Application Bar

Application Bar on the top of the window beside the Help menu which allows us to set the document zoom level or allow turning the rulers and guides on and off. It also allows us to tile multiple windows vertically or horizontally. The Br and St icons stand for Adobe Bridge and Adobe Stock respectively and you may or may not see them depending on your installation.

Control Panel

Below the application bar is the long strip called the Control Panel which is a typical component of the UI. The Control Panel basically allows you to change properties such as text formatting, color fill, and a host of contextually dependent functions. It is freely movable and you can float or dock it. Make sure you dock it in a place, which is convenient as you’ll be using this very often.

Document Layout

Document surrounded by black borders is the limit of the printed page. The pink guides on the top and bottom define the margins. The purple guides on the left and right are column guides.

If you have multiple columns, the purple guides define each column. Neither the pink nor the purple guides print out or will be seen in the exported PDF.

Toolbar

The Toolbar which is usually to the left of the main workspace contains all the tools required to work with the document. It has selection tools, text tools, eyedropper tools, etc. Clicking on these tools will open up further functions relevant to that tool in the Control Panel described above. Some tools like the Type tool, for example, have a small arrow underneath them which can reveal a similar tool with a different function.

Panels Bar

To the right of the workspace is the Panels bar which has some additional functions. What you see on the Panels bar can vary based on the workspace. Similar to the other window components described above, the Panels bar can be moved around freely or docked to a suitable position.

Clicking a button in the Panels bar will open up additional options. For example, clicking the Stroke option will open a pop-out window allowing us to change the properties of the stroke. You can add more functions to the Panel bar by going to the Window menu and choosing the desired function.

Ruler Measurements

It is important to be able to set the ruler measurements as desired.

  • Right-click on the point where the horizontal and vertical rulers intersect and select the desired measurement units.
  • You can also hide the rulers if you don’t need them.
  • Go to edit menu or simply press Ctrl + K to open the Preferences dialog box.
  • Click on Units and Increments option and select the desired measurement units.

Create a New Document

  • You can create a new document by pressing Ctrl+N
  • go to the File menu,
  • Select New, and then click on Document.
  • This opens the New Document dialog box.

Before moving on,

  • The Preview checkbox in the lower left corner of the dialog box.
  • Note, that the preview will disappear when you cancel creating the document.
  • The Facing Pages option should only be selected if your document has left and right pages that face each other like in a book. If you are only going to create a single page document or a document that has different information on different pages such as a brochure, it is better to turn the option off.
  • The Primary Text Frame adds a text frame to your Master Page which is useful if the text flows from chapter to chapter like in a book. This can be left off by default.

Number of Pages and the Page Size

You can also set the number of pages the document will contain. This can also be left at 1 and additional pages added later. If you are working on a multi-chapter book, you can choose to select from which page of the book you want to start from. Again, this can also be set later.

The Page Size field is important to determine how this document will be printed. Selecting the right page size is important so that the printer knows the exact measurements of the printed page. You can choose from a set of default page sizes or define your own. Notice that the Width and Height will change automatically based on the chosen option.

When you select the Custom option, you get to input your own values in the Width and Height boxes. You can input the values in measurement of your choice and InDesign will automatically convert that into the current measurement used in the document as defined in the Units and Measurements preferences.

You can also toggle the Orientation between landscape or portrait which essentially swaps the Width and Height values.

The Columns area helps you define how many columns are to be created in the document. The default is 1. The Gutter helps in defining the separation space between these columns.

Setting the Margins, Bleed, and Slug

The Margins area helps in defining the margins of the page. You can obviously go outside the margins with your content but defining the margins helps in providing a perspective to your document.

There are a Bleed and Slug option that is usually collapsed but can be revealed by clicking the arrow beside it. Bleed is the amount of space outside the margins that you set so that the printing press doesn’t cut off the actual content near the margins. Slug is the space where you enter information for the printer to understand such as the color space used or the number of pages, etc. There is a chain icon in the middle, which means that the values are linked. If you change a value for the Top margin, then the other values will also change.

Saving a Document Preset

Click the Save Document Preset icon right next to the Document Preset field and give a name that you can remember so that it becomes easy to recall the settings later. You can also delete the preset by clicking the Delete Document Preset icon right next to the Save Document Preset icon.

Save an InDesign Markup (IDML) document

  • Choose File > Save
  • From the Save As Type menu, choose InDesign Markup (IDML).
  • Click Save.
  • You can open the saved IDML file in InDesign CS4 but not in any previous version of InDesign.