- Exploring the Templates that Ship with InDesign
- Customizing Predesigned InDesign Templates
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Customizing Predesigned InDesign Templates
While InDesign’s predesigned templates can save time, their layout is already predetermined and may not fully suit your specific design requirements. As a designer, you want to set your work apart from everyone else. It’s almost always essential to personalize a predesigned template before it is ready to use. Sometimes, it’s nothing more than modifying a few colors. At other times, it may require significant rework, such as exchanging fonts or revising the underlying layout grid.
The following steps will guide your template project from planning to design and on through to successful implementation. These guidelines are not hard and fast, but they serve as a basis for selecting and customizing the predesigned templates that ship with InDesign.
Step 1: Select a Template
Decide which of the predesigned InDesign templates best targets your project’s goals and then open and explore its layout. If the template is suitable as is, the next step is simple—begin producing pages. However, in many cases, you’ll need to move, add, subtract, and modify elements until the template meets your goals. In this case, you’ll need to create a mock-up layout and then revise your chosen template based on its parameters.
Exploring the Template’s Layout
When you first open one of InDesign’s predesigned templates, there is always a period of discovery where you learn how the template has been built. It’s critical that you take some time to explore its layout before creating a mock-up layout or revising the template.
Templates with a lot of design detail can look a bit confusing at first, but once you take a closer look, you’ll find that a good deal of thought has gone into how each element is formatted and positioned. As you become familiar with the template, you’ll be able to more easily add, remove, and modify its various design elements as you deem appropriate for your project.
The following steps will help you become familiar with any template:
- Check the template’s dimensions and framework. Select and open a template, and then choose File > Document Setup to check its dimensions. Find out if the page size and
orientation will meet your design requirements. Click the More Options button to check the bleed and slug settings as well
(Figure 4.6).
Next, check the use of margins and columns. Keep in mind that InDesign lets you define separate margin and column settings on a page-by-page basis. Therefore, you’ll need to navigate to each master page in the template to ensure that the settings conform to your design requirements. You can identify margin guides by their magenta color and column guides by their violet color. To verify the exact margin and column dimensions, select a master page or spread, and then choose Layout > Margins and Columns. The Margins and Columns dialog opens and displays the dimensions (Figure 4.7). If you have two or more pages selected, you may notice that the fields are blank where the pages don’t share the same settings.
It’s also a good idea to find out if there are any other structural elements in use, such as horizontal and vertical ruler guides, or even a baseline grid. Determine their purpose on the page and decide whether or not they serve your design goals.
- Explore the master pages. The master pages contain the layout grid as well as all the repeating objects and placeholders that form the design. A number
of the templates that ship with InDesign contain multiple master pages. So, it’s important to explore each master page and
its elements.
You’ve already checked the structural elements, so you now need to examine all the repeating objects and placeholder elements. Note the use and position of background art, logos, dividing rules, headers, footers, and any other elements on the page.
Next, activate the Type tool and select the text within each of the placeholder text frames. Note the font, type size, leading, alignment, and other typographical attributes in use.
- Explore the sample pages. Each of the templates that ships with InDesign contains at least one fully featured sample page and often even more. A sample
page demonstrates the design by showing some of its possible variations. This is achieved by basing each sample page on one
of the master pages and then building on that foundation by adding text and graphic placeholders to indicate the position
and style of each design element. Explore each of these elements.
Activate the Selection tool and choose Edit > Select All. This selects every frame on the active spread and shows you the size and boundaries of each frame. Note the size and position of any text and graphics frames. Considerable thought has gone into the position and size of each one. Depending on the type of document you’re looking at, a sample page may consist of any number of frames. Some are made up of a single frame, whereas others contain several overlapping frames that are stacked upon each other. At first this can be quite confusing, but after taking a closer look, you’ll be able to make more sense of it.
Notice that several frames have not been included in the selection. They can easily be identified, because their bounding box did not become visible when the selection was made (Figure 4.8). These frames are master items and can only be modified on the master page—unless you override them. Take note of them and keep in mind which objects are coming from a master page and which objects belong to the document page.
Select each frame and note its fill color, stroke weight, transparency effects, and any other formatting in use. Then activate the Type tool and select the text within each of the placeholder text frames. Note the font, type size, leading, alignment, and all other typographical attributes in use.
- Examine the style sheets. Each template that ships with InDesign includes well-defined style sheets. Since they control most of the sample page formatting,
it’s important to examine each style sheet and find out where and how it is being used. Then determine if it serves your design
goals or if it needs to be modified.
Begin with the paragraph and character styles. Activate the Type tool and select each typographic element, such as headlines, subheads, and the body copy. Find out if a paragraph style or character style has been applied to your selection. Keep track of the name of each style and where each is being applied. This information will serve you later when you start customizing the template.
Some paragraph styles contain nested styles. There is no immediate way of detecting when a nested style is in use. But you can make a good guess by looking for paragraphs that start with one type of formatting and end with another type of formatting. For example, a numbered list may have a sans-serif font applied to the number and a serif font applied to the main text. If you suspect a nested style is in use, open the paragraph style and choose Drop Caps and Nested Styles from the list of categories. If it contains a nested style, you’ll see it in the list (Figure 4.9).
Next, find out if any object styles are in use. Look in the Object Styles panel to determine if any styles—other than the default styles—are present. If so, note the formatting they define and where they are being used within the sample pages. Only a few of the templates that ship with InDesign have object styles built into them. See template Photobook 2.indt for an example.
- Look for other elements in use. After exploring a template’s basic elements, look for additional elements that may be a part of it. Open the Layers panel and take note of any layers that are in use. Find out if any Table of Contents Styles have been created by choosing Layout > Table of Contents Styles. Open the Bookmarks panel, Hyperlinks panel, and States panel to see if and where any interactive elements may be in use. If you are working with one of the Data Merge templates that ship with InDesign, take note where each data-field placeholder element sits on the page (Figure 4.10).
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Step 2: Create the Mock-up Layout
Now that you’re more familiar with your chosen template, you can create a mock-up of your design. Since you are modifying a predesigned template, much of the work has already been done for you. However, this step can be more or less challenging depending on the significance of changes that need to be made. If you plan on making just a few, simply move on to the next step and revise the template wherever necessary. But if you plan on making a lot of changes, you’ll need to create a mock-up layout before revising the template.
Keep in mind that you are not concerned with creating or modifying master pages, style sheets, or even swatches at this stage. You’ll do that in the next step. Your goal here is to shape the sample content that represents your design. This shouldn’t be too difficult since every one of the templates that ship with InDesign contain detailed sample pages, which provide a great starting point for developing your mock-up layout.
Here are some guidelines to help you transform your selected template’s sample pages into a fully functional mock-up:
- Delete all unnecessary elements. Begin by removing any elements that you don’t plan on using in your template, including placeholder frames, extra typographic elements, ruler guides, and any other objects that exist on a master page or document page that you don’t need. This clears the way for new elements and makes it easier to revise the template with your own content.
- Adjust the document dimensions. Define the page format by making any necessary changes to the overall page size and orientation. This is also the time to specify a bleed, or even a slug area, if your intended design calls for it.
- Adjust the document framework. Modify the position of the margins, columns, and ruler guides that shape the framework of your intended design, and be specific. If your target design calls for a two-column grid in some cases and a five-column grid in other cases, you’ll need to create a separate sample page for each layout. Also, be strategic in your use of ruler guides by positioning them where they actually serve a purpose. This makes your template clear and easy to use.
- Define all text formatting. Every typographic element must be clearly defined and represented in the mock-up layout. This includes all headlines, body text variations, bulleted and numbered lists, captions, folios, and so on. It’s likely that the template you’ve selected already contains most of the required elements. Therefore, all you need to do is add any new elements to finalize the mock-up.
- Define all frame formatting. Every permitted graphical element and its formatting characteristics must be clearly defined and represented. This includes background art, dividing rules, text wrap requirements, color and drop shadow specifications, and so on. If your design uses tables, you’ll need to represent their formatting as well.
- Define the size and arrangement of each element. A mock-up layout is never complete until the size and arrangement of each permitted element is clearly and accurately represented. No detail is too small to leave out.
Step 3: Revise the Template
Having built a mock-up layout that accurately represents your design and meets your preliminary goals, you are now prepared to modify and complete your chosen template. The bulk of the work was taken care of when you created the mock-up. Your job now is to simply translate the design into a production-viable template by revising the master pages, style sheets, color swatches, and any additional elements that your template may require.
Update the Master Pages
Start with the master pages since they contain the template’s framework, repeating objects, and placeholder elements. Study your mock-up carefully, determine which elements should be placed on the master page, and then revise the master pages. Here are two approaches you can take:
- Copy objects to an existing master page. If there are just a few objects that need to be added to an existing master page, simply take them from the mock-up layout. The easiest way to do this is to select the objects to be relocated and choose Edit > Cut. Then go to the master page and choose Edit > Paste in Place to paste the objects into the original X,Y position they were copied from. As objects are placed, the thumbnail representations of the master pages are updated to indicate their position. This feedback is useful for making sure that you are placing each object onto the correct master page (Figure 4.11).
- Convert a mock-up spread to a master page. If you’ve made significant changes to the original design or you’ve added a new layout option to it, you may find it easiest
to just convert an existing mock-up spread to a new master page in one step. To do this, select a spread in the Pages panel
and choose Save As Master from the Pages panel menu. You can also drag an entire spread from the Pages section to the Masters
section. Once the new master page is created, any objects on the original spread become part of it.
After creating the new master page, it’s a good idea to edit its name, prefix, and other options before doing anything else. Select the master spread and choose Master Options for [master spread name] from the Pages panel menu. Choose a prefix and name. If the original mock-up spread used a master page, the newly created master will be based on the original spread’s master. If you don’t want to base this master on another, choose [None] for the Based on Master option (Figure 4.12).
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While revising the master pages, continually look for areas of improvement. Keep sight of your original design objectives and develop masters that facilitate the fast and efficient production of pages wherever possible. Here are some measures you can take to make master pages more production friendly:
- Choose a prefix and name that identifies the intended purpose of the master page.
- Create a parent master and base other master pages on it when you need master pages that require slight variations on one main design. A change to the parent master updates all of the child masters in one click, preventing you from having to edit each master page separately.
- Delete any unused master pages and all unnecessary master items.
- Delete images from placeholder graphics frames, leaving just the empty frames. This speeds up production, because you won’t have to override the master frames on document pages before you can import images into them. Instead, you’ll be able to position the loaded graphics icon above a master frame and click it to place the image and override the frame in a single click.
- Apply frame fitting options to placeholder graphics frames so that whenever new content is placed into them, the Fitting command is automatically applied. To set a fitting option, select a frame, choose Object > Fitting > Frame Fitting Options, and then specify the options.
- Apply style sheets to master items. Apply them to folios, chapter headings, frames with drop shadows, and so on.
Create an Object Library
If there are several elements in your design that repeat often but not consistently enough to be placed on a master page, add them to an object library. This keeps your frequently used objects organized and easy to locate when you need them.
Here are a few tips for increasing the productivity of object libraries:
- Fill out all the item information for each library item. This makes it easier to identify and search for an item by its name, by object type, by creation date, or by its description.
- Change the view of an object library to List view. This view allows more items to fit within the panel and makes it much easier to locate an item by its name and object type. To change the view, choose List View from the Object Library panel menu.
- Place a library item at its original X,Y coordinates by selecting it in the panel and then choosing Place Items(s) from the Object Library panel menu. This method is particularly useful when a library item needs to be positioned into the same X,Y position each time you add it to a page.
Set Up Layers
Each of the predesigned templates that ship with InDesign include layers to keep specific items such as artwork, text, and guides on separate layers. By using multiple layers, you can create, edit, and manage objects on each layer without affecting other objects in the layout. For example, you can use layers to display alternate design ideas or to maintain different language versions of an advertisement for the same layout.
When revising InDesign’s predesigned templates, it is extremely important that you maintain constant awareness of which layer you are editing (Figure 4.13). Otherwise, you can unintentionally mess up their organization. Here are a few tips for working with layers:
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Assign a color to every layer. This makes it easier to identify the layer that each object belongs to. When you assign a color to a layer, each object on that layer displays the assigned color in its bounding box, selection handles, text wrap boundary (if a text wrap is used), frame edges, text ports, and hidden characters.
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Move master items to higher layers. You can use layers to specify how objects on a master page overlap objects on a document page. If you want a master item to appear in front of objects on the document page, move it to a higher layer.
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Hide layers. You can hide layers to prevent them from being edited or printed. Hiding layers can also be useful for hiding alternate versions of a document or to make it easier to edit parts of a document at a time.
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Merge layers. If you want to minimize the number of layers in your template, you can merge layers together without deleting any objects. Select two or more layers in the Layers panel and choose Merge Layers from the Layers panel menu. When layers are merged, objects from all the selected layers are moved to the target layer—as indicated by the pen icon. Only the target layer remains in the document.
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Define Color Swatches
Create and name color swatches for any color that is consistently used throughout your design. All permissible colors are then predefined ahead of time, allowing you to consistently apply color when producing pages.
The Swatches panel lets you create and name colors, gradients, or tints, and quickly apply them to elements in a document (Figure 4.14). Here are two methods for creating swatches based on the colors being used in your mock-up layout:
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Add unnamed colors to the Swatches panel. When using the Color panel or Color picker to apply color, these colors are not automatically added to the Swatches panel and will be unnamed. If your mock-up layout contains a large number of unnamed colors, choose Add Unnamed Colors from the Swatches panel menu to quickly add them to the list.
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Create a swatch based on the color of an object. If you don’t want every unnamed color added to the Swatches panel or if there are just a few colors that need to be added, you can manually create color swatches instead. Select the object that contains the color you want to add, and then drag the Fill box or Stroke box from the top of the Swatches panel into the list of color swatches.
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After you’ve created all the necessary color swatches, optimize the swatch list to make it as easy to use as possible. You can enhance your template’s productivity in two ways:
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Rename the color swatches. By default, color swatches are named according to their CMYK or RGB components, making it difficult to find a color among a large list of swatches. You can switch off this option and add your own name by double-clicking a swatch in the Swatches panel to open its options. Deselect the Name with Color Value option and name the swatch according to its intended purpose.
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Rearrange the list of colors in the Swatches panel. By placing frequently used colors at the top of the list in the Swatches panel, they become easier to locate when you need them. To relocate a swatch, drag it to another location within the Swatches panel. A thick line will appear, indicating where the swatch will drop when you release the mouse button.
Update the Character and Paragraph Styles
Study your mock-up layout carefully and determine which styles need to be updated or if any new styles still need to be created.
Place your cursor into each text element in the mock-up layout and determine which style is applied to them. If the wrong style is currently applied, go ahead and apply the correct style. If the correct style is already applied, look for a plus sign (+) next to the style name (Figure 4.15). If one appears, it indicates an override, which means that some of the formatting within the selected text is not part of that style’s definition. It’s likely that most of the styles were overridden when you created the mock-up.
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If a style has been overridden, you need to update the style with any new formatting so that your revised template contains accurate paragraph and character style definitions. Here are two approaches for updating styles:
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Redefine a style to match the selected text. Select the text that is formatted with the style you want to redefine, and then choose Redefine Style from the Paragraph Styles or Character Styles panel menu. As the style is updated, all the text to which it has been applied will also be updated.
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Define a new style. At times, you may find it easier to just delete the current style and re-create a new one based on your mock-up’s current formatting. Delete the style first. Since it is being used in the document, you will be asked to replace it with another style before it can be deleted. Select [No paragraph style] when deleting a paragraph style or [None] when deleting a character style. Also, be sure to select the Preserve Formatting option to keep the formatting of text to which the style is applied (Figure 4.16). After the style is deleted, base the new style on the formatting of the existing sample text by selecting that text before you create the new style.
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While creating or redefining styles, look for ways to increase their productivity. Here are a few ways you can enhance styles:
- Choose a name that identifies the intended purpose of the style.
- Add keyboard shortcuts to frequently used styles. To add a keyboard shortcut, double-click the style name to open its options and position the insertion point in the Shortcut field. Make sure Num Lock is turned on, and then hold down any combination of Shift, Alt, and Ctrl (Windows) or Shift, Option, and Command (Mac OS) and choose a number from the numeric keypad. You cannot use letters or nonkeypad numbers for defining style shortcuts.
- Rearrange the list of styles to make them easier to locate when you need them. To relocate a style, drag it to another location within the Styles panel. A thick line appears, indicating where the style will drop when you release the mouse button.
- Organize similarly used styles into style groups to make them easier to locate and manage. This is particularly helpful when a template contains many styles. To create a style group, select the styles to be included, and then choose New Style Group from the Styles panel menu. Choose a name that identifies its intended purpose.
Set up Nested Styles
Now that you’ve defined all the character and paragraph styles in your template, you can boost their productive power by setting up nested styles for paragraphs that have repetitive and predictable formatting. Nested styles are especially useful for numbered lists and lead-in text. To add nested styles to a paragraph style, double-click the paragraph style, and then click Drop Caps and Nested Styles. Choose New Nested Style and specify each of its options (Figure 4.17). You can set up as many nested styles as necessary.
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If your template contains paragraphs that repeat a pattern of two or more types of formatting, you can take nested styles up another notch by setting them up to loop. A simple example would be to alternate bold and italic words in a paragraph (Figure 4.18). The repeating pattern continues infinitely even if you add or remove words in the paragraph. To loop through nested styles, do the following:
- Add two or more nested styles to a paragraph style.
- After all the nested styles have been added, create one more, choose [Repeat] from the Character Style menu, and then specify how many nested styles will be repeated. The other two options are fixed and cannot be modified.
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Create Object Styles
Study your mock-up layout for repeating frame formatting. Look for items such as stroke weight, color, drop shadows, and text wrap. If you notice formatting that repeats often throughout the design, create object styles to significantly speed up the process of formatting frames during production (Figure 4.19).
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While creating object styles, continually look for ways to improve them. Here are a few ways you can boost their productivity:
- Name the object style to identify its intended purpose.
- Include the Paragraph Style category in its definition to dramatically improve an object style’s level of efficiency. When the object style is applied, the paragraph style is applied in the same click. Also, if the paragraph style includes any nested styles, they will be applied in that instance as well.
- Add keyboard shortcuts to frequently used object styles. To add a keyboard shortcut, double-click the style name to open its options and position the insertion point in the Shortcut field. Make sure Num Lock is turned on, and then hold down any combination of Shift, Alt, and Ctrl (Windows) or Shift, Option, and Command (Mac OS), and choose a number from the numeric keypad. You cannot use letters or nonkeypad numbers for defining style shortcuts.
- Rearrange the list of object styles to make them easier to locate when you need them. To relocate a style, drag it to another location within the Object Styles panel. A thick line will appear, indicating where the style will drop when you release the mouse button.
- Organize similarly used object styles into style groups to make them easier to locate and manage. This is particularly helpful when a template contains many object styles. To create a style group, select the object styles to be included, and then choose New Style Group from the Object Styles panel menu. Choose a name that identifies its intended purpose.
Prepare the Template for Production
Now that your template is finished, you need to clean it up and prepare it for production before you begin using it. While revising the template, it’s likely that you generated quite a mess. This important last step in the revision process ensures that your template is clean and easy to use. When the template is ready for production, simply save it as an InDesign template file and begin the testing phase.
Here are some suggestions for preparing a template for production:
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Eliminate sample elements. Remove all the sample layout elements from the document. It may be best to just delete all the document pages and create new pages based on the clean master pages.
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Override master items. Override any master items that you will need immediate access to each time you begin a new publication. To override a master item, hold Ctrl-Shift (Windows) or Command-Shift (Mac OS), and then click the item (or drag to select multiple items). When you override a master item, its dotted bounding box becomes a solid line, indicating that it has been overridden.
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Delete unwanted styles. Delete any character, paragraph, and object styles you don’t plan to use.
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Set default styles. Set the default styles for character, paragraph, and object styles. To do this, choose Edit > Deselect All. With nothing selected on the page, select the character and paragraph styles that should be the default style that is used each time the template is opened.
There are two default object styles (Figure 4.20). To change the default style for text frames, choose Default Text Frame Style from the Object Styles panel menu, and then select an object style. To change the default style for unassigned frames, choose Default Graphic Frame Style from the Object Styles panel menu, and then select an object style.
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Step 4: Test the Template
After you’ve revised your chosen template, simply walk through a live production scenario to test it. Use the testing principles covered in Chapter 14, “Preparing Your Template for Success,” to guide you through the process and remember that no template is ever completed on your first attempt.
Step 5: Implement the Template
You’re now ready to implement your template into a live production workflow. But before you do, there is still one more detail that you’ll want to take care of before its final release.
To prepare your template for easier implementation, it’s essential that you collect all of its supporting elements and save them, along with the template file, into one central folder. InDesign provides a handy package utility that makes it easy to do this. To package your template, choose File > Package (Figure 4.21).
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When you package a file, a folder is created that contains a copy of the InDesign document, any necessary fonts, linked graphics, and a customized report. This report includes a list of all used fonts, links, and inks required to print the document, as well as the print settings that were last saved with it (Figure 4.22).
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In addition to packaging any necessary fonts and linked graphics, there are a few other elements that you might consider adding to the package: object libraries, Adobe Swatch Exchange files, and any print presets. Since InDesign doesn’t automatically package these elements for you, you will need to manually copy them to the package folder location.