On text tricks in InDesign, more

In an effort to keep everyone updated on the weekly design sessions held on Tuesdays at my desk, I'll post the details of these sessions in this blog.

This week I covered specialized text treatments and transparency in the weekly design session.

If you'd like to convert a hunk of text to outlines (this would be useful if you'd like to fill the text with a photo) select the desired text and click the "Type" menu at the top of the screen and drag to "Create outlines." InDesign will lay the outlined text on top of the text in the text box, grouped. Ungroup the text and drag it into the desired location. You can now treat it as you would a picture box, adding a stroke to the border and placing a photo inside word or words.

Transparency is a very easy to use feature in InDesign. Pull up the Transparency palette and lighten up text, photos or whatever to the desired effect. Good for photo illustrations and collages or to accompany features content. A few minutes of experimenting with it and you'll be hooked, and a pro.

Finally, I covered the Multi-edit function in Publicus. This feature works great for adding content to special sections, or making a change to a group of stories. Click the box at the far right of the screen corresponding to the headlines you'd like to change. Click Multi-Edit above the story list and you can change a story's Theme, Taxonomy, Category, Date and more. Work through the options listed in the menu and click save and close when you are finished.

As always, if you have a suggestion for a design session topic, and we'll cover some online stuff weekly too, let me know.

— Brian