AGI Dynamic Learning: InDesign CS3
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Importing files

When designing a page, you need to pull together assets from different locations. These can include a variety of content such as images, illustrations, and text. InDesign CS3 took a process that had been relatively unchanged for the past decade and improved it dramatically. You can now import multiple files in a single instance, obtain a preview of text or graphic files as they are being placed, and cycle through files before they are placed into your document. These capabilities save you time, and help ensure that you are importing the correct file before you place it into your document.

Additionally, you can now place native InDesign files, so it is not necessary to create a PDF of an InDesign page that you wish to use in your layout. This is useful if you have a cover design for a book or magazine, created using InDesign, that you want to promote in a brochure.

Import InDesign documents into your layout without converting them to another file format.

Fitting frames

It used to be that you would have to manually fit the frames of text and images placed into your layout to the content. While this level of manual control is still possible within InDesign CS3, you can now set your text and graphics to automatically fit to a specific size. If you have dozens or hundreds of images to import into a catalog layout, InDesign can now automatically reduce or enlarge each item automatically to the appropriate size right as it imports the image.

You can define frames’ fitting settings even before you import the content.

Synchronizing master pages

Book publishers need to keep their individual sections and chapters consistent. In previous editions of InDesign, this involved building one template file and hoping that all designers working on the file maintained the original design. If a master page needed to be changed, all chapters had to be manually updated.

InDesign CS3 makes this a one-step process, as master pages can be defined in a single document and then distributed to all documents that are part of a book.

With book synchronization options, you can easily keep book formatting consistent across multiple InDesign documents.

Text wrap on master pages

Wrapping text around an object is not a new features. Page layout software has been able to do this for years. But previous versions of InDesign didn't let you place an object on a master page and define a text wrap that would push the text away, regardless of the page on which the object appeared. Instead you needed to manually apply the text wrap, sometimes referred to as run-around.

With InDesign CS3 you can apply a single text wrap to an object on a master page, and the object will be pushed away from the text regardless of the page on which it is used.

The text wrap panel makes text wrapping around other elements in your document quick, easy, and more flexible.

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