In this issue:
-- It's Official: Quark's 2nd-Computer License
-- Revealing Embedded Object Info in Illustrator
-- InDesign's Hidden Proportional Scale Command

Issue 7, 9/23/03
Written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion

© 2003 Seneca Design & Training, Inc.

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Quark's Mobile Licensing Program --
"For Quark Users On the Go"

As reported in DesignGeek a few issues ago (okay, I was just passing along credible scuttlebutt), Quark has announced a new twist on its product licensing for registered users: After paying for and registering your single-user license of the QuarkXPress 6.0 software, for an additional $75 you can get a license to use XPress 6 on both your primary and secondary computers. ("Such as a laptop" they say, thus the moniker for the offer.)

Restrictions are that your two computers have to be the same platform (either Mac or PC) and that you don't use the two licenses concurrently. The Mobile Licensing Program is only available to single-user license holders, not to those companies which purchased multiple copies and the Quark License Administrator (QLA) product to manage them.

To get in on the deal, dig out your serial number and call Quark customer service at 800-676-4575 (in Canada, call 307-772-7100) during regular business hours.

Official info available here:
http://www.quark.com/products/xpress/purchase/mobile.html

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What's the Resolution, Kenneth:
Figuring Out What They Embedded In That Illy File

You probably already know that you can add raster images (such as scans or artwork from paint programs) to your vector-based Illustrator artwork. When you use Illustrator's File-->Place menu item to do this, the Place dialog lets you choose whether you'd like to Embed the raster image in your file, or just Link to it.

Let me briefly explain those two options first before I get to the tip.

If you Link to the file, it works the same as if you imported an image into a page layout program. Only an image preview is actually imported (placed) into your Illy file, helping to keep the file size down; and if you modify the original image, Illy can update its preview. But to output the file correctly, your computer will need access to that external linked file.

For this reason, many users will opt to Embed the image instead. The Illustrator file gets much larger since it has to contain all that raster image data, but now the user and their vendors don't have to keep track of any external files. This is especially useful if you plan on importing the final image into a page layout program -- you only have one external file to keep track of (the Illy file itself) instead of two (the Illy file and its linked raster image).

So what happens if you've been given an Illustrator file with an embedded image, or you're opening one that you worked on long ago and you forgot how you did it? With no external file to look at in Photoshop, how can you tell if the image is RGB or CMYK, or if it's the correct resolution for your purpose? While you can select the image in Illustrator, there's no read out of its specifications... or is there?

Well of course there is, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this. Full information on embedded objects can be found in that incredibly useful Illy palette, Document Info. Pay close attention here: I'm not referring to Document Setup, nor File Info, two other menu items there to confuse you. The one you want is Document Info. In Illustrator 9, Document Info is in the File menu; in Illustrator 10 it's been moved to the Window menu.

Open the Illustrator file and select the embedded image. Then open the Document Info palette and from its pop-up menu choose Embedded Objects. There you go! Illustrator lists the object's color mode, number of channels, file size in kilobytes, pixel resolution, and "print" dimensions (in points).

Did you just try that and the palette said "None"? No problem, this happens to me a lot. Look at the palette's pop-up menu again, at the first choice: Selection Only. See how it's enabled (checked) by default? Illy is trying to help you out by only showing you info for the items you've selected. So if you didn't select the embedded image first (per my instrux, tsk tsk), it has nothing to tell you.

As I said, no problem, because you can just click on the embedded image right now -- while the palette's open -- to see its specifications appear. If you have more than one embedded image, select each in turn to see the info appear on the fly in the palette.

To see info on *all* the embedded images in the document (or to tell if the file has any embedded images in the first place), turn off Selection Only. Now Illustrator will show you information for *all* items in your file, regardless of what's selected.

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InDesign's Hidden Proportional Scaling Command

You've placed an image in InDesign and you want to scale it up or down proportionally.

Let me count the known ways, and then I'll tell you a little-known way.

-- Select the image/frame combo with one click of the Selection tool, and Command (Mac)/Control (PC)-Shift-Drag on any handle of the frame (this scales both the image and its frame but not the frame's stroke, which is a Good Thing);

-- Use the Direct Selection tool to select the image only (not the frame) and reveal its bounding box, then Command/Control-Shift-Drag on any handle of the bounding box (this scales the image only and leaves the frame alone);

-- Select the image/frame combo with the Selection tool, then double-click on the Scale tool to get its dialog box. Choose Proportional and enter your scaling percentages, then click Okay. (If you only want the image scaled, and not the frame, use the Direct Selection tool instead.)

-- For an accidental disproportional scale of an image, select it and choose Object-->Fitting-->Fit Content Proportionally. (Then go back to the same menu and choose Fit Frame to Content if you want to fix that too.)

... and the little-known way...

-- Use the Transform palette: Enter a number in either the "X Scaling" (horizontal) or "Y Scaling" (vertical) fields, and immediately press Command-Return (Mac) or Control-Enter (PC). This prompts InDesign to enter the same number in the other field, making the scaling proportional. Or you could just hold down the Command/Control key while choosing one of the scaling pre-sets in the fields' pop-up menus... same thing happens.

 

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OS X TRANSITION:
A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR DESIGN STAFF AND MANAGEMENT
.... Anne-Marie's seminar is on the air in Chicago, and maybe by you too!

Over twenty soon-to-be OS X Pros have signed up for the Chicago edition of Anne-Marie's seminar on Monday, Oct. 13 at the Hotel Allegro. (A few seats are still available, see the link below.) She'll be presenting the same seminar in San Francisco, southern California, Washington D.C. and Seattle in the coming months.

Why attend? Well, in addition to receiving a ton of useful handouts and step-by-step guides she created explicitly for this seminar, and a great OS X book, you'll discover all the ins and outs of moving your design/production workflow to OS X without a hitch. Yes, she'll cover installing OS X and how to use the Dock and so on, but a big focus will be on publishing-critical topics such as font management, file sharing, user account strategies for design workgroups, printing, and optimizing Classic for seamless performance (yes, you *can* use Quark 4 or 5 in OS X!).

Anne-Marie is a seasoned OS X user in a design studio environment, as well as an OS X trainer for other design and publishing workgroups. You'll have plenty of time in the seminar to discuss your particular OS X concerns for your workflow.

Seminar details here:
http://www.dgusa.com/dgstore/a/dgtosx.htm

And registration is here:
http://www.dgusa.com/dgstore/product.asp?prodno=4030

All of Anne-Marie's software/seminar training info, student pix and testimonials, fees, etc. are here:
http://www.senecadesign.com/training/

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DesignGeek is a free bimonthly publication written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion, a cross-media designer and authorized Adobe and Quark training provider. She owns Seneca Design & Training, Inc. in Chicago, Illinois (http://www.senecadesign.com/).

To subscribe to DesignGeek or read archived issues, go to its home on Seneca's site: http://www.senecadesign.com/designgeek/subscribe.html.

To unsubscribe, follow the link at the bottom of this page.

Contact Seneca by phone at 312-946-1100 or email at info@senecadesign.com

Copyright 2003 by Seneca Design & Training, Inc.
Please forward without cutting. Please contact Seneca for reprint permissions. We don't guarantee accuracy of articles. Company or product names mentioned in DesignGeek may be registered trademarks, we use the names in an editorial fashion with no intention of infringement.
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