New! Features

Adobe InDesign CS4

Adobe InDesign CS4 means superior results faster, with new features and enhancements that help you create and manage your images more easily and efficiently. The indispensable new and improved features help graphic web designers, photographers, and video professionals create the highest quality images, with the control, flexibility, and capabilities that you expect from the professional standards in desktop digital imaging.

Each new release of InDesign brings with it new features, improvements, and added sophistication. This edition is aimed at the Web designer, interactive media professional, or subject matter expert developing multimedia content, and the application developer.

Only New Features

If you’re already familiar with InDesign CS3, you can access and download all the tasks in this book with Adobe InDesign CS4 New Features to help make your transition to the new version simple and smooth. The InDesign CS4 New Features as well as other InDesign CS3 to InDesign CS4 transition helpers are available on the Web at www.perspection.com.

What’s New

If you’re searching for what’s new in InDesign CS4, just look for the icon: New!. The new icon appears in the table of contents and throughout this book, so you can quickly and easily identify a new or improved feature in InDesign CS4. The following is a brief description of each new feature and its location in this book.

InDesign CS4

• Tabbed Document Window (p. 6, 18-19, 26) Display multiple documents in a tabbed view or open them side by side so you can easily compare or drag items from one document to another. Simply click a document’s tab to open it, or click Close (x) on a tab to close it.

• Application Bar and Workspaces Menu (p. 6, 41, 43, 46, 48, 52-53) From the Application bar at the top of each Creative Suite application, provides menus and options in one easy to access place. Use the workspace switcher to quickly jump to different workspace configurations to meet your specific needs. Also along this bar, you can access Adobe Bridge and the document arrangement panel

• Arrange Document Window (p. 18-19) Use the intuitive Arrange Documents window to quickly arrange your open documents in a variety of configurations.

• Community Help (p. 22-23) InDesign Help uses a Community Help site on the web at adobe.com (which is updated regularly) to help you find the information you need. When you start InDesign Help, your browser opens, displaying a web site with InDesign help categories and topics. Along with help text, some help topics include links to text and video tutorials. In addition, comments and ratings from users are available to help guide you to an answer.

• Adobe Product Improvement Program (p. 23) This is an opt-in program that allows you to test Adobe products and make suggestions for future products. This program enables Adobe to collect product usage data from customers while maintaining their privacy.

• New Pages Sizes (p. 28-29) New common monitor resolution sizes are available in the Page Size menu in the New Document dialog box. These options make it easier to design a document to a specific monitor size for interactive Flash and PDF workflows.

• Spread View Rotation (p. 37, 65) Temporarily rotate the spread view without physically turning your monitor. Enjoy full editing capability at 90 and 180 degree angles so that you can work on non-horizontal design elements, such as rotated calendar spreads and tables.

• Ruler Origin on Spine (p. 41) Correctly place the ruler’s zero position of X at the spine of your document so that the X values are positive for right sided pages and negative for left sided pages when Facing Pages is enabled.

• Quick Guide Deletion (p. 43) Instantly clear all selectable guides on your current spread or master page by right-clicking (Windows) or Ctrl-clicking (Mac OS) a ruler and choosing Delete All Guides.

• Smart Guides (p. 46-47) Align, space, rotate, and resize multiple objects in one step. Align to the horizontal, vertical, or center of page edges. The guides, object dimensions, rotation, and X, Y coordinates appear dynamically so you can snap objects in relation to other objects in the layout.

• Smart Dimensions (p. 46-47) When you create, resize, or rotate one object, Smart Dimensions shows the width, height, or rotation of your object, highlighting when the dimensions or rotation matches nearby objects.

• Smart Spacing (p. 46-47) Evenly space multiple items on your page by snapping objects into position without having to use the Align panel.

• Leading-based Baseline Grid Increments (p. 48) If you specify a different measurement system, such as millimeters or inches, baseline grid values still use points to match text size and leading.

• Undo Improvements (p. 54) Viewing actions such as Set Preview and Show Guides are no longer included as Undo items.

• Visual Pages Panel (p. 56-57) See thumbnails of your pages in the Pages panel for easy navigation and page arrangement. If transparency, page transitions, or spread rotation have been applied to pages, you can turn off their associated icons for a cleaner Pages panel.

• Slug area Enhancements (p. 62-63) Move pages and see that your objects in the slug and bleed area also move. Page numbers in the slug area display a number rather than the pasteboard index entry (PB).

• Links Panel (p. 137, 424-425) Find, sort, and organize placed content with the redesigned Links panel. Scan link attributes and click to view details such as scale, rotation, and resolution. Customize the Links panel to suit your working preferences. Quickly replace low-resolution images used as placeholders with high-resolution images based on filename. Filename extensions are ignored. Simply relink to a new folder.

• Kuler (p. 208-209) Kuler is an extension that provides access to the Kuler online community. The Kuler application is added as a panel in InDesign. You can add the Kuler color theme to the Swatches panel.

• Data Merge Output to PDF (p. 354-355) Run a data merge operation and output directly to PDF in a single pass, thanks to the Export to PDF command now included in the Data Merge panel. An intermediate InDesign document is no longer created. The PDF file takes advantage of PDF XObjects for static parts of the page, resulting in a reduced-size PDF.

• Live Preflight (p. 400-401) Preflight while you design for better results, greater time savings, and lower production costs. Continuous preflighting alerts you to potential production problems in real time. The new Preflight panel lets you navigate to and select the objects that are triggering the preflight error. View contextual tips to help you correct errors directly in layout.

• Smart Cursors (p. 409) When transforming objects, the cursor displays X and Y position, width and height, or rotation information. The Show Transformation Values option in Interface preferences lets you turn smart cursors on and off.

• Adobe ConnectNow (p. 442, 453) The Share My Screen command on the File menu allows you to connect to Adobe ConnectNow, which is a secure Web site where you can start an online meeting and collaborate on any design project across platforms and programs.

• Adobe Drive (p. 442) Adobe Drive is an AIR program that allows you to connect to hosted services, such as Version Cue CS4 servers.

Text Improvements

• Style Group Management (p. 78-79) Move styles in or out of style groups when synchronizing a book without creating duplicate styles.

• Smart Text Reflow (p. 96-97, 410-411) Treat InDesign as a word processor. Let InDesign add or remove pages automatically when you type text, hide conditions, or change or your text flow.

• Autocorrect Editing (p. 100) Edit entries on your Autocorrect misspelling list without having to delete and add entries.

• Table Enhancements (p. 258-259, 268-269, 313, 316) Tables in the Story Editor display text in sequential columns and rows for easy editing. Apply changes to cell and table borders without reselecting the stroke proxy borders. Add inline notes in tables to collaborate more effectively. Store alternate text, designer communications, and other annotations in notes linked to specific text in a table.

• GREP Styles (p. 282) Apply character styles to any text in a paragraph that matches the GREP expression you specify.

• Style Creation in Context (p. 282, 306) In dialog boxes where you can select a character or paragraph style, you can create a style without having to exit the dialog box. This ability is especially useful when you’re generating a table of contents, creating nested styles or GREP styles, or using Find/Change to change text formatting to a style.

• Nested Line Styles (p. 288-289) Use nested line styles to apply complex character formatting through the end of a line. Formatting remains unchanged when text is edited.

• All Language User Dictionary (p. 300) Add a custom word, name, or phrase to a user dictionary and all languages treat the term as correctly spelled.

• Conditional Text (p. 350-351) Use conditional text deliver multiple versions of a document for different users and channels. Create conditions and apply them to text for audience customization. If you hide conditions, the remaining text and anchored objects reflows automatically in your layout.

Graphics and Drawing Improvements

• Graphics Placement (p. 128) A frame drawn while an image is in the loaded cursor constrains to the proportions of the graphic. The graphic then fits to the frame proportionally and is centered unless frame fitting options have been applied to the frame. While dragging out a frame with the loaded cursor, the scale is displayed as part of the cursor. Hold down Shift to drag a non-constrained frame.

• Multiple Artboard Placement (p. 129) Cycle through multiple artboards created in Adobe Illustrator CS4 for quick placement in your InDesign document.

• Placing Multiple Graphics as a Contact Sheet (p. 132-133) Quickly create a contact sheet by placing multiple images in a grid arrangement. When placing multiple images, hold down Ctrl+Shift (Windows) or (Mac OS) to drag a grid of images. Use the arrow keys to control the number of rows and columns in the grid.

• Edit Original Graphic (p. 140) Use the Edit With command to choose which application to use to edit a placed item instead of relying on the operating system to default to the appropriate program.

• Free Transform Tool Improvements (p. 170) Resize an object more easily using the Free Transform tool, thanks to larger hit zones around object handles and the ability to resize along object edges.

• Text Stroke Control (p. 216-217) Adjust stroke cap, end join, miter limit, and stroke alignment on text without having to convert characters to outlines. These stroke options are also available in styles.

• Convert Point Menu Commands (p. 237-238) Convert corner points to smooth or line end points using the Convert Point commands that are now accessible through the menus.

• Pathfinder Panel Buttons (p. 240-242) Use one step to join paths, open paths, or reverse paths by clicking a button in the new Paths row in the Pathfinder panel.

• Keyboard Shortcuts for Scaling and Sizing (p. 427) Use new options in the keyboard shortcut editor to easily create shortcuts for increasing and decreasing size. Separate keyboard shortcuts are included for scaling and sizing objects.

Interactivity Improvements

• Hyperlinks Panel (p. 324-325) Use the redesigned Hyperlinks panel to easily create hyperlinks that navigate to external URLs, link to files with supplemental information, launch an e-mail client, or jump to a page or section of a page within the same or even a different document. Verify your hyperlinks directly in InDesign CS4 with no need to export the document to a PDF or SWF file for testing.

• Cross-References (p. 326-327) Insert and edit cross-references. Choose among different formats, or create your own. Cross-references are easily updated when pagination changes.

• Page Transitions in PDF and SWF files (p. 332) Apply page transitions directly in InDesign to individual pages or all spreads at once with a single click. See previews of available transition types, and control the direction and speed of your transitions for output to Flash (SWF file) and PDF.

• Enhanced Buttons (p. 334-338) Build interactive buttons using the updated Button panel. Design custom buttons or select a button from the integrated button library. Create buttons that let you navigate within a dynamic document, launch a movie, or play a sound.

Integration Improvements

• Interactive PDF Enhancements (p. 324-338, 364) Author interactive PDF documents by adding SWF files, Quicktime movies, and sound clips to your page layouts. Create interactive buttons, apply page transitions, and embed hyperlinks, cross-references, and bookmarks to create an immersive reading experience.

• InDesign Markup Language (IDML) (p. 358) InDesign Markup Language, an XML- based file format, allows developers to assemble and disassemble InDesign documents using standard XML tools and without having to open INDD files. As a result of the new markup language, many filename extensions have changed in the InCopy workflow.

• Export to Flash (SWF) (p. 360, 374-375) Create dynamic content without having to work in the authoring environment of Adobe Flash. Export SWF files directly from within InDesign, complete with page transitions, interactive buttons, rollovers, and hyperlinks. Automatically launch the Adobe Flash Player and preview a SWF file simply by exporting your InDesign layout.

• Export to Flash (XFL) (p. 360, 376-377) Export your InDesign document in the new XFL file format for opening in Adobe Flash CS4 Professional. Use the Flash authoring environment to add video, audio, animation, and complex interactivity. InDesign text exported as XFL remains fully editable when the XFL file is opened in Adobe Flash CS4 Professional. InDesign automatically converts high-resolution print assets (CMYK) to low-resolution web assets (RGB) upon export as an XFL file. An image placed multiple times in your InDesign document is saved as a single image asset with shared locations when exported as an XFL file.

• Assignments Improvements (p. 435-436) New Assignment operations in InCopy workflows are now enabled for unsaved InDesign documents. You care now prompted to save the document. The Assignments panel also included different options to update assignments. These options include Selected, Out-of-Date, and All. The All option updates all assignments, including those that aren’t out of date, thereby letting you view design changes that don’t affect the compositions of assignment text.

• Integration with Adobe Version Cue CS4 (p. 442, 455) Connect to Version Cue Server projects using Adobe Drive. The connected server appears like a hard drive or mapped network drive in Windows Explorer, Mac OS Finder, and dialog boxes such as Open and Save As.

• Integration with Adobe Bridge CS4 (p. 443, 445-447, 451) Browse, organize, label, and preview graphics and InDesign documents, templates, and snippets in Adobe Bridge. Drag and drop assets from Bridge into layouts easily and efficiently. Search for files using metadata that specifies keywords, fonts, colors, and more.