The InDesigner

Early yesterday morning (23-July-2008), my good friend Scott Citron was in a serious car accident while in Los Angeles for a training assignment. Scott has been mentioned in my podcasts, and I’ve recommended his book, Professional Design Techniques with Adobe Creative Suite 3, here on the blog. He is the chapter representative of the New York InDesign User Group (where I first met him), a respected Adobe expert and instructor, and a brilliant designer. More than that, for me, he is a cherished friend, valued confidant and advisor.

His long-term prognosis is good. He will recover, but he has sustained many injuries and his road to recovery will be a long one. His family is with him and the outreach among his friends and associates has already started in the form of a blog to keep everyone concerned informed about his progress. Well-wishers can also post comments that we look forward to Scott having the opportunity to read as soon as possible.

The blog URL is: getwellscottcitron.blogspot.com

Scott’s early advice to me about “the whole expert thing” was a large part of what eventually evolved into this podcast and blog. And his friendship and support since then has been invaluable. I ask that all of you in my audience keep Scott and his family in your thoughts.

Thank you.

Posted in News/Announcements | 8 Comments » |

I was watching the local news coverage here in Miami, where I’m speaking at the InDesign Conference, and there’s been a lot of talk about the causes of yesterday’s two-hour power outage that hit us (and a lot of south Florida) in the middle of the day. Personally, I think the real explanation for why the lights went out is that a demonstration given by Adobe’s Michael Ninnes and Tim Cole here at the keynote speech was so cool that it sucked all the power from the grid.

In what was referred to as a “technology preview” — meaning it’s technology Adobe has, but will neither confirm nor deny will appear ever in any product — Michael and Tim demonstrated the direct export of InDesign layouts to Flash, including … (read more)

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CreativePro.com has posted an excerpt from Scott Citron’s Professional Design Techniques with Adobe Creative Suite 3 on their web site. If you’re looking for a glimpse into the book before you buy it, here’s your chance. The excerpt consists of two PDFs taken from the “Creating Newsletters and Forms” chapter of the book.

Click here to go to download the excerpts from CreativePro.com.

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A long last, Adobe has made CS3 certification and re-certification exams available. For anyone looking to get certified in InDesign, I’ll reiterate what I said in May of 2006 when I passed my CS2 ACE exam: study. When you think you’ve studied enough…keep studying.

I consider myself a fairly sharp guy, and I live and breathe InDesign on a daily basis, but even this re-certification exam — which was made up of 47 questions covering only new CS3 features — was, to say the least, challenging. The questions are obscure, very strategically and often cryptically worded, and the multiple-choice answers are structured so well that they’ll have you doubting your own certainty as to which is correct.

Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m better in practice than theory, or just a lousy test-taker, but I’m just glad I passed and I have another full version cycle before I have to be put through one of these exams again.

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If you’re used to www.theindesigner.com automatically taking you InDesignSecrets…surprise! The InDesigner podcast/blog has a new home…or, more accurately, it has returned to its old home.

For nearly a year and a half, I’ve had the pleasure and honor of being part of David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepcion’s fantastic InDesignSecrets web site as their exclusive video provider and occasional blog poster. As colleagues go, it would be hard to fall into better, more expert company, and I thank David and Anne-Marie for making me a part of the team, and for all of the increased exposure to my videocasts that came with that association. I look forward to continuing … (read more)

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Last night, I delivered an expanded, 90-minute version of my “Styles Equal Substance” presentation to a record-setting audience of more than 250 people at the Washington, D.C. InDesign User Group meeting. It was an amazing experience. The crowd was energetic, had great questions and made a first-time visitor to the nation’s capitol feel right at home.

“Styles Equal Substance” has been so well-received in both Boston and D.C., that I’ll be presenting an hour-long version of it at the upcoming InDesign Conference in Miami (February 26 - March 1, 2008). If you can’t make it to Miami, you can get a glimpse at the extent of styles throughout the application by downloading the handout from the D.C. meeting.

Photo by Mitchell Osborne, courtesy of the InDesign User Group web site. See more photos from the meeting.

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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.

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The latest isssue of InDesign Magazine (#19-September 2007) features a cover story by yours truly about designing tables in InDesign. The focus is very much on the design challenges particular to tables, and how not to let the speed and ease-of-use of InDesign’s table features stop you from taking the time to improve your rows and columns with time-honored design principles. The article is also posted online as a free PDF download on CreativePro.com.

But do yourself a real favor and take advantage of my promo code — “theindesigner” — when you subscribe to InDesign Magazine. You’ll get a two-year subscription, plus every back issue. It’s probably the best money you can spend on improving your InDesign knowledge.

Posted in News/Announcements, Tables | 1 Comment » |

After putting InDesign CS3 through it’s paces, I’ve summed up my impressions of the new version not only in the overview article for InDesign Magazine, but also in a full-blown product review on CreativePro.com that went live this morning. … (read more)

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The latest issue of InDesign Magazine (#17-April/May 2007) features an 8-page article I wrote that takes a “big picture” look at all of InDesign CS3’s major new features — fom Transparency to Text Variables, Gradient Feathers to GREP, and everything in-between. … (read more)

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