One key way to save money at your paper is to save time. You know:
the old saw about time is money. Specifically, time spent setting up
InDesign with all your styles, with several good libraries, with
page templates, and so on, will save you time when you most need it:
during pagination of the issue.
As Stephen Covey put it (more or less): you are up to your whatever
in alligators and you are fighting them off with a shovel everyday.
But if you don’t find some time to drain the swamp, you’ll have to
fight off the alligators every day.
Are you spending too much time fending off time-sucking alligators
and not “finding time” to drain the swamp?
Soon, I will upload a video or two, when I complete my “white paper”
on redesigning or setting up your paper in the first place. In this
I will address some questions I have gotten from a few NDS members.
As promised, here are a few helpful InDesign tips:
1. I saw this problem in the Wall Street Journal today. It has been
a common problem going back to the PageMaker days. In a paragraph of
type, for some reason, the last line is linespaced a bit more than
the rest of the paragraph. That spread-out last line stands out like
an apple in a box of oranges.
This is a common problem. Usually, there is an additional paragraph
return that somehow ended up with a larger leading figure. You can’t
see a return, but it’s there. (Actually, if you want to see it, go
to Type > Show hidden characters.) Delete the return if you don’t
need it or select it and change the leading to match the rest of the
paragraph.
2. You are probably using a lot of lists, some numbered. All is
well, until you run into a long numbered list and you want to line
up the single-digits properly with the double digits. Instead of
faking it with tabs and spacebar, do it properly with styles.
When you set up your styles (you are using styles, aren’t you?), you
can set up the spacing around either bullets or numbers in a list in
the “Bullets and Numbering” section of “Paragraph Style Options.”
Click on that section and at the bottom, you will see “Bullet or
Number Position.” This refers ONLY to the bullets and numbers in a
list. Set the Alignment at “Right.”
Left Indent refers to the space you need to move the single digits
far enough right to align properly with the multiple digits. You may
have to increase this number a bit until you have enough room for
the alignment. There is no magic number, as it depends on the size
of the type.
First Line Indent is only useful if you want a hanging indent. If
you do, this will be zero or a negative number. Again, you will
probably have to experiment a bit the first few times (then build it
into a style!)
Finally, the Tab Position number governs the space between the
number or bullet and the next character, i.e., your content.
That’s all the space for this time. Remember to check the archives
for the illustrations.
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Owner, News Design School