Optimizing Your Workflow with Templates

When planning for production, after you have your skill set in fine form, you need to start optimizing your workflow. You do this by making sure your tools are organized and that you understand the process for developing a specific publication. You can also develop shortcuts for certain processes in the form of keyboard shortcuts; plug-ins that can extend functionality; scripts that can optimize repetitive, mundane tasks or batch processes; and templates that contain everything you need for a common publication. Think of these templates as kits designed for easy construction. All the chapters in this book emphasize templates so that you can take this "practice" production and reuse it in a live business setting.

Many people confuse templates with master pages, but master pages are stored page formats or configurations. Templates, on the other hand, are dummy publications. They contain not only master pages, but also paragraph, character, and object style sheets; color swatches; and libraries. Additionally, because templates are dummy publications, they contain all the necessary master pages, document pages, and repeating elements on the pages that will appear in every edition or version of the publication. See Chapter 9, "Developing a Newsletter," for a classic example of a publication that lends itself to template generation.

Some templates are more sophisticated than others. If there is nothing to be stored in the template but you still want to store common sizes or styles of documents, consider using document presets, which enable you to save common sizes and basic page configurations that can be used repeatedly and shared with others.