Lesson B: Preparing for Content

Much of my time in InDesign is spent preparing the document for what’s to come. We’ll learn more about that in the next chapter, but there are structural and stylistic tasks we can do even in a simple document like this one.

Introduction to Master Pages

There is a fabulous feature to control the geometry and content of pages in documents with between 2 and 200 pages. Every page can be “templated” with a master page. Whatever content is on a master page appears on every page that uses that master, whether that content is a logo in the upper-right corner, a running header or footer, or an image.

We’ll add two text frames (one in each column) and a placeholder frame for images (see the sketches at the beginning of this chapter) to this document’s master.

We will discover, however, that master content is usually not editable (or even selectable) on the pages to which that master is applied. We’ll have to learn how to override master items so we can leverage them.

• If it isn’t already, make the Pages panel visible: Window > Pages.

You will see the two pages we requested when we created this document labeled “1” and “2.” In each page icon there’s a letter “A” that refers to the master that’s applied to these pages. Above the two document pages is a horizontal line, and above that is a page labeled “A-Master.”

To navigate from page-to-page, I either double-click on the page number or icon in the Pages panel or I use the menu in the lower-left corner of the screen. The latter method, though easily missed, is more reliable. That’s because if you single-click in the Pages panel, you may think you’re viewing another page, but you have actually only highlighted its icon in the panel. This is important to know now because all the pages here (the master and the two document pages) look exactly alike. Whichever method you use, the Page menu in the lower-left corner of the screen is good to look at to confirm which page you are on. So…

• Go to the page A-Master. Look down and left to confirm that is what’s displayed in the Page menu. In the Pages panel, both the name and the icon for that page should be highlighted.
• Fit the page in the window with the shortcut ⌘-0/Ctrl-0. For a little bit more room around the edges, use ⌘-hyphen/Ctrl-hyphen to zoom out a bit.
• With the Rectangle Frame tool (tap the letter F on the keyboard), draw a rectangle from the upper-left bleed to the lower-right bleed. Use the Selection tool to fine-tune the position if necessary.
• With that empty frame selected, create an object style to give it Frame Fitting Options. Open the Object Styles panel menu and choose New Object Style…. Call it frame filler. Check that the Preview and Apply Style to Selection boxes are checked at the bottom of the dialog.
• In the list of Basic Attributes on the left, highlight Frame Fitting Options. Set Fitting to Fill Frame Proportionally so that any image that inhabits this frame will size itself to fill the frame. Set Align From to the center and be sure Crop Amount is set to 0 all the way around.
• Click OK.

If you go to page 1 or 2 now, that frame will be visible there, but you won’t be able to select it. However—and this is huge—when you use the Place command and your cursor is loaded with an image, you will be able to click on a frame on either of those pages and the loaded image will fill it. But we have more prep to do. We need to make sure those images never obscure our text content. So let’s create a new layer above the one that holds the image frame, and on it we will create the text frames that will hold our text.

• Make sure you are on the page A-Master. Make the Layers panel visible if it isn’t already: Window > Layers. Double-click on the name of Layer 1, which is currently this document’s only layer. In the dialog that opens, enter the name images. Click OK.
• Open the Layers panel menu and choose New Layer…. Enter the name text. Click OK.

It can be challenging to draw a text frame directly over another frame because the Type tool often wants to convert the other frame into a text frame. To make this easier, let’s temporarily make the image frame inaccessible.

• Click once in the small space just to the right of the images layer’s eye icon. This locks it.
• With the text layer highlighted, use the Type tool to draw a text frame that fills the left column. The text cursor will blink suggestively.

We can use this as an opportunity to build paragraph styles and to set the Text Frame Options appropriately. We’ll then copy this frame to the right-hand column. We will not link those two frames together; each will be independent.

• Save the document: ⌘-S/Ctrl-S.

Build Styles with Placeholder Text

This document won’t have much content. Page 2 will have a few paragraphs, most of which will be quite short. The left side of page 1, which is the back cover, will have only two very short paragraphs and a small map image.

We will need only three paragraph styles: for a header, a subhead, and body copy. We’ll call them, oh, header, subhead, and body I think. To build them, let’s create a little disposable text to see what we’re doing.

• From the Type menu, choose Show Hidden Characters; they’ll help.
• Type something like “this is a header,” then press the return/Enter key. Then, “this is a subhead,” followed by return/Enter. To quickly generate a paragraph to style, right-click and choose Fill with Placeholder Text, and delete all but one short paragraph (a few lines).

• Format the first paragraph (the header): triple-click on it to highlight the whole line, then choose a font, style, and size in the Properties panel or the Control panel. Since I didn’t see anything I wanted in the fonts already in my system, I clicked Find More in the Font menu to view Adobe Fonts choices. I chose Cooper Std Black, clicking the Activate button to its right in the Font menu (looks like a cloud). I liked 17 points for the Size. In the Paragraph section of the Properties panel, I clicked the More Options button so I could add 0.3 cm for Space After. I chose Center Alignment, too.
• Near the top of the Properties panel, check that the Paragraph Styles button is active, then click the Create Style button. Name the style header.
• Format the second paragraph (the subhead): triple-click on it to highlight the whole line, then choose a font, style, and size in the Properties panel or the Control panel. I chose Museo Sans 500 at 12 points for the Size with 17 points of Leading and Center Alignment.
• Near the top of the Properties panel, click the Create Style button. Name the style subhead.
• Format the longer third paragraph: quadruple-click on it to highlight the whole thing, then choose a font, style, and size in the Properties panel or the Control panel. I chose and activated Fairplex Wide OT Book from Adobe Fonts, then set it at 11 points with 17 points of Leading. I chose Center Justified for Alignment.
• Near the top of the Properties panel, click the Create Style button. Name the style body.

To get the text in the vertical center of the frame, we have to get to the frame properties.

• Press the esc key to select the frame and make the Selection tool active.

• In the Control panel, locate Vertical Justification buttons and click the one for Align Center.

Since our silly placeholder text is still in the frame, you can confirm that the text really did move to the vertical center. Check the Paragraph Styles panel to be sure all three styles were created.

• Make a copy of the text frame for the right side of the master page: while holding down the option/alt key, drag the frame to the right side of the page. You’ll have a copy!
• Insert the text cursor into each frame, select all its text, and delete it. It’s served its purpose as a stand-in for real text.
• Congratulations, the master page is prepared! Unlock the images layer so that when we have an image it can be flowed into the frame on that layer.

Choose Defaults

• Go to page 1 by double-clicking on its icon or choosing it from the Page menu (lower left). Be sure both its icon and page number are highlighted in the Pages panel before continuing.
• With nothing selected (just in case, use the shortcut ⌘-shift-A/Ctrl-Shift-A), highlight the paragraph style called body. Although we won’t have much text, it’s still a good default.
• Choose the Selection tool from the Tools panel.
• Save: ⌘-S/Ctrl-S. Let’s get this thing finished!