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*** DesignGeek ***
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Tips and techniques for the digital designer
In this issue:
-- My InDesign Book is Done!
InDesign CS/CS2 Breakthroughs
Issue 38, 5/18/05
Written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion
... for her clients, colleagues, random contacts and interested subscribers
© 2005 Seneca Design & Training, Inc.
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My InDesign Book is Done!
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Yes, it's true that I've missed a couple issues of DesignGeek, but I have an excuse: After months of hard work, my publisher (Peachpit Press) and my co-author (David Blatner) preferred I pay attention to the looming deadline of lucky Friday the 13th (of May) and get the final chapters of our new book written, laid out, and sent to the printer's. As a press-ready PDF of course.
InDesign CS/CS2 Breakthroughs (Subtitle: "Hundreds of hard-hitting solutions to your InDesign problems") is over 250 full-color pages of explanations, screen shots, how-to's, fixes, and workarounds for the most common problems InDesign users encounter. It completely covers both the CS and the CS2 versions.
Problems in InDesign? In CS2, too? Surely you jest. <cough>
Even the good folk at Adobe -- especially those on the tech support front lines -- would admit that when it comes to things like flattening transparency, scaling selections, and cleaning up nightmare Word files, even experienced users could do with a little help. So that's what we wrote about. Those three "challenges," and about 200 more!
After the months of work that went into this, (the writing was the easy part, it was the research and testing that took the most time), I'm completely thrilled how it turned out! I wish I had a book like this for every program I work with ... if I did, I wouldn't have to haunt the online forums and email listservs so often, looking for answers.
And of course, the best part of the process was working with David. Author or co-author of over 15 books, including Real World InDesign and Real World Photoshop; organizer of the InDesign Conference, yadda yadda, I already had about 7 of his books on my shelf when we started working together last summer. I was star-struck and I still am. (How fun it was to see "Blatner, David" appear on my caller ID when he'd call to talk about the book, it was like seeing "Einstein, Albert" was calling me ... well if you're a Quark or Adobe geek, that's how it felt!) ;-) I could write a whole issue about that guy -- funny, sharp, patient, intelligent, kind, savvy ... those are the broad strokes.
He's as pleased with the book as I am, especially since during our work, he discovered some InDesign techniques that were completely new to him (making a knockout, non-rich Black; using CS2's anchored objects to create wrappable drop caps; finally solving the last piece of the InDesign scaling puzzle), and was excited we could write them up for the first time in our book.
"InDesign Breakthroughs" will probably be available by mid-June, online at least, and in the bookstores shortly thereafter. In the meantime, you can place pre-orders on Amazon. Note that currently, Amazon lists the book under its older, working title (InDesign Solutions) with an old placeholder cover. You might want to wait a few weeks for Amazon to get its act together, but in the meantime, you could go there and read the description, which is accurate:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0321334132/
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Sneak Previews
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If you're in Chicago and you're going to the free Adobe CS2 event this Thursday (May 19) at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers, I'll be giving away three signed copies of the book as part of the raffle Adobe does at the end of the day. Well, they'll be gift certificates for now, of course, but I'll mail them to you as soon as I get my own hot little hands on the authors' copies.
Stop by the Seneca Design & Training booth outside the seminar room to drop off your card for the raffle and take a peek at the cover comp!
Empowering Ideas: Adobe Creative Suite 2 On Tour
http://www.adobe.com/events/splash.jsp?eventID=1952
Also, on June 8 in Chicago, I'll be doing an hour-and-a-half seminar all about "InDesign Breakthroughs," going step-by-step through my favorite solutions from the book on screen, and answering audience questions about their own problems-in-search-of-a-breakthrough-solution:
Chicago Book Clinic's Annual CBC University
My "InDesign Solutions" [sic] seminar description:
http://www.chicagobookclinic.org/events/cbcu2005sessions.html#2
There's lots of other great seminars happening at CBCU that day (I'm reprising my InCopy/InDesign Workflow one too, in the afternoon ... the one we did last month at Scott Foresman was sold out weeks in advance); especially if you're involved in book publishing. Check it out and register today!
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Thank you, all
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I really appreciate your patience in my missing a couple issues of DesignGeek. (And you're all thanked in the book's acknowledgments by the way. I wanted to list each and every subscriber name, but the publisher balked at the extra 50 pages. So it's just to "my DesignGeek readers." Next time, I promise.)
Of course, the weeks preceding the deadline just HAD to coincide with one of the most eventful periods ever ... Adobe announced Creative Suite 2, Apple announced and shipped Tiger (OS 10.4), and Adobe announced it was acquiring Macromedia, all while I had my head buried in the book, madly typing away. Augh!
That doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about DesignGeek though. I just kept bookmarking those great sites, saving those posts from the forums, transcribing conversations, always adding to the resource pile for upcoming issues. I might even increase the issue frequency for awhile just to clear the decks a bit, or maybe spin some off into a blog or something. Anyway, I'll be resuming my regular DesignGeek publishing schedule now, so keep an eye out for more primo tips and discoveries coming your way!
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HERGEEKNESS SPEAKS: Upcoming Events
I'm doing a lot of public speaking in the next few months. Hope to see you there!
"A Workflow That Works: InDesign and InCopy in the Trenches"
and "InDesign Solutions: Tips, Workarounds, and Fixes for Glitches"
Chicago Book Clinic's annual "CBC University"
Wednesday, June 8, 2005
University of Chicago's Gleacher Center; Chicago, Illinois
http://www.chicagobookclinic.org/events/events.htm
"Moving to an InCopy/InDesign Workflow" (full-day pre-Show workshop)
and "Words, Words, Words: Text Without Tears" session
The InDesign Conference
Tuesday, June 21, 2005; 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Hotel Nikko; San Francisco, California
http://www.theindesignconference.com/schedule.php?sid=1&cid=4
"Pixel Perfect: Web Site Design and the Creative Suite" session
The Creative Suite Conference
Friday, July 22, 2005; 1:00 p.m. to 2:10 p.m.
Caesar's Palace; Las Vegas, Nevada
http://www.thecreativesuiteconference.com/
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BRING HERGEEKNESS ON-SITE
Do you like what you read in DesignGeek? Find anything useful? Bring me in for a session or two of hands-on software training for your workgroup; here in Chicago or any other city near an airport, and you can have me all to yourself. LOL .... I don't charge an arm and a leg, and you'll find we usually go far beyond teaching which dialog does what. I pay attention to your particular projects and workflow, and teach how you can best use the software to get it done easily, accurately and efficiently.
To learn more, or hear what other clients have to say, contact me or fill out the no-obligation "Request a Training Quote' form on Seneca's site:
http://www.senecadesign.com/training/request.html
Recent training clients in Chicago and throughout the U.S. include Group Publishing (InCopy); American Legion Magazine (InCopy); ST Media Group (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator); Schawk Inc. (InDesign); Riverside Publishing (OS X, InDesign); Hoyt Publishing (InCopy); Playboy Enterprises (InDesign), Loyola Press (InDesign, InCopy); Stralfors (Dreamweaver); and the Chicago Tribune (GoLive).
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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/
To unsubscribe, follow the link at the bottom of this page.
Contact Seneca by phone at 312-946-1100 or e-mail at info@senecadesign.com
Copyright 2005 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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