Quick Overview Of Adobe Indesign CS6

Indesign Interface

The Indesign Interface has four primary elements that consist of: the toolbar on the left side, the document itself, and the right hand and top panels for certain functions.

Overview Of The Toolbar

For the benefit of users, there is a small tool tip that is used when you move your cursor over it to remind you of what the tool does. There are keyboard shortcuts for that tool as well using brackets. You don't have to memorize any shortcuts. Doing a couple repetitive tasks should allow you to remember what they are.

Double headed arrows at the top of the Toolbox will allow you to expand to a wider view - on older versions of Indesign, this was how it looked. A small arrow at the bottom right on some of the tools - this indicates there are stacked additional tools that are related behind it. With your left mouse button, press it, and this will open the stacked out so you can use it. If you go across and down, you can select another tool from the stack. When you go down to the bottom of the toolbar, there are Stroke and Fill colours - in a later blog post we will cover these in more depth. At the very bottom, there are various screen modes.

Overview Of The Control Panel

On the Control panel, at the top, there is the third element of the Interface. It works in conjunction with the Toolbar, depending upon what you're working with, various options will appear. An example would be clicking on the Type tool and seeing the different options for formatting your text.

When you look above the Control panel, you will see many drop-down lists; File > Open, File > Save, etc, are on the right column with the shortcuts. You won't use these menus a lot - there are typically three or four ways of doing anything with an Adobe program, and this method tends to be the slowest.

Another thing to look at is the Window drop-down. He gives you a list of all of the Panels, and this is the fourth element of the interface. If you see ones that are ticked, this means they are visible, so if you lose a panel, you can reselect it. You can't really lose anything when working with Indesign. By choosing Window > Workspace > Default you can start your day, and this works really well when sharing your computer with others that might rearrange your workspace. By using Window > Workspace > Save Workspace - this will allow you to save your settings the way that you want them.

Also worth noting, The Help drop-down (or hit F1) is a resource that you can use to look at five-minute tutorial movies - go to www.adobe.com or www.adobetv.com to see them.

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