Part II: Document Fundamentals
Many InDesign users are tempted to launch right into the creation of new documents. And InDesign allows that, thanks to the freeform nature of many of its tools. You want to enter text? Just select the text tool and start typing, for example. But you'll get much more out of InDesign if you understand how to work with the underlying document structures. They're not as cool as adding text and graphics, but they'll let you create richer, more usable documents — and do so faster than the freeform approach for all but the one-of-a-kind documents that ad agencies might create.
Chapter 4 shows you the basics of the documents themselves: how to create, open, and save them, as well as how to change document views on-screen, so you can effectively adjust your view based on the level of detail you're working at.
Chapter 5 then shows you how to create pages — not just add them, but arrange them, set their dimensions and margins, and determine whether they'll be bound as facing pages (as in magazines and books) or as single-side pages (as in many reports). You'll also learn how to work with bleeds and slugs — items that extend beyond the page and are critical in many professionally printed documents.
With an understanding of the basic document and page structures, you're ready to take advantage of InDesign's layers feature, which lets you have multiple "sheets" in your document that you can show, hide, and arrange as needed. These are powerful for both multi-version documents and for faster layout operations within a document. Chapter 6 covers this topic.
Chapter 7 introduces you to the concept of layout standards — using templates, master pages, and libraries to save work in future documents that have similar elements. Sure, your first document will take longer to produce using these techniques, but you'll more than make up the time in future documents. They also help ensure consistency in multiuser environments.
Chapter 8 explains how to create colors, tints, and gradients in InDesign. Photoshop and Illustrator users will know the tools, but if you're not careful, you can use them to disastrous effect in InDesign. This chapter shows how to do colors right. A special eight-page Color Techniques insert shows the tools in action in full color.
Finally, Chapter 9 explains how to use long-document features — multichapter books, tables of contents, and indexes. Many layout artists never use these features, so you may skip this chapter initially, but understanding them can speed production of books, reports, and business documents.