Indesign Secrets

In this landmark 300th episode…  News Anne-Marie and David will be live at Adobe MAX in October CreativePro Week 2023 registration opens October 6, 2022 Design & Accessibility Summit (online) Nov. 29–Dec. 2, 2022 Whoa! 300 episodes! A look back at 17 years of the InDesign Secrets podcast Snippets from the first episode, Nov. 29, 2005 Audio snippets from friends and colleagues with limericks, favorite features, memories, and more The FIRST Obscure InDesign Feature: Friendly Alien (A young David explains this in the first episode) Sponsors for this episode: >> Canto is a leader in digital asset management (DAM) software, with customers that include many of today’s top brands. This is an incredibly intuitive and easy to use platform that gives creative teams a centralized location to organize, find, and share all of their digital brand assets, including videos, images, graphics, etc. Canto integrates directly with Adobe Creative Cloud software. For more information and a personalized demo, visit

In this episode… News Last chance to get CreativePro Week 2022 videos and handouts Our online Design and Marketing Summit debuts July 18–19   Illustrator Summit returns Sept 22–23 Anne-Marie and David will be live at Adobe MAX in October CreativePro Magazine's July issue is all about Illustrator and InDesign Type: https://creativepro.com/issues/ "Smarter Workflows with InDesign and Word," Anne-Marie's newly-published course on LinkedIn Learning Editorial Tools and Panels in InDesign Obscure InDesign Feature: Select Subject  Sponsor for this episode: > > Santa Cruz Software has a solution for the “83% of respondents who have said they have to spend time finding a lost sset.” The answer is LinkrUI, a plugin that enables direct searching, opening, placing, and syncing of assets stored in a DAM or other storage services such as Box and Dropbox from within Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Download the free version here. Links mentioned in this podcast: Smarter Workflows with InDesign and Word by Anne-

In this episode… News CreativePro Week 2022 recap Design and Marketing Summit coming up in July!   CreativePro Magazine issues: https://creativepro.com/issues/ Cool InDesign tips we learned at the conference Obscure InDesign Feature: Create Button Trigger  Sponsor for this episode: >> Canto is a leader in digital asset management (DAM) software, with customers that include many of today’s top brands. This is an incredibly intuitive and easy to use platform that gives creative teams a centralized location to organize, find, and share all of their digital brand assets, including videos, images, graphics, etc. Canto integrates directly with Adobe Creative Cloud software. For more information and a personalized demo, visit https://go.canto.com/CreativePro.  Links mentioned in this podcast: CreativePro Week: on-demand still available https://creativeproweek.com/2022ondemand/ CreativePro Week 2023 announced: https://creativeproweek.com/savethedate2023/ Learn to use Canva: https://creativepro.com/getting-start

In this episode… News Adobe InDesign 17.2.1 update patch released CreativePro Week May 9-13, live in DC and online CreativePro Events: https://creativepro.com/events CreativePro Magazine: https://creativepro.com/issues/ CI-HUB Prize Raffle: https://ci-hub.com/creativepro/   Deadline is May 2 2022! Details on that page Field Guide to Non-Printing Highlights (there are more than you think!) Obscure InDesign Feature: Float in Window  Sponsors for this episode: >> Microsoft and Adobe! Both of these fine companies are CreativePro partners and will be represented at CreativePro Week 2022. Adobe is flying in a group of Adobe CC engineers from India, and MS Office product manager Stephanie Horn is doing a session on using video in Powerpoint.  Links mentioned in this podcast: You can use CC Libraries in Word and PowerPoint: https://creativepro.com/using-cc-libraries-in-word-and-powerpoint/ Cool tip: "How to Make an Object Style That Resizes Objects from the Center (or Any Other Reference Point) in InDesign" h

In this episode… News Adobe InDesign 17.2 update patch released CreativePro Week agenda is up! May 9-13, live in DC and online The cover story in the March 2022 issue of CreativePro magazine dives deep into alternatives to Adobe software (including how Affinity Publisher stacks up to InDesign)  And the April issue is all about making data visual; a must-read for anyone who makes charts, graphs, infographics, and so on  Interview with Andreas Michalski of CI-HUB Control Panel vs. the Properties Panel: Total Smackdown! Obscure InDesign Feature: Key Object  Sponsor for this episode: >> Canto (they dropped the “Cumulus” name a few years ago) is a leader in digital asset management (DAM) software, with customers that include many of today’s top brands. This is an incredibly intuitive and easy to use platform that gives creative teams a centralized location to organize, find, and share all of their digital brand assets, including videos, images, graphics, etc. Canto integrates directly with Adobe Creative

In this episode… News Creative Pro Events full 2022 schedule is up! The Design + PowerPoint Summit, March 10-11 CreativePro Week, May 9-13 (live in DC and online!) The Design + Marketing Summit, July 18-19 The Adobe Illustrator Summit, September 22-23 The Design + Accessibility Summit, November 29-December 2 InDesign's Most Confusing Features Obscure InDesign Feature: Others  Links mentioned in this podcast: Design + PowerPoint Summit, CreativePro Week, and more! https://creativepro.com/events Confusing Features Start document on a left-hand page: https://creativepro.com/starting-a-document-on-a-left-hand-page/ Gap Tool: https://creativepro.com/exactly-indesign-tool/ Auto-Fit: https://creativepro.com/video-use-auto-fit-on-images/ How Gradients Work: https://creativepro.com/adjusting-the-position-of-gradients/ Why Radial Gradients are crazy: https://creativepro.com/yes-indesigns-radial-gradients-insane-its-you/ Place and Link: https://creativepro.com/linking-images-change/(how you get to this epis

In this episode… News Creative Pro Events full 2022 schedule is up! The Design + PowerPoint Summit, March 10-11 CreativePro Week, May 9-13 (live in DC and online!) The Design + Marketing Summit, July 18-19 The Adobe Illustrator Summit, September 22-23 The Design + Accessibility Summit, November 29-December 2 Pantone® and Adobe brouhaha InDesign Collaboration Tips and Solutions Obscure InDesign Feature: Accessibility (it appears in an InDesign panel) Sponsors for this episode: >> Ajar Productions is the developer of the phenomenal in5 add-on for Adobe InDesign, which lets you export interactivity from InDesign to different formats  that actually work. Create websites, digital magazines, mobile apps, animated banners and presentations, by simply using InDesign, no coding involved! They’re now adding accessibility features, see their YouTube video. Learn more and download a free trial of in5 at in5.us.  Links mentioned in this podcast: Anne-Marie’s InDesign Tips for Design Geeks video on extractin

In this episode… News Adobe InDesign 2022  has an update (v17.01x) CreativePro Magazine issue 1 is out! On-Demand passes now available for the expanded Design + Accessibility Summit Some Totally Obvious InDesign Things We Just Learned This Year Interview with Marcus Radich from PageProof Obscure InDesign Feature: “Roger, hungry, ate 236 peaches and cantaloupes in 1904” Sponsors for this episode: > 3M’s VAS: 3M’s Visual Attention Software (VAS) is powerful, science-based AI that simulates the human vision system to analyze visual content and predicts with 92% accuracy what is attracting viewer attention. VAS is available as a web app and plugins for Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and XD. Start your free trial today, and enter promo code CREATIVEPRO5 for 5 additional trial credits! Links mentioned in this podcast: The Design + Accessibility Summit CreativePro Week What's new in InDesign 2022 (17.0) https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/whats-new.html What's new in 17.01: https://helpx.adobe.com/inde

In this episode… News Adobe InDesign 2022 (v17.0x) now available InDesign Magazine is evolving into CreativePro magazine, first issue out November 1 2021! Sign up for our expanded Design + Accessibility Summit, Nov. 16–19 Interview with Chad Chelius and Dax Castro, accessibility experts and hosts of The A11y Podcast Obscure InDesign Feature: Flip  Sponsors for this episode: > Santa Cruz Software has a solution for the "83% of respondents who have said they have to spend time finding a lost asset." The answer is LinkrUI, a plugin that enables direct searching, opening, placing, and syncing of assets stored in a DAM or other storage services such as Box and Dropbox from within Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Read about the freemium version here. Links mentioned in this podcast: David's session at MAX: Discovering the Best InDesign Tips and Tricks Anne-Marie's lab at MAX: InDesign Basics: From Newbie to Pro Photoshop Banana (easter egg): https://creativepro.com/photoshop-easter-eggs/ Adobe MA

In this episode… News InDesign Magazine is evolving into CreativePro magazine Adobe InDesign 16.4 released Adobe MAX 2021 is Oct. 26–Oct. 28; David and AM are presenting! Our new online event! The Design + Accessibility Summit, Nov. 16–19 You can purchase online passes (recordings and handouts) of our previous events on our Events page Interview with Kieron Lewis, designer, teacher, and new MAX speaker on Empowering Community through Collaboration and Editorial Design  Obscure InDesign Feature: Edit in Copy Editor (beta) Sponsors for this episode: > Santa Cruz Software has a solution for the "83% of respondents who have said they have to spend time finding a lost asset." The answer is LinkrUI, a plugin that enables direct searching, opening, placing, and syncing of assets stored in a DAM or other storage services such as Box and Dropbox from within Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Read about the freemium version here. > Adobe MAX 2021: Once again, the Creativity Conference is online and free!

In this episode… News Adobe MAX 2021 is Oct. 26–Oct. 28; David and AM are presenting! Our new online event! The Design + Accessibility Summit, Nov. 16–19 You can purchase online passes (recordings and handouts) of our previous events on our Events page InDesign Magazine August and September issues are out, excellent content! Interview with Angelo Montilla, InDesign YouTube star and new MAX speaker Nested Styles vs. GREP Styles: What's the difference? Obscure InDesign Feature: Extensions Sponsor for this episode: > Adobe MAX 2021: Once again, the Creativity Conference is online and free! Register today to see all the 300+ sessions covering everything from app "how-to's" to managing design and promoting creativity.  Links mentioned in this podcast: David's session at MAX: Discovering the Best InDesign Tips and Tricks Anne-Marie's lab at MAX: InDesign Basics: From Newbie to Pro Angelo Montilla's lab at MAX: Digital Publishing and Interactivity in InDesign CreativePro's new "Design + Accessibility Sum

In this episode… News Last chance for live tickets to the InDesign + Type Summit (online event) July 29–30, 2021 if you're a nonprofit, government agency, student, or work for a school, contact events@creativepro.com for a $100 discount code The Adobe Illustrator Summit, August 26-27: https://creativepro.com/adobe-illustrator-summit/ InDesign Magazine for July 2021 is Illustrator and InDesign; August 2021 is on creating social media artwork and making dielines for print packaging Best practices for working with Illustrator documents in InDesign Keyboard shortcut of the month: Capital E (yes, Shift-E) Obscure InDesign Feature: Crop to Art Sponsors for this episode: > 3M's VAS: 3M's Visual Attention Software (VAS) is powerful, science-based AI that simulates the human vision system to analyze visual content and predicts with 92% accuracy what is attracting viewer attention. VAS is available as a web app and plugins for Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and XD. Start your free trial today, and enter promo

In this episode… News Videos on demand for CreativePro Week 2021 InDesign + Type Summit (online event) July 29–30, 2021 InDesign Magazine for June 2021 is all about Type and Typography! Our favorite type tips and scripts Obscure InDesign Feature: Nonbreaking Space (Fixed Width) Links mentioned in this podcast: Videos on Demand now available for CreativePro Week 2021 The InDesign + Type Summit InDesign Tips videos on LinkedIn Learning/Lynda.com: InDesign Tips for Design Geeks  (AM's new weekly course) InDesign Secrets (David and AM's weekly course) InDesign 16.3.1 notes: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/fixed-issues.html https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/Indesign-for-apple-silicon.html Working with Hyphenation & Justification settings Editing H&Js: https://creativepro.com/abcs-hj/ Favorite H&J Settings: https://creativepro.com/what-are-your-favorite-word-and-character-space-settings-for-hjs/ When to Use Balance Ragged Lines https://creativepro.com/when-to-use-balance-ragged-l

In this episode… News Videos on demand for CreativePro Week 2021 InDesign + Type Summit (online event) July 29–30, 2021 InDesign Magazine for May 2021 (gradients) and June 2021 (type and typography) Making presentations with InDesign Keyboard shortcut of the month: Control-B (Command-B on Mac) Obscure InDesign Feature: On Click (Self)  Links mentioned in this podcast: Videos on Demand now available for CreativePro Week 2021  The InDesign + Type Summit Creating Presentations with InDesign InDesign Magazine feature story Free InDesign presentation template InDesign Template of the Month: Flexible Presentation InDesign presentation templates at Adobe Stock (many free) Jesus Ramirez: Yes, we have a Banana (in Photoshop) https://photoshoptrainingchannel.com/photoshop-easter-eggs/ in5's post, "Interactive PDF is dead" https://ajarproductions.com/blog/2018/03/26/interactive-pdf-is-dead-heres-what-you-can-create-from-indesign-thats-even-better/ CircularFlow for better fixed-layout EPUBs for Kindles

In this episode… News Signed up for CreativePro Week 2021? Speak at Ignite! InDesign 16.2 released and then pulled Why objects and text sometime just … disappear Obscure InDesign Feature: Split Window to Compare Layouts  News and special offers from our sponsors: >> Ajar Productions is the developer of the phenomenal in5 add-on for Adobe InDesign, which lets you export interactivity from InDesign to different formats, that actually work. in5 supports all of InDesign's native interactivity—like animation, buttons, object states, audio and video—and in5 adds additional interactivity to InDesign, like 3-D Flip Cards, Responsive Layouts, Parallax, and more. Create websites, digital magazines, mobile apps, animated banners and presentations, by simply using InDesign, no coding involved! Learn more and download a free trial of in5 at in5.us.  >> Cacidi Systems has been developing solutions for Adobe InDesign users since InDesign began! They offer a number of plug-ins and workflow system for content integrat

In this episode… News CreativePro Week 2021 agenda and speakers are up! Bug fix for InDesign 2021 brings it to v16.1 Interview with Justin Putney, in5 plugin creator We space out with some cool spacing tips Obscure InDesign Feature: Sort Swatches by Color Value  Links mentioned in this podcast: Register now for CreativePro Week 2021 Want to speak at CreativePro events? Fill this out  Justin Putney and in5 links: Product page for in5 interactive export add-on for InDesign Script for Merging Multiple Text Frames Into One Copy (Package) Fonts to Folder Justin's original Kickstarter page Why Justin says "Interactive PDF is Dead" Examples of Customers Using in5 Spacing Tricks! Setting Exact Space Between Objects Live Distribute Making Cool Patterns with Live Distribute spacing trick How the Gap tools works How the Gap tool works with Groups Convert a bunch of random objects into a grid  InDesignSecrets… YouTube videos Facebook group LinkedIn group

In this episode… News Agenda is up for the online CreativePro Week 2021! Register now to score early-bird pricing. Throw your hat in the ring for "I want to speak at CreativePro events"  Anne-Marie's new weekly series is live! "InDesign Tips for Design Geeks" Useful Adobe Bridge features for InDesign users Obscure InDesign Feature: The InDesign Button  News and special offers from our sponsors: >> Cacidi Systems has been developing solutions for Adobe InDesign users since InDesign began! They offer a number of plug-ins and workflow system for content integration and efficient marketing production. We especially love Cacidi Charts, which has been updated and leveled up for InDesign 2020 and 2021. No more need to jump into Illustrator or Powerpoint; create gorgeous charts right in InDesign. Free trial available! Links mentioned in this podcast: Register now for CreativePro Week 2021 Want to speak at CreativePro events? Fill this out  Cacidi Charts: https://www.cacidi.com/huge-cacidi-charts-cc2020

In this episode… News Minor updates to InDesign 2021 released The 2021 InDesign Conference (part of CreativePro Week) is online-only, May 17-21. Registration is open! All about Transparency in InDesign — looks great, but will it print? Obscure InDesign Feature: Lights  Links mentioned in this podcast: Register now for CreativePro Week 2021 PowerPoint Presentation Design Deep Dive and other online events New features in 16.0.1 and 16.0.2 Transparency (Jan 2021 feature story in InDesign Magazine) Great article by Claudia McCue: https://creativepro.com/regarding-transparency/ Article about transparency effects by Steve Caplin: https://creativepro.com/the-fx-files/\ Yes, "opaques" are a thing! https://www.sockdreams.com/opaque-nylon-stockings.html Problems with spot colors and transparency https://creativepro.com/indesigns-onscreen-untruths-overprinting-or-multiplying-spot-colors/ https://creativepro.com/eliminating-the-white-box-effect/ https://creativepro.com/eliminating-ydb-yucky-discolored-box-s

Special episode recorded LIVE at our 2020 Holiday Special! Save the Date for our next online conference: Click: Powerpoint and Presentation Design, February 18–19, 2021 December 2020 issue of InDesign Magazine is all about creating web and screen graphics Making gifts with InDesign Interview with John McWade Obscure InDesign Feature: Animated Zoom  Links mentioned in this podcast: Register now for CreativePro Week 2021 Keith Gilbert’s 100 Things Every InDesign User Should Know, our new ebook Making gifts from InDesign PhotoFlinger (laying out photos and objects quickly): https://www.premediasystems.com/scripts-and-more Blurb Photo book maker: https://www.blurb.com/indesign-plugin Spoonflower for fabric, wallpaper, bedding: https://www.spoonflower.com/en/design-tools Zazzle for custom gifts: https://www.zazzle.com/custom/gifts Fun holiday-themed articles on CP: Candy Cane text: https://creativepro.com/holiday-text-fx-part-1-candy-cane-text/ Wrap text in lights: https://creativepro.com/holiday-text-fx-

In this episode: Recordings available for the InDesign + Accessibility Summit See the agenda for our first-ever InDesign Secrets Holiday Special, Dec. 15 InDesign 2020 bug fix released Best practices for updating InDesign Check out the InDesign goodies (many are free) in the Creative Cloud Marketplace Obscure InDesign Feature: Tint Range  Links mentioned in this podcast: CreativePro.com Cyber week deals Register now for CreativePro Week 2021 Should you update your software or operating system? Check out the Adobe Exchange for Creative Cloud Details on Find/Change Color  InDesignSecrets… YouTube videos Facebook group LinkedIn group