The InDesigner

Want to know what’s changed in EPUB-related features in InDesign CS6? Here’s the complete list

BUG FIXES

The following are a few notable EPUB bug-fixes that are not new features:

• Fixed inline group-ordering when using Article panel. By default, inline groups are now represented in EPUB by layer order. There is also a special case where if the ordering of the individual objects are specified in the Article panel before creating the group, the Article panel ordering is preserved in the resulting group.
• Fixed an export issue with InDesign Object Style names when applied to frame objects. Object style names will now consistently be passed through to the EPUB export.
• Soft-returns are now converted to a single white space when using Remove Forced Link Break option in EPUB export.
• .XHTML file extension used in EPUB2 and EPUB3 packages.
• Em value is correctly calculated based on parent font size.
• Fixed sizing of superscript and subscript text when exporting to EPUB.

NEW CS6 FEATURES

EPUB 2

• Significant reorganization of EPUB Export UI.
• New options in Object Export dialog to float the frame Left or Right.
• Additional inline and anchored text frame attributes captured in CSS. Example: size, border style and width, fill color, padding (inset on text frame), and margin (on text wrap).
• Ability to set separate values for .epub margins (top, bottom, left, right).
• Option to link to multiple custom CSS files.
• New Paragraph Style Export Tag attribute to “split” EPUB files into smaller documents for older ebook devices and page break control.
• New XHTML document created when linking to an external ebook cover file.
• Added support for converting InDesign’s table cell styles to CSS in the exported EPUB.
• EPUB table dimension now includes attributes for column width and row minimum height.
• InDesign custom bullet and numbering marker strings now exported in EPUB.
• Added support for Japanese Ruby: font, size, and color.

EPUB3

• Support for the new EPUB3 package format.
• CS5.5 audio and video tags moved from EPUB2 to EPUB3 export.
• Option to link to multiple custom external javascripts.Support for vertical Japanese text.
• Ability to export placed HTML and placed Adobe Edge HTML animations to EPUB3. NOTE: EPUB3 validators may report errors if the placed HTML or HTML animations are not fully XHTML compliant. However, some EPUB3 viewers may still function correctly. Adobe Systems cannot guarantee how placed HTML or Adobe Edge animations will be supported in third party EPUB3 viewers.

EPUB3 with Layout

• Experimental feature that adds support for alternate and adaptive layouts to be included in the EPUB3 file. There are currently no publicly available production quality EPUB viewers that support this feature.

HTML

• CSS is written to an external file.
• Added fall-back support for Flash player for placed video.
• Support for Placed HTML and placed Adobe Edge animations.
• Option to link to multiple custom CSS files.
• Added UI to allow linking to multiple custom external javascripts.

Posted in CS6, EPUB | No Comments » |

A brand-new, two-part video series I recorded for Adobe TV launched today. It takes an in-depth look at the new features in InDesign CS 5.5 (and some improved older ones) that make the entire InDesign-to-accessible-PDF process faster, easier, and more reliable.
Part I explores the new features that greatly reduce the time and number of steps involved in creating accessible PDFs—setting up a content order in the new Articles panel, creating anchored images within a text flow, applying “Alt” text and tagging instructions to images, and mapping paragraph styles to PDF tags.

Part II starts with the finished InDesign document, exports it to a PDF, and show how well all the new InDesign CS5.5 features pay off in Acrobat X Pro. It also demonstrates how to further speed up the process using Actions in Acrobat X Pro.

If you watched the accessibility video I did last year, using CS5, you’ll be amazed how much work has been done by the InDesign team to take all the pain out of the process and enable real communication between InDesign and Acrobat.

Posted in Accessibility, Acrobat, CS5.5, Layout, Styles, Workflow | 10 Comments » |

OK…this has nothing to do with InDesign, but I had to let you all know that today — nearly 11 weeks early — our twin sons Ian and Declan joined the world. For preemies, they came out feisty and they’re in wonderful medical hands until we can hold them in our own.

Posted in News/Announcements | 10 Comments » |

My exhaustive review of InDesign CS5 went live on CreativePro.com today. It’s a detailed, feature-by-feature exploration of the new version. complete with a sample SWF animation and SWF slideshow created in in IDCS5, three short videos demonstrating cool new transformation features and, of course, the usual less-than-subtle use of baby photos.

The article’s broken up into multiple pages covering the following:

• Multiple Page Sizes; Span, Split, and Balance Columns

• Simplified Transformations and Selections

• The Gap Tool; Gridified Frames and Super Step-and-Repeat; Layers Rebuilt

• Metadata Captions; Mini Bridge

• Interactive Documents

• Workflow and Collaboration; (Not Quite) All The Little Things

• Buying Advice

If you want to know what’s new and whether or not it’s time to upgrade, this review tells you everything you need to know.

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments » |

Launch day for Adobe’s Creative Suite 5 is here, and so is my first podcast episode dedicated to the newest version of InDesign.

In this episode, I take a look at a number of very cool new features in InDesign CS5. There’s a lot more (see the full list below), but I’ve focused on some of my favorites, including span/split-column paragraphs, multiple page sizes, simplified transformations, metadata captions, the new Layers panel, and animation features (hinted at in my last post).

This episode is kind of a a long one, but I’ve included chapter markers so you can quickly jump to the section of the episode (there are five demo segments) you want to see.

Watch the episode here (36:46 | 70.1MB), or you can subscribe via iTunes.

Here’s a (just about) complete list of the new features in InDesign CS5. There are numerous other small details and enhancements, but here’s the biggest and the best: … (read more)

Posted in Automation, CS5, Design, Document Set-up, Graphics & Images, Interactivity, Layout, News/Announcements, Podcasts-Video, Productivity, Styles, Type & Text | 18 Comments » |

See this animation? I know what you’re thinking…Illustrator to Flash, right?

Think again.

What I can tell you now is that the animation above was created entirely in Adobe InDesign CS5. I can’t, however, say how I did it. InDesign CS5 is still under wraps until Adobe’s April 12, 2010 launch, so the lid remains nailed down tight on specifics. But I’ve been part of the beta testing program, and Adobe has allowed some pre-launch glimpses into what CS5 can do (just not how to do it…yet).

This was originally a print layout created in InDesign CS3. Without opening any other application, I was able to use InDesign CS5 to give this static print layout a new life on the web.

One file. One application. Two publishing destinations. Sweet!

I welcome everyone’s comments and reaction to the above animation, but if you have specific questions about it, be advised that I’ve said everything I can about it right here in this post.

Refresh the page to see the animation play from the start again, or you can view a larger version on YouTube.

Posted in CS5, News/Announcements | 5 Comments » |

Checkboxes and radio buttons and comb fields…oh my! After the podcast’s longest hiatus ever, and a cliffhanger gap worthy of The Sopranos, The InDesigner returns with a new episode that (finally!) finishes off the topic of designing smart for Acrobat forms.

In this episode, I take a look at adding form elements to an InDesign layout to create Acrobat-friendly checkboxes, radio buttons and comb fields, all of which can be achieved with a little help from anchored objects, GREP find/change and tables.

You may also notice new feature added to the podcast starting with this episode: chapters. You can now jump right to a specific part of the lesson using the chapters built into the video file.

Watch the episode here (15:30 | 45.5MB), or you can subscribe via iTunes.

Posted in GREP, Layout, Podcasts-Video, Styles, Tables, Uncategorized | 8 Comments » |

My first course for Lynda.com—InDesign CS4: Learning GREP—is now live on the Online Training Library. This 3-hour, 45-minute title is the first comprehensive, video-based course to be offered about using GREP specifically in InDesign. Starting with an explanation of what GREP is, and how to write expressions using metacharacters, InDesign CS4: Learning GREP covers both GREP Find/Change (CS3 and CS4), and GREP Styles (CS4) in depth.

Exercises demonstrated in the course include:

• describing figure references in parentheses without styling the parentheses themselves
• cleaning up inconsistent U.S. phone number formatting
• describing every e-mail address in the world with one expression
• simultaneously applying two or more character styles to the same text
• dynamically preventing orphaned words at the end of a paragraph
• converting and reformatting spreadsheet data from Excel to produce directory listings
• inserting anchored objects with Find/Change
• customizing a text cleanup script

Viewing the full course requires a paid Lynda.com account. However, 9 of the movies in the course are available for non-members to preview. For a 24-hour free pass to the Online Training Library, click here.

Posted in GREP, News/Announcements | 12 Comments » |

OK…so this is a straigt-up promotion. I admit that and make no apologies for it, because it’s for what I have always said is the best (reasonable sum of) money an InDesign user can spend to advance their knowledge of the application: InDesign Magazine.

From now through Wednesday, September 30, you have a chance to get a 2-year subscription to InDesign magazine for the lowest price I’ve ever seen it for: $49. That subscription includes every back issue of the magazine (PDF magazines never run out of copies!), and…as part of this offer, a free t-shirt. C’mon…who doesn’t love getting a free t-shirt?

So act now. Go to http://tinyurl.com/m5hy28 and follow the instructions on that page to take advantage of the offer while it lasts.

Posted in News/Announcements | 3 Comments » |

As reported in an earlier post the custom style mapping feature available in the Microsoft Word Import Options dialog has been broken since InDesign CS4 hit the shelves almost a year ago. Today, with the release of the 6.0.4 update for both Windows and Mac (not yet posted on the InDesign Mac Updates page, but available from InDesign’s Help > Updates… menu), this error–along with other odd bugs and behaviors–is fixed.

I haven’t tested the style mapping fix on Windows (I’d welcome any blog reader’s experience on whether or not it’s working as advertised on that platform), but I tested it on the Mac and the functionality has been restored successfully. Even after a quit and restart of InDesign, my custom style map preset was preserved along with all of the style settings associated with it.

For those of you who haven’t yet updated to 6.0.4, and the many of you who responded with outrage to my earlier post about this, get yourself updated and back in business. I have no evidence that my earlier post had any influence on Adobe, but the fact that so many people seem to have filed bug reports about it may have helped significantly toward getting the problem the required engineering resources to fix it. Whatever the impetus, I’m glad it’s back.

Posted in News/Announcements | 3 Comments » |