Chapter8.Using Adobe InDesign CS2

Chapter 8. Using Adobe InDesign CS2

Now that you know how to use Illustrator, learning InDesign is easy. That's because Illustrator and InDesign are like identical twins. Many of the tools, palettes, and features are the same between the two, and they work on the same conceptual level. If you're coming to InDesign from another page-layout application, such as QuarkXPress, PageMaker, or Publisher, three main things will be very different from your past experiences: the ability to place native files from other Adobe applications into layouts directly (no need for flattened EPS or TIFF files), direct import and export of PDF files, and the use of transparency. As you read through this chapter, you'll get a better understanding of why InDesign has so quickly become the most popular page-layout application on the market.

What's New in InDesign CS2

If you've used InDesign before, here's a quick overview of what's new in the CS2 version of InDesign: the capability to save and use portions of an InDesign file, called Snippets; enhanced Microsoft Word and Excel import filters and the capability to map Word styles to InDesign styles; the capability to access Photoshop layer comps and control the visibility of layers placed in Photoshop and PDF files; better drop shadows with noise control; the capability to save and apply graphic attributes using object styles, and a QuickApply feature that enables you to apply any object, paragraph, or character style right from the keyboard; numerous text enhancements including drag-and-drop text and live spell-checking; backward compatibility with InDesign CS; the capability to place multipage PDF files in one step; support for XML in tables; a Transform Again feature similar to that found in Illustrator CS2; and support for anchored objects to link graphics to flow with specific text.