Before You Begin

Before you launch InDesign, open a new document, and begin working, you must answer several fundamental questions about the publication you'll be producing:

• What is the basic nature of the piece? Will it be printed, or will it be distributed over the Internet or an intranet? Is it going to be published as both a print and Web piece?

• If you're creating a printed publication, what are its dimensions?

• How many pages will it have? If it will be a multipage publication, will it have facing pages, like a book or a catalog, or will it be single-sided, like a flip chart?

• How many columns will each page have? How wide will the margins be?

• Does the budget allow for the use of color ? If so, how many colors? What kind of paper will it be printed on? What kind of printer or printing press will be used?

• How will the publication be distributed? Under what circumstances will it be read? What's the life expectancy of the publication?

• If the publication is bound for the Internet, will you create an HTML file (which can be viewed by anybody with a Web browser) or a PDF file (which requires viewers to have the free Acrobat Reader application or browser plug-in)?

• And what about the content of your publication? What programs were used to create the text files and graphic files your publication will contain? Did you create the content yourself, or did others? What file formats were used for text and graphic files? What is the most effective way to present the content given the production requirements and budget?

As you answer these questions, a rough image of your publication will begin to take shape in your mind. When you're ready to begin turning your ideas into an actual publication, you have a couple of choices. Many designers whose skills date back to the days of traditional paste-up still prefer to use traditional tools a drawing pad and colored markers or pencils in this case to create rough sketches before they fire up their page-layout or illustration program. Other designers who were never exposed to such archaic tools are comfortable doing their brainstorming and sketching on the fly, using their favorite software. Whatever method suits you is fine. Keep in mind that, at this early stage, you shouldn't be spending much time fine-tuning details. You can do that later with InDesign.

An overly careful person can plan forever in which case, nothing actually gets done. At some point, when the image you have of the publication you're creating is clear enough in your mind to begin work, it's time to create a new InDesign document.