question is to ask them about the kind of network problems that are currently giving them trouble. This gives you a chance to demonstrate your analytic thinking and come off as someone who can solve their problems.

Create a button without writing code

If you want to create a button to move to the next frame in a presentation, draw a button, select it, open the Code Snippets panel (Window>Code Snippets), twirl down the Timeline Navigation folder, and then double-click Click to Go to Next Frame and Stop. You'll see the code in the Actions panel with an explanation of what it's doing. You now have a fully functional "next" button, without writing a line of code.

InDesign Live Corners

Live Corners allow you to apply corner effects to rectangular frames by clicking and dragging the yellow controls that appear on a selected frame.



When you have a rectangle selected, click on the yellow box or press 4 on your keyboard (think: 4 corners, a good reminder that Live Corners only work on rectangles).



Drag any yellow diamond to set the corner radius for all four. A display at your cursor shows the corner radius.



Shift-drag a yellow diamond to adjust a single corner radius.



Option/Alt-click a yellow diamond to change the corner effect.