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*** DesignGeek ***
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Tips and techniques for the digital designer
In this issue:
-- Group Across Layers in Illustrator
-- Photoshop Canvas Size Gripe and Fix
-- Export InDesign CS2/CS3 to HTML
-- Add Formatted Text to PDFs on the Fly
Issue 68, 1/15/08
Written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion
... for her clients, colleagues, random contacts and interested subscribers
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Group Across Layers in Illustrator
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Both Layers and Groups are essential Illustrator features that help keep complex drawings organized and easier to work with.
Unfortunately, Illustrator doesn't let you truly combine the features. That is, if you select items that live on different layers, and then choose Object > Group (in order to treat them as a single unit for selecting, moving and transforming), Illustrator moves all of the selected elements into sublayers of the topmost selected item's layer.
Sometimes that's okay. More often, it's not -- after all, you took care to create multiple layers and place your artwork on them for a reason, right? Now they've been moved. The next time you choose to hide or lock a layer, you'll get a different result than what you intended.
Worse, moving objects to different layers changes their stacking order, and you may not be happy with how some of the elements you grouped now overlap elements they used to be in back of.
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Solution: Save the Selection
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The next time you're faced with the dilemma of grouping objects in different layers, *don't* group them. You can achieve most of a group's benefits by using the Save Selection feature instead. Select all the items you were about to group, choose Select > Save Selection, name the selection in the dialog box, then click OK.
Didn't even know Illustrator had that feature, did you? It's a quiet one, that's for sure. But it's been part of Illustrator since CS1.
Go ahead and deselect and go about your business. The next time you want to manipulate the "group," go to the Select menu and choose the selection's name. (All saved selection names appear at the bottom of the Select menu, quite handy.) Illustrator remembers which objects were part of the selection -- even if you've moved or transformed any of them, even if you change which layers they were on -- and reselects them for you.
Now you can drag the multiple selection around as usual. If you want to scale the selection (as you would to a group), just hover over a handle of the selection's bounding box to see the scale arrows and drag. To rotate the selection, put your cursor slightly outside of the bounding box so you see the curved "rotate" arrow and then drag.
If you don't see a bounding box, choose View > Show Bounding Box, or press the "E" key -- the Free Transform tool -- to put one there temporarily.
Of course you can use the fields in the Transform panel or Control panel to do precise transformations as well.
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Give Your Selection a Keyboard Shortcut
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What's nice about an actual Group is that to select all of its objects, you just have to click on any of its component objects. A named selection isn't a group, so with nothing selected, clicking on one of its objects selects just that object. You always have to choose the name of the saved selection from the Select menu to recall the entire selection.
An occasional trip to the Select menu is no big deal, but I can see how it can really cramp your style if you're dealing with lots of saved selections or you repeatedly have to select the same one.
If that's the case, consider assigning a keyboard shortcut to one or more of your named selections. That way you can just press the shortcut, and voila, your "group" is reselected. While the selection names don't show up in Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts, it's ten seconds' work to assign one with an Action (Window > Actions), even if you've never used Actions before.
Create a new action (click the New Action button at the bottom of the panel), and in the resulting New Action dialog box, name it and give it a keyboard shortcut. Click the Record button in the dialog box to close it and start recording your action.
The first time I ever recorded an Action, I thought I had to move as quickly as I wanted the finished Action to play. Heh ... not true! Take your time. Go have a cup of coffee if you want. Illustrator is only going to record the things you do, not the time it takes you to do them. (It's called "Actions," remember.) It will play your actions back as fast as your computer permits.
Done with your coffee? Okay. Resist the temptation to go immediately to the Select menu so Illustrator can record that. Choosing the name of a selection you saved is unfortunately not one of things that Illustrator records as you do it, so don't bother.
Instead, while the action is recording, open the Action panel's fly-out menu and choose Insert Menu Item. Now you can go to the Select menu and when you choose the named selection, its name appears in the Insert Menu Item dialog box. Click OK to close the dialog, then click the Stop Recording icon (the black square) at the bottom of the Actions panel.
Test it out -- deselect everything, then press the keyboard shortcut you assigned. There's your "group," all selected, on their original layers so the stacking order is intact.
Whether or not you assign a keyboard shortcut to a named selection, don't forget the feature itself. Saved selections are fantastically useful throughout the program. I wish every program had the feature!
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Photoshop Canvas Size Gripe and Fix
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I have a gripe about Photoshop's Canvas Size dialog box (Image > Canvas Size), the feature you use to increase the editable area in an image. We're up to version 53 now, I believe, and there's still no Preview button. Not even in the Super Extended Extra Mega version.
Oh sure, it can count how many thousands of paramecium with three antennae are in a slide, but preview the amount of canvas I want to add to an image? Beyond its abilities.
Without the Preview checkbox, I have to know the exact measure of how much canvas area I want to add before I open the dialog box, and manipulate the old-timey "Anchor grid" interface to tell Photoshop where to put the extra space. If I click OK and see it's wrong, it's Undo and try again.
Don't get me wrong, sometimes I know exactly what I want. If I need another 10 pixels under a web graphic, or want to add a half-inch all the way around a scanned photo, the Canvas Size dialog box is the way to go.
The rest of the time, though, I need more flexibility. What's the solution? The Crop tool.
It sounds backwards to some users, I know, but the Crop tool is really a canvas manipulation tool. Normally, it makes the canvas smaller -- that's what cropping is. But it can also make the canvas bigger, by cropping in the opposite direction. Using the Crop tool to add canvas area allows me to get a preview of what I'm doing so I can adjust it on the fly, by eye or numerically, whichever I prefer.
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The Crop Tool ... in Reverse
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Here's how to do it. First, you need to enlarge the window containing your image so you can see the twilight zone -- the amorphous grey area surrounding the image's existing canvas (editable area). You may need to zoom out (Command/Ctrl-hyphen) a few times first so the image gets smaller on screen, then make the window bigger, in order to see the surrounding grey area.
Next, figure out what color you want the added canvas to have. Do it now, because you won't be able to after you start with the Crop tool. If your image has a Background layer, the added canvas will be filled with the current background color, so change that color now if necessary, or just press "D" to make it the default White. If your image doesn't have a background layer, you don't need to choose anything, the added canvas will be transparent (filled with the checkerboard pattern).
Select the Crop tool and make sure the fields in the Options bar are all blank (so cropping doesn't also resample, for instance). If they're not, click the Clear button there.
Now drag the Crop tool so its marquee surrounds the image. Even if you start and end your drag in the middle of the grey area, it won't stay there -- by default, it'll snap to the edges of the canvas. Not a problem.
As soon as you release the mouse button, you'll see that the crop marquee has handles. Here's where we put it in reverse. Instead of dragging a handle into the image to crop it, drag it *outside* of the image, into the grey area. That tells Photoshop you want to add canvas size. The grey area the crop marquee encompasses gets converted to additional canvas, filled with the specified background color or transparency, as soon as you press the Return/Enter key.
A bonus of this technique is that you can drag each side handle to add canvas to just that side of image. By using the Crop tool you're able to add a different amount of canvas to each side, something you can't do with the Canvas Size dialog box.
I could stop right there, but I won't. There's more!
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Useful Tips for this Technique
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The Info palette will tell you the width and height of the crop marquee (in other words, the canvas size), updating the readout as you drag the marquee handles, which is helpful if you know the total canvas size you're after. But it won't tell you how much you're adding to each side, it just shows the total width and height.
So if you need to add a precise amount of canvas to one or more sides, drag ruler guides out of the rulers (View > Show Rulers) and drop them into the grey area precisely where you want the canvas to grow to. You can do this while the crop marquee is active. The Info panel will tell you the position of the ruler guide as you drag it if you can't see the tick mark on the ruler itself. Then turn on Snap to Guides (View > Snap) and drag a crop marquee handle to the ruler guide.
To add the same amount of canvas to all four sides, hold down the Option/Alt and Shift keys as you drag a corner handle into the grey. To add the same amount of canvas to the top/bottom or left/right of an image, only hold down the Option/Alt key (no Shift) as you drag any handle.
There is no Undo while you're fiddling with the crop marquee. If you mess up, press the Esc key to cancel the operation, and start again with your initial drag of the Crop tool around the image.
There you go ... as I said, in some cases, it'd be just as fast (or faster) to use the Canvas Size dialog box. But if you're pining for something more interactive and flexible, try the Crop tool in reverse.
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Export InDesign CS2/CS3 to HTML
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Ever since I waved goodbye to my beloved XPress-to-HTML converter tool, BeyondPress XT (Extensis dropped it after QuarkXPress v5 was released) I've been searching for the equivalent plug-in or feature for Adobe InDesign. I needed a way to quickly export the text and images from my InDesign files to HTML, and I was constantly asked by my clients how to do the same.
Imagine my elation when InDesign CS3 shipped with a new feature, Export to XHTML (under the File menu). Imagine my disappointment when I couldn't get it to export anything that could be called "usable." Yes, it gets the paragraph breaks right, but that's about it.The HTML is either completely devoid of formatting (losing all italics, bolds, headlines and subheads) or it's riddled with superfluous CSS "span class" styles which I have to tediously strip out in my web authoring program.
What I need, and I think most users need, is basic HTML mark-up that maintains bolds with a <strong> tag, italics with an <em> tag, subheads and headlines with <h1>, <h2> etc. tags, and so on. When that HTML file is linked to a web site's existing CSS file, the tagged text takes on the look designed by the web team. The CSS might define text surrounded by <h1> tags to be 24 pt. Verdana, colored dark blue, for example.
Yes, it would be useful to include a few CSS tags in the exported HTML, but this version 1 Export to XHTML feature doesn't offer any control over how and where CSS is included. It's all (blech) or nothing (blech).
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A Better Way
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One day I sat down to try an alternate method my friend and occasional freelance trainer, Jim Maivald, had mentioned to me over the phone. Jim's all about XML (in fact, his book, A Designer's Guide to InDesign and XML, just came out from Peachpit Press) and so of course his technique involved using InDesign's XML abilities to spit out usable HTML. I'm not an XML expert, but I found it was a lot easier than I imagined. A LOT.
After a few false starts and some useful discoveries, I ended up with an HTML file that was exactly what I wanted. All the correct tags were in place, my subheads were tagged with <h2>, my local formatting used standard tags like <em> and <strong>, and there were no extra CSS calls to strip out. Eureka!
Best of all, it works just fine with CS2 as well as CS3 (in fact, I came up with this when CS2 was the latest version), and the resulting HTML file can even include images and links.
After adjusting a few simple preferences, it's a simple four-step process:
1. Make sure all the local text formatting is styled with character styles
2. Add HTML tags to the Tags panel (normally used for XML tagging)
3. Use InDesign's automated Map Styles to Tags feature
4. In the Structure pane, tweak the order of the content as necessary
Now you can export the entire document or a specific article to XML, and since you're using HTML tags instead of XML tags, you end up with a quite usable HTML file!
I wrote this up a while ago for the blog I co-host with David Blatner, InDesignSecrets.com. My article is in two parts; the first one covers the basic step-by-step (in detail, with screen shots); the second one covers how to get your images, complete with InDesign effects like drop shadows if you want, into the HTML file at the correct locations.
How to Export Basic HTML Out of CS2
http://indesignsecrets.com/how-to-export-basic-html-out-of-cs2.php
How to Export Basic HTML, Part 2: Images
http://indesignsecrets.com/how-to-export-basic-html-part-2-images.php
Be sure to read the visitor comments that follow the posts, there's some useful information in there, too. (In comment #4 for the first story, I compare the method to CS3's Export to XHTML function.) And feel free to add a comment yourself! No need to register, just start filling out the comment field with your thoughts and click Submit.
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Add Formatted Text to PDFs on the Fly
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Let's say you're in Acrobat and you need to add some text to a PDF, in the margin or under an image or to fill out a static form field, and you want that text to appear in the printouts, just like the rest of the text. The original file that was exported to PDF isn't available, all you've got is the PDF itself. Which tool do you turn to?
Most people would say the Typewriter tool, and that's a good answer. You can access it in Acrobat 7 or 8 by opening the Typewriter tool bar (View > Toolbars > Typewriter) or from the Tools menu. Click on the Typewriter icon in the toolbar and you can click anywhere on a PDF page and start typing.
The problem is that the Typewriter tool is clunky. The text you type won't automatically wrap to the next line, for example, you have to hit the Return/Enter key to stop your text from continuing out past the page edge.
Also, you're limited to your system's default font. Yes you can change the text's size, linespacing and style with the Properties toolbar (Command/Ctrl-E), but there's no way to change the typeface itself.
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A Better Text Tool
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The next time you need to add text to a PDF in Acrobat Pro, try the Text Box tool. It's part of the Comment group, so open the Comments & Markup toolbar to access it. Unlike most of the other comment tools, text you enter in a Text Box remains visible all the time, it doesn't close up to an icon like a pop-up note. (Like all comments, though, you can choose to Hide it, which might come in handy.)
Select the Text Box icon in the Comments & Markup toolbar and use it to drag out a box (a text frame) on the page, just like in a page layout program. Release the mouse button and the text insertion cursor is blinking inside it, ready for you to start typing. As you might have guessed, the text wraps as soon as the cursor hits the edge of the frame.
The initial look of the text and the box itself is probably not what you want, but I'll tell you how they're easily changed, and how to set your own default appearance for it.
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Modify the Box
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To adjust the box's position, click on it with the Text Box or Hand tool. The frame itself highlights, meaning you can drag the frame around on the page or drag one of its handles to resize it.
The default style for the Text Box frame is a one-point red stroke, which would make sense if this were an actual comment we wanted a reviewer to notice. For our purposes we don't want any border surrounding the text box.
To change it, right-click on the box's edge (highlighting the box first if necessary) and choose Properties from the context menu. In the dialog box, change the line Style to "No Border" so the red line disappears. Note you can choose a fill color for the box (White is the default) -- I usually change this to No Color so my boxes don't accidentally mask out existing text -- and even an Opacity. I'd leave it at 100% opacity, though, since the setting affects the text as well as the fill.
To make these settings the default look for all the text boxes you'll add to the document, turn on the checkbox next to Make Properties Default at the bottom of the dialog box.
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Modify the Text
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The text you enter inside a text box is easily modified, but you have to select it first. If you've moved out of text editing mode, just double-click on the text with the Text Box tool to jump back in.
Drag over the text to select it and open the Properties toolbar (from the View > Toolbars menu, or press Command/Ctrl-E). Now you can change the selected text's color, horizontal alignment, typeface, and style (bold, italic, underlines, etc.). You can mix formatting in the same text box, changes are applied just to the characters you select.
These fonts get embedded in the PDF, by the way, so go ahead and add some text in Bickham Script if you want! Even users with Adobe Reader will see the text just as you entered it.
To make your modified text formatting the default for all future Text Boxes in this PDF, you need to select the box with the Text Box tool (so the frame highlights), right-click on it, and choose Make Current Properties Default from the context menu.
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Paste in a Text Box
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Here's one last neat trick: If you select some of a PDF's text with the regular Select Text tool (to the left of the Hand tool), copy it (Edit > Copy), and paste it in, it automatically comes in as an editable Text Box. You can even copy/paste from one PDF to another, a neat way to grab some content from one PDF and add it to another.
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DesignGeek is a free monthly 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/).
Anne-Marie also writes InCopyFlow (for InDesign/InCopy workflow users), free subscription at
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... and writes InDesign tips at the blog she co-hosts with David Blatner, InDesignSecrets, at
http://indesignsecrets.com
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