INDESIGN MENU COMMANDS


Using menus is an easy way to access commands that help you work in applications. You'll notice as you work with InDesign that many menu commands are duplicated in palettes, giving you a choice of how you perform an action.

You'll also notice that many menu commands are the same throughout Adobe CS2; this is another nice bit of consistency that makes the programs easier to pick up. Keyboard shortcuts for the menu commands are listed beside the commands themselves, and as you get more familiar with the program, you'll find yourself relying on those shortcuts more than the menus themselves.

The following sections list the various menu selections, along with a brief description of the action each performs. More details about some of these commands are included in subsequent chapters.

The File Menu

The File menu has commands that, in general, help you create, open, close, print, or place other files in your document:

  • New, Document: You use this command to create new documents.

  • New, Book: You use this command to create new books.

  • New, Library: You use this command to create new libraries.

  • Open: You use this command to open a dialog that allows you to browse for the document you want to open.

  • Open Recent: You use this command to obtain a list of the most recently opened InDesign documents.

  • Close: This command closes the currently open window.

  • Save: This command saves the currently open document. The first time you save a document, a dialog allows you to name the document and specify how to save it.

  • Save As: This command allows you to rename and save the currently open document.

  • Save a Version: This command saves the current changes as a version, which is then accessible through Version Cue.

  • Save a Copy: This command saves a copy of the currently open document but leaves the first document active.

  • Revert: This command takes the document back to its last-saved state. It is available only if a document has been saved at least once.

  • Place: This command allows you to browse for text or images to be imported into the document.

  • Import XML: This command allows you to browse for XML files to be imported into the document.

  • Adobe PDF Presets: This command allows you to choose any PDF presets, either in the program or that you have set up, with which to export PDFs.

  • Export: This command enables you to choose from PDF, EPS, InDesign Interchange, JPEG, SVG, SVG compressed, and XML formats.

  • Document Presets: This command enables you to choose from any document presets you have created, opening files that are set up with your settings (such as page size and margins) already applied.

  • Document Setup: This command opens a dialog where you can access several important page specification features, including page size, margins, columns, text frame options, and the number of pages in the document.

  • File Info: This command allows you to enter information about the document that may be helpful for others who are using or printing it. The metadata you enter here helps you find files through Bridge. You can also save the metadata as an XMP template and assign it to any other document.

  • Preflight: This command checks a document's fonts, links, colors, print settings, and associated plug-ins for conflicts that may cause problems in printing.

  • Package: This command copies your file with all necessary fonts, links, and other information into a folder so it can be easily gathered for a printer.

  • Package for GoLive: This command packages your file for use in GoLive.

  • Print Presets: This command allows you to set up presets by using the options in the Print dialog.

  • Print: This command opens the Print dialog, which allows you to print the currently open file.

  • Quit/Exit: (Windows only; this command is found under the InDesign menu on Mac systems.) This command closes the InDesign application.

The Edit Menu

The Edit menu has commands that, in general, help you work with page objects of all types and customize an application:

  • Undo: This option allows you to undo the last action you took. You can undo up to 300 moves in an InDesign document, up to the last save.

  • Redo: When Redo is available, it allows you to redo a step that you have undone with the Undo command.

  • Cut: This command removes a selected object and stores it in the Clipboard to be pasted.

  • Copy: This command duplicates a selected object and stores it in the Clipboard to be pasted.

  • Paste: This command places a cut or copied object on the page.

  • Paste without Formatting: This command pastes formatted text copied from a source such as a Word document, without styles.

  • Paste into: This command pastes a cut or copied object into a selected frame.

  • Paste in Place: This command pastes an object at the same coordinates from which it was cut or copied.

  • Clear: This command deletes the selected object.

  • Duplicate: This command duplicates a selected object and places the duplicate at a slight offset from the original location. It does not use the Clipboard, so any object that has previously been cut or copied remains there to be pasted.

  • Step and Repeat: This command opens a dialog that allows you to create multiple duplicates of an object at a specified offset from each other.

  • Select All: This command selects every object on the current page/spread.

  • Deselect All: This command deselects every object currently selected on the current page/spread.

  • Edit Original: When a graphic or an image is selected, this command allows you to edit the original document in the program it's associated with.

  • Edit in Story Editor: This command opens the Story Editor, a word processor within InDesign.

  • Quick Apply: This command opens the Quick Apply menu from the Control palette. This palette helps you easily navigate documents that have many styles; you just type the first few letters of the style you're searching for in the field at the top of the palette, and you jump through the styles.

  • Find/Change: This command allows you to search for text or text characteristics and change all occurrences as you choose. You enter the appropriate information in the Find and Change fields, and then you choose to make the changes all at once or one at a time.

  • Find Next: This command finds the next occurrence of a find request.

  • Spelling, Check Spelling: This command checks the spelling in all text frames of a document.

  • Spelling, Dynamic Spelling: This command turns on the dynamic spelling feature, which checks your spelling as you type and underlines words that are thought to be misspelled.

  • Spelling, Autocorrect: This command turns on the autocorrect feature, which automatically corrects commonly misspelled words as you type (for example, teh will automatically be changed to the).

  • Spelling, Dictionary: You use this command to specify how InDesign handles hyphenation and dictionaries.

  • Transparency Blend Space: This command allows you to select Document RGB or Document CMYK. You make this choice based on the color space of your document.

  • Transparency Flattener Presets: This command allows you to create or load Transparency Flattener presets, which determine how transparency effects are flattened, based on how you save or export the document. See Chapter 31, "Exporting, Saving, and Printing with InDesign," for more information on transparency flattening.

  • Color Settings: This command allows you to change or load the color profiles for the document. See Chapter 1, "Creative Suite 2 Basics," for more information about color management with Adobe CS2. You use this option when you have to set up color management for your Creative Suite documents.

  • Assign Profiles: This command allows you to assign RGB or CMYK profiles to the document. You use this option when you are setting color management for your document on-the-fly or within InDesign only. The Assign Profiles dialog enables you to use the current working space, assign a working space as defined by Creative Suite color settings, or assign a different profile for this application only.

  • Convert to Profile: This command allows you to convert from the currently assigned color profile to another.

  • Keyboard Shortcuts: This command allows you to view basic keyboard shortcuts for the application and set up customized keyboard shortcuts. See "InDesign Keyboard Shortcuts," later in this chapter, for more information on keyboard shortcuts.

  • Preferences: (Windows only; this command appears under the InDesign menu on Mac systems.) This command allows you to customize various document and application properties, including Text, Composition, Units & Measurements, Grids, Guides, and Dictionary. See the section "InDesign Application Preferences," later in this chapter, for a complete explanation of InDesign preferences.

The Layout Menu

The Layout menu has commands that, in general, enable you to set options for guides and page numbering:

  • Pages: You use the Pages submenu to add, insert, or move pages; duplicate or delete spreads; or quickly assign master pages.

  • Margins and Columns: This command sets margin and column guides for the document.

  • Ruler Guides: This command allows you to choose the color of guides you drag from InDesign's rulers.

  • Create Guides: This command allows you to automatically place guides in rows and columns, setting the amount of space you want in between. You can also clear guides from the dialog this command opens.

  • Layout Adjustment: This command automates how objects on the page interact with guides.

  • First Page, Previous Page, Next Page, Last Page, Next Spread and Previous Spread; Go Back, Go Forward: These commands allow you to navigate through the document with more precision and speed than by simply dragging the scrollbars.

  • Numbering & Section Options: This command opens a dialog that you can use to change the starting page number of the document or set up document sections.

  • Table of Contents: This command allows you to specify currently existing styles for headings and entries in your table of contents.

  • Update Table of Contents: As long as you use styles and mark items for your table of contents, you can automatically update with this menu selection if page numbering changes, for example.

  • Table of Contents Styles: This command allows you to set up presets for your table of contents.

The Type Menu

The Type menu has commands that enable you to alter the appearance of text and text frames on a page:

  • Font: This command opens a submenu to select a typeface. You see a preview of all available fonts.

  • Size: This command opens a submenu to select a type size.

  • Character: This command opens the Character palette, allowing you to set options for specific type characters.

  • Paragraph: This command opens the Paragraph palette, allowing you to set options for the appearance of a paragraph.

  • Tabs: This command opens the Tabs palette, allowing you to set tabs and indents.

  • Glyphs: This command opens the Glyphs palette, allowing you to see all possible characters for a given font.

  • Story: This command opens the Story palette, allowing you to turn Optical Marginal Alignment on or off.

  • Character Styles: This command opens the Character Styles palette, allowing you to create and apply character styles.

  • Paragraph Styles: This command opens the Paragraph Styles palette, allowing you to create and apply paragraph styles.

  • Create Outlines: This command allows you to convert text to a graphic. The text itself then becomes a frame that you can alter by using its anchor points.

  • Find Font: This command shows a list of all fonts being used in the currently open document. You can use this dialog to see which fonts you have used or to substitute other fonts for fonts that have been used in the document.

  • Change Case: You can select text and then use this command to change the text to all lowercase, all uppercase, proper case (where the first letter of each word is capitalized), or sentence case (where the first letter after a period is capitalized).

  • Type on a Path, Options: The dialog this command opens allows you to apply different effects to text on a path, including how it appears and how it aligns.

  • Type on a Path, Delete Type from Path: This command deletes type from a selected path.

  • Insert Footnote: This command automatically inserts a numbered reference in the spot where a cursor is blinking. A footnote is then inserted at the bottom of the page, where you can type your footnote information.

  • Document Footnote Options: This command lets you set preferences for how footnotes are numbered and how they appear in the layout.

  • Insert Special Character: This command opens a submenu with various frequently used marks and characters, allowing you to insert them at the current spot.

  • Insert White Space: This command opens a submenu with various space options.

  • Insert Break Character: This command opens a submenu with various text break options.

  • Fill with Placeholder Text: This command fills the currently active text frame with dummy text.

  • Show/Hide Hidden Characters: This command turns on hidden characters so you can see characters that are not usually shown, such as spaces, text breaks, or hard returns.

The Object Menu

The Object menu has commands that help you alter or add effects to objects on a page:

  • Transform: This command opens a submenu that allows you to move, scale, rotate, or shear a selected page element by entering specific measurements.

  • Transform Again, Transform Again Individually: This command duplicates the previous transformation, either to all selected objects as a group or to each object individually.

  • Transform Again, Transform Sequence Again Individually: This command duplicates the last sequence of transformations, either to all selected objects as a group or to each object individually.

  • Arrange: This command opens a submenu that allows you to control the layering of page elements (Bring to Front, Send to Back, Bring Forward, Send Backward).

  • Select: This command opens a submenu that allows you to select a layered page element (First Object Above, First Object Below, and so on).

  • Group/Ungroup: With multiple objects selected, Group turns those objects into a single entity for easy movement. You can select a grouped object and choose Ungroup to work with each component individually.

  • Lock Position/Unlock Position: The Lock Position command locks the position of a selected object(s). Unlock Position allows you to move or alter a locked object.

  • Text Frame Options: The dialog that this command opens allows you set specifications for the selected text frame, including columns in the frame, text inset, and vertical justification.

  • Anchored Object, Options: This command allows you to select the defaults for how an anchored object frame is set up.

  • Anchored Object, Insert: This command sets defaults for anchored objects.

  • Anchored Object, Release: This command releases an anchored object from its position with a text frame.

  • Fitting: This command opens a submenu that allows you to fit a frame to its contents or the contents of a frame to the frame.

  • Content: This command opens a submenu that allows you to specify or change the content of the selected frame, either graphic, text, or unassigned.

  • Drop Shadow: This command opens a dialog in which you can assign drop shadows to any selected frame. If a text frame is selected, a drop shadow is applied to the individual text characters in the frame.

  • Feather: This command applies a feathered edge to the content of a selected frame. You can set the amount of feathering and the feathering appearance.

  • Corner Effects: This command designs the corners of any frame that has a stroke applied to it.

  • Object Layer Options: This command sets visibility and layer composition options for layered Photoshop or PDF files that are placed in InDesign.

  • Clipping Path: This command makes clipping paths that have been applied to images active, or it detects the edges of an item that is in stark contrast to its background.

  • Image Color Settings: This command selects color profiles and rendering options for specific images within the document.

  • Interactive, Movie Options: This command enables you to change the settings for movies you can embed in a PDF created from your InDesign document. These options include how the movie is played and how it appears in the document.

  • Interactive, Sound Options: This command enables you to change the settings for sound files you can embed in a PDF file created from your InDesign document. These options include what sound is played, when it plays, and any text that should appear if it can't be played.

  • Interactive, Button Options: This command enables you to specify how buttons should appear in PDF documents created from your InDesign document, as well as how they should behave.

  • Interactive, Convert to Button: With an object selected on your page, you can choose this command to convert the object to a button.

  • Interactive, Set Tab Order: You use this command to set the order in which buttons are activated when the user presses the Tab key in a PDF file created from your InDesign document.

  • Compound Paths: You use this menu command to create compound paths, which result when overlapping page elements are combined to create one element. You can select Create or Release to make or undo compound paths.

  • Paths, Open Path; Paths, Close Path; Paths, Reverse Path: These commands do exactly what they say to selected paths: open, close, and reverse them, or fill a hole in a subpath, respectively. You can find more information about paths in Chapter 26.

  • Pathfinder: This command gives you access to the commands found in the Pathfinder palette, which you can use to create shapes out of compound paths.

  • Convert Shape: You use this command to change a selected shape to another shape, as listed in the submenu: Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Beveled Rectangle, Inverse Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse, Triangle, Polygon, Line, or Orthogonal Line.

  • Display Performance: This command sets the display performance of individual items on the page. Setting items to Optimized Display uses less memory to display photos and graphics. Setting the level to High Quality displays images as clearly as possible, but it may also slow down performance.

The Table Menu

The Table menu has commands that help you create and set up tables in a document:

  • Insert Table: When you click in a text frame, this option allows you to create a table that has a specific number of rows and columns.

  • Convert Text to Table: This command converts selected text to a table, based on defined separators that indicate where one cell's data ends and the next cell's begins.

  • Convert Table to Text: This command takes text in tables out of the table format.

  • Table Options: This command opens a submenu that gives you access to different table setup options, such as stroke, fill, headers, and footers.

  • Cell Options: This command allows you to set specifications for selected cells.

  • Insert: This command allows you to quickly insert blank rows or columns.

  • Delete: This command allows you to quickly delete selected rows, columns, or an entire table.

  • Select: This command allows you to quickly select specific parts of a table.

  • Merge Cells/Unmerge Cells: This command combines or unmerges two or more selected cells in the same row or column.

  • Split Cell Horizontally/Vertically: This command splits a single selected cell either vertically or horizontally.

  • Convert Rows: This command converts existing table rows to header or footer rows, as you choose.

  • Distribute Rows/Columns Evenly: This command makes the selected columns or rows the same width or height, respectively.

  • Go to Row: This command is like a search feature for your table; when you select Go to Row, you can enter the row number you want to jump to.

  • Edit Header/Footer: This command gives you options to edit the header or footer information for a table.

The View Menu

The View menu has commands that affect your view of a document in the open window:

  • Overprint Preview: This command shows a preview of the document so you can see how overprinting will appear on the final output.

  • Proof Setup: This command allows you to choose or create a custom proof setup to print a more accurate proof of the final output.

  • Proof Colors: This selection toggles on and off to show a soft proof of the color output.

  • Zoom In/Zoom Out: This command increases or decreases the amount of magnification to a specific amount.

  • Fit Page in Window: This command shows the entire current page in the window.

  • Fit Spread in Window: This command shows the entire current spread in the window.

  • Actual Size: This command shows your page at 100%.

  • Entire Pasteboard: This command shows the document and the entire pasteboard area.

  • Screen Mode, Normal: This command shows the page in Normal View mode, with all frame edges and guides.

  • Screen Mode, Preview: This command allows you to preview the page with all guides and frame edges hidden.

  • Screen Mode, Bleed: This command allows you to preview the document with the bleed area.

  • Screen Mode, Slug: This command allows you to preview the document with the slug area.

  • Display Performance, Fast Display: This option hides all the images and graphics placed on the page to make InDesign work faster.

  • Display Performance, Typical Display: This option displays low-resolution views of all images and graphics placed on the page. It is the default display setting.

  • Display Performance, High Quality Display: This option displays images and graphics at the highest quality possible. Choosing this option can lead to reduced performance.

  • Display Performance, Allow/Clear Object-Level Overrides: These options allow you to specify how you want objects to appear if they have been individually selected with a different display applied.

  • Structure, Hide/Show Structure; Structure, Hide/Show Tag Markers; Structure, Hide/Show Tagged Frames: These commands allow you to toggle the visibility of XML information.

  • Hide/Show Hyperlinks: This command toggles the display of hyperlinks that are tagged as such within the document.

  • Hide/Show Text Threads: This command hides or shows arrows that illustrate how text threads are linked.

  • Hide/Show Frame Edges: This command hides or shows the outside lines of any text or image frames on the page.

  • Hide/Show Rulers: This command hides or shows the rulers at the top and left of the workspace.

  • Grids & Guides, Hide/Show Guides: This command hides or shows any guides that are dragged out of the rulers.

  • Grids & Guides, Lock Guides: When this command is activated, ruler guides are locked and cannot be moved.

  • Grids & Guides, Lock Column Guides: When this command is activated, column guidelines on the page cannot be moved.

  • Grids & Guides, Snap to Guides: When this command is turned on, text or graphics automatically snap to guides that are on the page.

  • Grids & Guides, Hide/Show Baseline Grid: This command hides or shows the Baseline Grid view, which consists of horizontal lines that help align columns of text.

  • Grids & Guides, Hide/Show Document Grid: This command hides or shows the page grid used to align page elements.

  • Grids & Guides, Snap to Document Grid: When this command is activated, text or graphics automatically snap to the document grid.

  • Story Editor: This command opens a submenu that gives options for what is displayed in Story Editor view.

The Window Menu

The Window menu has commands that affect what you see in the workspace and how you see it:

  • Arrange, New Window: This command opens another window of the same document. You can zoom into specific page elements in one window while maintaining a full-page view in the other.

  • Arrange, Cascade: This command staggers all open windows across the screen from left to right for easy access.

  • Arrange, Tile: This command lines up all open windows within the screen area, allowing you to have a full view of every window.

  • Arrange, Minimize (Mac only): This command hides the currently open window, sending it to the Dock.

  • Arrange, Bring All to Front (Mac only): This command brings your InDesign windows to the front of the workspace, in front of any open windows in other applications.

  • Workspace: This command allows you to save the current palette arrangement or restore a previously saved arrangement.

The rest of the Window menu commands call up or hide specific InDesign palettes. See the "InDesign Palettes" section, earlier in this chapter, for a complete overview of InDesign palettes.

The Help Menu

The Help menu gives you information about InDesignthe application itself, its activation and registration, product updates, and the plug-ins installed:

  • InDesign Help: This command opens the Adobe Help Center.

  • Welcome Screen: This command opens the first screen you see when you open InDesign.

  • About InDesign: This command gives credit information for the application. (This command is found under the InDesign menu on Mac systems.)

  • Configure Plug-ins: This command lists all installed plug-ins and allows you to enable or disable specific plug-ins or create plug-in sets. (This command is found under the InDesign menu on Mac systems.)

  • Activate: If you haven't yet activated your software, you do so by using this command.

  • Transfer Activation: You use this selection if you need to transfer the software license to another computer.

  • Online Support: This command automatically connects to www.adobe.com for InDesign support.

  • Updates: This command automatically connects to www.adobe.com for available updates to InDesign.

  • Registration: This command opens registration information.

  • InDesign Online: This command goes to the Adobe InDesign website.




Special Edition Using Adobe Creative Suite 2
Special Edition Using Adobe Creative Suite 2
ISBN: 0789733676
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 426
Authors: Michael Smick

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