Indiana University: IT Training Tips Blog

You might have noticed while idly clicking around that in some applications, clicks and double-clicks have different functionality.  In almost every application that involves text, clicking once will place a cursor, and clicking twice will select the work that you clicked on.  This can help to quickly select some text without having to press and drag.  But have you ever tried clicking more than twice?  Thrice?  Four times?  The fabled quintuple-click?

Let's see how InDesign handles this.

Open up an InDesign document with some text.  If you don't have a document handy, then simply create one and place a text-heavy Word document, or even a web page. (From the menu bar File->Place, and then locate a file to place.  Double-click the file, and then click on the page to place).

Now, select the Type tool from the toolbox, and test out the following.

• One click places a cursor in the text
• Two clicks in quick succession(double-click) will select a single word
• Three clicks in quick succession(triple-click) will select a single sentence
• Four clicks in quick succession(quadruple-click) will select an entire paragraph
• Five clicks in quick succession(quintuple-click) will select all the text in the frame (the same effect as going to the menu and selecting Edit->Select All)

InDesign is far ahead in the multiple-click arms race.  Most applications will support up to three clicks, (Word, Dreamweaver, most web browsers), and three clicks in these applications will commonly select an entire paragraph.

The Opera web browser is somewhat of an oddball as it will support four clicks, in the same way that InDesign handles four clicks.

Experiment with some of your other favorite applications, and see how much time you can save with extra clicks versus pressing and dragging.

Unlike MS Word, InDesign won't let you "fake" a bold or italic style where the type itself doesn't include a bold or italic font. It will allow you to slant characters, but designers consider that to be bad form. Discussion of terminology of typography may help you understand why.

When people speak of fonts, they are typically using the word inaccurately. Here's the truth:

 

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I was teaching an Illustrator class recently, and talking briefly about the Pathfinder panel:

I realized as I was discussing it, that many of these options are not as straightforward as the end-user might like. I promised the class I would go into more depth on our blog.

So in the following video, I will explore the Pathfinder panel, and demonstrate each of the buttons, so that we can see exactly what they all can accomplish.  Hopefully this will spark your creativity, and give you a better idea of the power of these simple buttons.

Illustrator: Exploring the Pathfinder Panel

Way back in the day, when there were endless deep piles of snow, uphills both ways, and lunchpails filled only with scraps, people used writing instruments known as "pens" to inscribe letters and words onto dead trees, known as "paper".  Once the person was finished inscribing, s/he would fold up the paper, tuck that paper inside other paper, and inscribe more words on the front as a means of addressing (kind of like an email address, but way more complicated, taking up three lines or more!)

This whole process was known as "writing and mailing a letter". Nowadays, of course, this antiquated technology has been surpassed by IM, texting, Twitter, and status updates on Facebook. I think we can all agree that there is nothing that needs to be said if it can't be said in 140 characters or less! But let's say for a minute that you wanted to "write and mail a letter, " but didn't want to go all the way back to 1920 to do it. (more...)

Recently, Andy Hunsucker wrote an article on his favorite Photoshop keyboard shortcuts. If you like keyboard shortcuts and other Photoshop tips, enjoy this entertaining video, "101 Photoshop Tips in 5 Minutes," by Deke McClelland for Adobe TV:

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/dekepod/101-photoshop-tips-in-5-minutes/

You may already know that Photoshop blend modes can immeasurably enhance your creativity and playfulness. You may be familiar with the artful aspects of blend modes; however, most Photoshop users don't know they are corrective, too. Understanding how they work is a key to using them to your best advantage.

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You may have attended the IT Training & Education STEPS workshop, "Adobe Illustrator CS4: The Basics," and would like to learn more. Make lynda.com your personal trainer! If you would like a little review of Illustrator followed by more advanced concepts, see Mordy Golding's Illustrator CS4 Essential Training.

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NOTE: This article was originally posted as an appendix and supplemental material to Photoshop: In-Depth Healing Tools in conjunction with Carol Rhodes.

With digital camera photographs, there is very little preparation involved to work with them in an application like Photoshop. Many times, it is as simple as plugging a cable into the camera and then into your computer. The rest of the process is frequently accomplished automatically, or with very little direction.

However older photographs must be scanned in for the computer to be able to use them.  You might think, "I'll never need to work with old photographs, I have my digital camera."  But considering photography has been around for more than a century, and digital photography has only been the standard for a decade or so, there are millions of printed photographs still around that are deteriorating everyday.  If you want these photographs to last into the next generation, you need to preserve them digitally.

The problem with print photography is that it was growing and changing constantly throughout it's lifetime.  Many of the developing techniques used by early consumer cameras are unstable, and the chemicals used can breakdown over time.  Look at any old photograph.  The 'sepia tone' effect that we associate with older photographs is actually the deterioration of the chemicals used to develop the photograph.  Left unchecked, eventually the image will be unrecognizable.

Considering that many print photographs are stored in shoe boxes in closets and under beds, it's even more important to preserve the images we want to last forever.

In this article, we will examine scanners, including what types are available to consumers, and what features to look for.  Finally, we will discuss the best practice to follow to ensure you get a good scan.

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The Pen tool is one of the most challenging and powerful tools in graphic design.  One of the major advantages of learning the Pen tool is that it is the same tool across many applications.  However, it is used differently between programs.  Pen projects in Illustrator would have different results from Pen projects in InDesign, for example.

In this video tutorial by Ashley Endemann, we are going to explore some of the uses of the Pen tool in InDesign. We will look at creating a clipping path for a graphic, custom frames for text, as well as modifying a font for decorative or design purposes.

If you don't know how to use the Pen tool, don't worry.  You can take our Pen tool class: Adobe CS4: Pen Tool Basics for Advanced Graphic Design, and get up to speed.

Using the Pen Tool in InDesign

Special Thanks to Ashley Endemann for the video.

In the IT Training & Education workshop at IU called PowerPoint: Customizing a Presentation, we show participants how to create a trigger from a clip art image. A trigger allows you to "set off" or start another animation by clicking on an element on a slide.

For example, you might have a question on a slide and then have several potential answers. You might set things up so that when your audience clicks on an answer, they get additional feedback. Perhaps a textbox appears that says, "Great job. This is the correct answer!" or maybe they hear a sound that tells them whether their answer is correct or incorrect. In this case, each of the text boxes that contains an answer is a trigger that starts another animation when clicked.

A trigger allows you to activate an animation whenever you want to see it. This means that you don't have to use the trigger at all, if you find that you don't need it during your presentation. The example used in our workshop is a practice problem. If a presenter is using the same slide show over and over again with different audiences, he may want to be able to access additional practice problems or examples for some groups but not others.

Creating triggers is not difficult and there are many good online tutorials that will walk you through the process. There is one step in the process, however, that workshop participants always have questions about. After you have added the supplemental information and the animation that brings it to the screen, you must set up the trigger. If you decide to use a clip art image for your trigger and you have more than one image on the slide, it is very difficult to pick out the image that you need from the list on the drop-down menu. (more...)