Adobe InDesign: Best Tips To Make The Most Of This Software

Adobe is known for its excellent collection of software. All of them are exceptional in their domain. Thus, picking some tips & features from an ocean of techniques is arduous. Although the use cases of InDesign vary among industries, some notable tips & techniques are worth mentioning.

Beautiful designs and layouts in software, websites, and graphics often make a project glow. Adobe InDesign is the software that makes digital graphics and art stand out. This article is a complete walkthrough of the top tips using which you can extract the most.

What is Adobe InDesign?

Adobe InDesign is a popular desktop publishing, graphics designing, and page layout handling software. Since 1999, Adobe’s InDesign has offered its users to create & print digital projects. It helps companies design flyers, posters, brochures, newspapers, magazines, menus, etc. Designers can also create attractive presentations, resumes, books, postcards, eBooks, and web pages.

Various marketing departments across industries use InDesign to create digital flyers, ad banners, etc. It can seamlessly work with Photoshop and other creative tools. However, many companies do not prefer hiring InDesign-based digital designers in-house. That is where companies have to outsource InDesign Services to third-party firms.

Top Tips to Use Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesign is the latest version, released in 2023. It is an ideal tool for creating eye-catching banners and ads. Let us explore some delinquent tips to make the most of this software.

1. The Find & Replace option increases efficiency:

Often, designers have to deal with text-heavy design layouts. Changing any phrase, keyword, or statement comes along the way. That is when designers should find a particular word from hundreds of mentions. So, the best way is to use the Find option of the Edit menu. Again, replacing a single word from multiple locations of the text layout is also possible using the Find and Replace option.

We have to navigate to Edit > Find/Change. Then, we can click the “Text” tab for more options. This technique comprises advanced options like GREP. It can help change text & metadata easily with a search-based feature.

2. Math to obtain precision resizing:

Often, designers strain to fit images and frames in a perfect size. It becomes a tedious job to do it manually. Also, manually resizing takes the design far away from perfection. Resizing & fitting an image or design to its required position is perfectly possible through math. InDesign offers a calculative approach to simplify resizing and defining tasks. It can precisely fit any design object with the dimensions of layouts exactly the size you want.

We can input all the math and precision values in the transform palette. You can find the transform palette at Window > Object & Layout > Transform of the InDesign software. You can use the number pad on your keyboard & use symbols like * to resize any object with precision.

3. Swap Swatch panel for toggling:

The traditional way of selecting a text or a collection of phrases in a frame requires selecting the frame first. Then, you have to double-click on that text. This technique is perfect if your text design comprises strokes or other effects. But if you want to change the text’s formatting properties across multiple frames, it becomes tedious.

That is where Adobe InDesign offers the swap swatch tool. It can toggle between the text frame and the text. It is available under the Swatches tab in the palette. Also, you can tap the letter J on your keyboard to toggle between objects.

4. Rounded corners — the easy way:

Another tip that comes in handy is the use of rounded corners. We all remember those painful days when graphics design required rounded corners. Designers had to export vectors and templates with rounded corners to achieve it. But with Adobe InDesign, the labor days are over now.

Once you create a rectangle or square design, you will find a yellow box attached to the object. Click the yellow square to activate and round its corners. Many companies need expert InDesign professionals. That is why they outsource these designs to Graphics Design Services.

Conclusion

We hope this article delivered a crisp idea on tips that InDesign professionals can use. Effective use of Adobe InDesign software can create wonders for your graphics designs. If you want to outsource your graphics design, try looking for an InDesign third-party service.

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Karlos G. Ray [Masters | BS-Cyber-Sec | MIT | LPU]

I’m the CTO at Keychron :: Technical Content Writer, Cyber-Sec Enggr, Programmer, Book Author (2x), Research-Scholar, Storyteller :: Love to predict Tech-Future