Design/Layout Shortcuts
3dogmama (1991 pencils) | Sat, 2008-03-01 21:07I'm not talking keyboard shortcuts here, I'm opening the discussion to personal design shortcuts. You know, like the one where you slide the coloured square around the layout to obtain a somewhat optimal degree of measurement accuracy, quickly eyeballing each element's juxtaposition to the square rather than entering the numeric values of each one? Maybe we can all offer one another their own little tricks of the trade to keep the creative move moving!
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"Art -- the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised." - James Thurber
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Hopefully you're not still sliding boxes around to measure things on your documents. :) Use rules! He he
I find 'align' and rules are your friends, as are Margins and Bleed settings in InDesign. It's amazing to me how many designers waste rules on these items alone. :)
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Powerpoint is not a design application
My latest web design work
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Dirt and Rust
Yes, and occasionally I remove my socks in able to count to ten. :)
Neanderthal method, I realize, but it's one I fell back on the other day when I had to jump in and repair another designer's work in Quark 6. Didn't know where and how to begin in the multi-paged nightmare so I got out the block...
ttfn!
3dogmama
"Art -- the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised." - James Thurber
You should replace the block method with 'coordinates' and 'paste in place'. :) You can actually type in the exact location you want your object to occupy. It takes all the guess work (and nudging!) out of placing objects.
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Powerpoint is not a design application
My latest web design work
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Dirt and Rust
When doing my own work (which is 99.99999% of the time), I do use typed-in coordinates to align my components. I don't use the block method. However, I was recently saddled with a 24-page book that someone else had designed. They had placed each bit of minute text and graphics into their own separate boxes. Envision, if you will, an 11x17 table (one of 2, two page spreads of charts!) with approximately 350 separated elements. (Awful; still recovering from that one.) Not one bloody thing lined up. Is there a way to group select a bunch of different elements on separate pages--or even on the same page for that matter-- so you could have each element begin at the same edge? The time I tried to do that with a bunch of staggered text boxes, all it did was align to the element in the forefront. If you do, please let me know. Could have saved me a lot of time and tenseness with this project.
Also, when I commanded SHOW GUIDES what appeared on the screen could have been likened to looking through the bars of a multi-doored jail cell. It would have taken me half the day to remove the LAYERS of guidelines. I think this designer used every increment in the book, but didn't bother to apply any of them to the actual layout.
**Also only used my block to do a quick run-through eyeball for spacing. Had three hours to get it out the door. It was faster than cursoring in each singular text box to verify leading and column spacing.
EDIT: Just answered my own question. Space Align>Item Relative.
BTW- Thanks for nudging my lazy bones into learning more about programs I've become accustomed to.
ttfn!
3dogmama
"Art -- the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised." - James Thurber
That sounds awful, but alas so commonplace. So many designers just hop on applications without really using them to their full, or even fundamental, potential. You could also use masterpages for a repeating item and then unlock it on each page to customize it (I think shift + command + click to release a master item on a live page).
Good on ya for movin dem bones. :)
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Powerpoint is not a design application
My latest web design work
----
Dirt and Rust
Neanderthal, your toes to count to ten? I use my fingers to count to ten and reserve my toes for the big numbers.
I'm an illustrator by trade, but occassionally need to use Quark . To avoid tabbing hell on long sections of bulleted text, I do this:
Beside the bullet I place one tab; for this example I'll use quarter inch. Then I go into:
Style>Formats>Left indent: .25"; First line: -.25"; right indent leave at 0
This example would line all text up .25" tab, yet still keep bullet at left-hand margin.
The eyedropper tool is my best friend!
"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda