Mind the Gap in Adobe InDesign CS5

The new Gap tool (U) works on the "white space" between frames. Position the mouse between two items, click-and-drag to adjust 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.

To spring or not to spring in Adobe Flash Professional CS5

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.

De-Runt Your Paragraphs With a GREP Style

Although you can control quite a few widow and orphan settings with InDesign's Keep Option settings, one problem remains: a too-short last line (sometimes called a "runt"). Let's assume you have a style rule that states the last line of a paragraph must contain at least 10 characters. The following GREP Style trick helps you follow that style.

1. Start by creating a Character Style called "no break" that only has the No Break option enabled.
2. Next, add a new GREP Style to your paragraph style, set the Apply Style pop-up menu to the "no break" character style you created earlier, then enter the following regular expression in the To Text field:

.{10}$ (That's a dot-curly-ten-curly-dollar sign.)

Now any 10 last characters of the paragraph will never be broken.

Removing Lines in Photoshop

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!