Appending PDF files

One of the problems with MS Word is that it does not seem to allow the placement of objects (images or text blocks) completely independently of each other, so that they stay put and do not fly around. However, there are at least two perhaps three different layers available to MS Word users: the main part of the page, the header and the footer. Things placed in the header will not move no matter what you do the main part of the page. The draw back of using the header as a way of placing images is that things placed in the header are repeated on all pages of the Word document. So if you use the header to place an image you intend to be displayed on only one page, then you can must create seperate documents for each of your pages. This is what I do. I then give the publisher a set of pdf documents equal in number to the number of pages in my book. There are however times when one wants to have a multiple page pdf document such as for instance when publishing to Issu.com. Fortunately there is some free software for merging pdf files called Pdfmerge which will put the pdf files together again for you.

I gave up and use Microsoft Word

I gave up using Adobe Indesign. It is of course much more powerful at layout but its support of functions useful for writers (such as spell check or thesaurus) are pitiful. It assumes that writers and text layout editors are different people. I am the writer and layout editor of my textbook, so as a writer, Adobe Indesign was not for me.

Word on the other hand has many drawbacks, but if you create each page of your book in a seperate Word document, then it is possible to layout your book in a fairly professional way. Here are a few pages from my book created using Microsoft Word.

Master Pages and How to Use Them

"Master pages" are like the microsoft word "header" and "footer," in that they enable us to add text every page just by editing the master page, but they are more powerful. They are also like the master view of Microsoft power point, in that they allow us to add styles to the text in the individual slides/pages of the document.

The master pages are accessible in the top half of the pages palette at teh left hand side of the screen. The little right arrow inside a circle (does not hide the palette but) shows a menu which allows us to create new masters.

The important difference between Indesign and Microsoft Word/Powerpoint is that one can have as many master pages as one likes. And, inside each master page there can be as many textboxes and image objects as one likes.

One can add shadows and other "object stytles" to these boxes. If one types some text, applies a style to it, and then deletes the text, then the style remains applied to that text box. One can apply these masters pages to actual pages, by using right click or from the right arrow.

One can type into the master textboxes from the individual pages, thus making use of the styles that they are set to by using "Ctrl Shift Click" - a very useful click.

This means that master pages can be used as an alternative way of applying styles. Instead of creating a style and then applying it to text on various pages, one can create a master with text boxes with various styles or character/paragraph/object formatting on the master page, and then click into (ctrl shift click) to inherit these styles on the individual pages.

Page break

Inserting a page break in Word is the easiest thing in the world. It is right at the top of the insert menu.

In Adobe indesign the page break is a little more difficult to find.

My Solution 1
Create a paragraph style which is set to start on a new page and give the text that you want at the top of a page this style.

My Solution 2
Insert a break character. This can be found in Format Menu > Insert Break Character > Page Break.

Wrapping text Revisited

The first advantage of Indesign I have foudn so far is in its ability to wrap text to the edge of images.

MS word can wrap to the edge of GIF format images that have a transparent background, but the GIF format is too lossy. In order to get word to wrap to the edge of .jpg images (such as are exported from my camera) I insert the images to the rear of the text, and then trace the edge of the image using the freehand line tool, and then wrap the text to surround the edget of the shape made by that line. This technique is surprisingly fast and well recommended.

In Indesign however, there are various options for wrapping text around images. One can use an "alpha channel" or an outline as produced by photoshop. The most useful option is that which allows us to have Indesign find the edge of image for us. I am using Indesign in Japanese, so I am not sure of the exact word, but perhaps "find image frame" is the name of the option in the drop down box.

One can also instruct Indesign to ignore white (or other background colour) areas inside the image but the ignore internal background area function does not work very well. There does not seem to be a way of telling indesign:

• how much internal white area constitutes an area that should be ignored.
• how white an area has to be before it constitutes background.
• it would be nice to be able to tell it to ignore all white area to the left or right.

To a large extent however the above limitations can be circumvented by increasing the border around the object which will also increase the border aroudn internal white area so that areas of white inside the image are not treated as text areas. But this means that it is not possible to wrap close to an image which contains white.

Undo and Redo

One of the nice things about Word is the presence of an undo button in the tool bar. On those occasions when one is using a mouse, it is nice to be able to click to get back to a previous version, before one made that mistake.

The standard tool bar of Adobe Indesign does not include that most important "undo" button. We shall forgive them, since afterall, most of us know that undo is "ctrl +z," and this keypress works in Adobe indesign too.

However, the ubiquitous (one might be forgiven for thinking) keypress for "redo" that is "Ctrl +y" does not work in Indesign.

My Solution
The undo shortcut key in Indesign is "Ctrl + z"
The redo shortcut key in Indesign is "Ctrl + Shift + z"

Wrapping text

In MS word it is easy to wrap the surrounding text around an image or text box. Just right click the image or text box and then select an option from the layout tab. In Indesign however, the wrap settings are not so easy to find.

My Solution
From the view menu select to display the text wrap panel.
Select the frame that you want to wrap text around.
Choose from the wrap settings available.

Pasting an image

Pasting an image into a body of text is, in MS Word, easy to do. I usually create a button in Word (options > user > Instert, then drag the yellow file icon to the tool bar) so that I can paste (or "place") images with a click.

One of the nice things that Word does is to resize the image to fit the page into which one is pasting. Even if the image is very large, it is pasted to fill the page from margin to margin.

Indesign however does not do this for you. The process is longwinded.

My Solution
1) Using the "rectangular frame tool" (The icon is a square crossed out on the left hand side of the screen) create the frame for your picture.
2) Paste (place) the image when this frame is selected. The paste/place command is achieved with Ctrl + D ("intuitive") and found inside the file menu.
3) Then using right click to display a long list of options, select to arrange the picture to fit inside the frame.
4) Adjust one side of the frame (top or side) that is too big, to fit the picture.
If you don't mind not maintaining the ratio between height and width of your image then you can rize the image to fit the frame, thus avoiding step 4.

Pasting several pages of text

When one creates an Indesign document one has to say how many pages it is made up of. How do I know how many pages it is going to be? In MS word one starts with a one page document which is made longer as one adds text and other content.

Worse still, even if one over estimates, then when we go to paste or "place" (a nerdy term) several pages of text then the text is pasted all onto the same page, meaning that only the first page of the text is visible.

The solution

Press the shift key while pasting the text and it will autofill (or something) onto the next pages.

Indesign is not easy

I am finding it pretty difficult to use Adobe's Indesign. I am a long time MS word user. I will record some of my findings here.