Refine Design Conference

Here's a great article I found:

Quoted from http://photoshopnews.com/:

PhotoshopNews: Photoshop News and Information

PixelGenius at PhotoPlus Expo

Posted By PSN Editorial Staff

19-Oct-2007 8:18 AM

Just got back from vacation

Here are some pics!

Great movie clip!

Quoted from http://our.blog.com/:

The itch to write

Here it is in all its glory:

alt : http://amadeo.blog.com/repository/44295/1879596.mov

 

Posted by Bistromath Captain at 16:46 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Just back from the conference!

What a great time had by all-

Howdy, I'm David Blatner. I'm the co-host of InDesignSecrets.com and the co-author of such books as Real World InDesign. I'll be presenting a session on InDesign tips and tricks (covering both CS2 and CS3) that you must know about if you're going to be efficient with this rich and amazing program -- including variables, advanced find/change techniques, supercool transparency effects, and using InDesign documents as smart objects.

Here's a small tip that might help you as you're working in InDesign: You probably know that you can save a document preset in the New Document dialog box, right? For example, if you create 7 x 9 documents a lot, it's a good idea to set up the size and margins and so on just once in the New Document dialog box and then press Save Preset so that your setup will then be available from now on in the dialog box's Document Preset pop-up menu.

But here's a shortcut most people don't realize: After you make a preset, you can hold down the Shift key while choosing it from the File > Document Preset submenu, and InDesign simply opens that sized document without bothering you with a dialog box!

Plus, you know that Command-N opens the New Document dialog box, but did you know that Command-Option-N/Ctrl-Alt-N creates a new document based on the last Document Preset you opened? That's the kind of little thing that really speeds you up as you're working.

I hope you'll join us at Refine Design in Septebmer for dozens more tips, tricks, and techniques ranging from the helpful to the mind-blowing!

Greetings!

I'm Brian Wood, the director of training at evolve computer graphics training in Seattle (www.evolveseattle.com), author or co-author of 3 books, Lynda.com author, Creative Suite Master and web developer. We are hosting Refine Design and I wanted a chance to be able to share tips and tricks and general info before and after the conference with you. We will have our speakers posting up here from time to time, so check back often.

To kick it off, here are three great InDesign tips that I presented at the InDesign Conference in New York this week:

1. When working with Libraries, you can maintain layers in a library item(s). Before you drag a library out (or right-click on the library item in the Library panel and choose Place item), in the Layers panel, choose Paste Remembers Layers from the Layers panel menu. Then get the library item into that document and the layer(s) that the library items were on in the original document will be pulled into the new document.
2. If you work with Snippets, there is a new feature in CS3 that can really help. When dragging or placing a Snippet into a document, the default is to place the snippet object(s) in the same position on the page as it was in the originating document. If you hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac) when you click Place or drag onto the document it will allow you to place it anywhere you want. Also, there is a preference (Edit > Preferences > File handling - Windows or InDesign > Preferences > File handling - Mac) that allows you to Position the snippet at cursor location or original location. You can choose on the fly before placing a snippet.
3. InDesign CS3 now has the ability to export as XHTML for a web authoring program (via File > Cross-Media Export > XHTML/Dreamweaver). Here are a few tips when exporting:

• Objects grouped in InDesign are also grouped in XHTML (this can influence the order in which the content is placed in the XHTML document). Use this grouping to order content in the XHTML file that is generated.
• Optimize images elsewhere (such as in Photoshop), then name them the same as those used in InDesign.
• Use tables for data when necessary. Tables for layout are fine, but are not “valid.” Tables are exported, minus the formatting.
• Use Paragraph and character styles for formatting if you want to use CSS styles of the same name.
• You could use object styles to create ID containers
• Know that it’s content we’re after - think CSS!
• Talk to your web developer about what they want (if it isn’t you).

I will be posting tips and tricks all the way up to the conference. I will also start posting some video tips in the coming weeks, so look out for those!

Brian

Stay tuned for weekly tips on graphics and web software, code, community, culture and more.

Feel free to post whenever the mood strikes, whether to say hi, add your own tips, community news, etc.

Most of the tips that we post will be short, portable videos (.mov) that you can view online, and also download to your iPod, USB drive, etc.

That said, please add your own text-based tips and news. Seriously, we don’t want to drone on endlessly, so check in with us as often as you like.