The InDesigner

Normally, I pick one InDesign feature and build a whole episode around it. However, this is the second anniversary of the podcast, and I wanted to do something different, and demonstrate that combining InDesign features is far more powerful than using them individually. In this episode, I use six different features … (read more)

Posted in GREP, Graphics & Images, Podcasts-Video, Productivity, Styles, Type & Text | 3 Comments » |

Last night, I delivered two back-to-back presentations at the Boston InDesign User Group meeting. The first was called “Styles Equal Substance,” in which I took a big picture look at what, to me, is the warm, beating heart of the entire application: Styles. Styles are everywhere, and they’re connected to so many features, you can lose track of how it all comes together. Fortunately, I’ve combed through the application to discover all of the connections between styles and the features with which they interact. My handout posted on the InDesign User Group web site has a visual representation of styles everywhere in InDesign.

The topic for the second half of the meeting was “Understanding GREP,” which covered the new, advanced Find/Change capabilities built into InDesign CS3 under the GREP tab. This is an amazing new feature. For my money, it’s the best improvement of the entire upgrade and something I’ll be talking about a lot in upcoming episodes and in one of my sessions at The InDesign Conference in Miami in February. Can’t make it there or wait to learn more? Then take a look at my other handout for the GREP session that’s posted on the meeting notes section of the InDesign User Group web site.

Posted in GREP, News/Announcements, Styles | No Comments » |

In Episode 8, I mentioned how I used Grep Pattern Searching in BBEdit to search for patterns in my text, rather than searching for specific pieces of text. The value of this is that, even though the actual text varies throughout my text file, if the patterns are consistent, I can do very complex and powerful search-and-replace operations that keep that variable text intact, while changing elements of the pattern around it.

Here’s an example from real life: A monthly magazine column of new products. Each write-up starts with … (read more)

Posted in GREP | 20 Comments » |