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Latest Issue: DesignGeek #79, 3/23/11
Here's the current web site issue of DesignGeek. Issues get added here a few days after we e-mail them out. Previous issues are in the archives.
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DesignGeek®
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Tips and techniques for the digital designer
In this issue:
-- Staying on Top of Your Social Media Marketing
-- EPS: Why Not?
-- DesignGeek-y Events You Need to Be At
-- InDesign to EPUB, Kindle, and the iPad
Issue 79, 3/23/11
Written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion
... for her clients, colleagues, random contacts and interested subscribers
** Want more tips between issues? Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/amarie **
** To comment on any of these stories, go to this issue at http://www.designgeek.com/ezine/designgeek-79 *
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Staying on Top of Your Social Media Marketing
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As I've been getting more involved in using social media like Facebook and Twitter to market business services, I've been spending more and more time inside each site, keeping up with my various "presences" there. Meaning I have less time to actually create those services and content that I can sell to my clients. Familiar story, right?
It's crazy. By the time I've finished the circuit of going to each Facebook page or LinkedIn group I'm monitoring, and trying to contribute a little something when I can, the ones I began with have comments or replies that need my attention, so I need to circle back and take care of those. Rinse and repeat a couple times, and I look up at the clock and it's time for lunch. I always feel like I'm performing one of those plate-spinning acts, you know? (What? You don't know? Here's a video of a great plate-spinning act.) That's why I'm now looking at and testing different ways to streamline the spinning, to manage it all.
Ideally, I'd have a butler. This butler would gather all the high points of what's happening with my business and personal social media accounts, write out the names of each account's latest Twitter followers and such on heavy card stock, and bring them to me on a silver platter for my perusal . . . oh, let's say twice a day. Then, at each visit, I'd go through the small, neat stacks he's gathered, and then I'd tell him, "Jeeves, please tell these new followers thank you with a Direct Message. And answer that question in my LinkedIn group. Oh and welcome the new Likes to my InDesignSecrets Facebook page, and post a link to our latest podcast. That is all."
And then I'd turn my attention to other things, until Jeeves came back later that day with a fresh stack. Wouldn't it be loverly?
I have discovered something that comes close to Jeeves, named NutshellMail. He's not perfect but he's interesting.
NutshellMail
http://j.mp/nutslmail
Even though I just discovered it a month ago, NutShellMail has been around a while. Constant Contact, the HTML email service provider, bought the company in 2010 and has been adding new features to it ever since. They still call it "beta" and so it's still free, and I like "free."
Instead of bringing me neat stacks on silver platter, NutShellMail emails me a summary report of what's happening in each of my social media accounts, whichever ones I decide to add to it. It emails me on whatever schedule I tell it to: once a day at 9:00 a.m., or every other day, or every couple hours (I set it to twice at day),
Even better, if while I'm reading the email I want to reply to one of the Tweets it shows or post a Facebook Page message, I can just click the link in the email and I'm brought to NutShellMail's own interface where I can do so. I'm not distracted by what's happening in Facebook or LinkedIn or wherever. (This is also a boon if you're working in a place that disallows you from logging into those services, because you're just going to NutShellMail's page . . . ssshhhh don't say I told you that.)
The service can report on however many accounts you have on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Yelp (you *have* claimed your business page on Yelp.com, haven't you?), FourSquare, CitySearch, and MySpace. For Twitter, you can even have it tell you who "unfollowed" you (they call it "Quitters") since their last missive. I like how the service goes beyond just reporting the latest posts, but also account activity--new follows and quitters on Twitter, new Likes and page views counts on each Facebook Page, and so on.
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Beyond NutShell
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There is actually an entirely new, burgeoning field called Social Media Management, and venture capitalists are all over SMM companies like flies on honey.
You're probably familiar with (or at least heard of) the Big Kahunas like HootSuite and Seesmic, but there are dozens more. If you're tired of the plate-spinning, I found this blog post on Web-Strategist.com to be one of the best summaries of what solutions are out there. (It's from March of 2010 but the author has kept it up-to-date.)
List of Social Media Management Systems
by Jeremiah Owyang, Web-Strategist.com
http://j.mp/smms-list
Are you using Nutshell, Seesmic, or something else to help you keep up? Share what's working (and what's not) by commenting on this story on the DesignGeek blog.
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EPS: Why Not?
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by David Blatner
[Note from AM: Many months ago, during one of our InDesignSecrets.com videocasts, I kidded David (Blatner, my co-host) because he still had some graphics in EPS format on his computer. Someone recently wrote us asking why I was making fun of his EPS images, and David wrote a great explanation, which follows.]
The viewer wrote: "Sort of curious as to why Anne-Marie made the comment [in videocast 10] about David having an EPS file. What prompted the remark, "My goodness you have an EPS file on your hard drive!". Am I missing something about using EPS files with InDesign?"
This has come up enough recently that I feel it necessary to set the record straight: There is nothing inherently wrong with or bad about EPS files. There's nothing wrong or bad about using Letraset rubdown letters either, and I don't regret having used them in the 20th century. But that doesn't mean I want to use either very much today... except in certain very valid situations.
The EPS (encapsulated postscript) file format is a slightly-crusty-with-age holdover from an earlier, more hardscrabble time, when some solution was required to move graphic data from one program to another. The basic idea was, "hey, the stuff is going to end up being printed to PostScript anyway, so why not just envelope it a little file that can be moved from place to place.
But that was then and this is now. There are significanty better options.
When it comes to pixel data (raster images), there are a plethora of better options, including TIFF and PSD. Even Photoshop images with vector data (which is not saved in either of those formats) is best served (and saved) as a PDF. I have not knowingly saved an EPS out of Photoshop for years.
When it comes to vector graphics (such as those from Illustrator), it's a less-clear landscape. I would use PDF in almost every case instead of EPS. But that comes with a handful of caveats, exceptions, and notes:
- If an infrequently-used graphic is already in the EPS file format, there's typically little reason to change it into something else. (Thus, the Illustrator 88 graphics on my machine in EPS format.) However, if I had a graphic that I was going to use a lot, such as a corporate logo, then I would almost certainly convert it to a PDF.
- If a graphic may be used in a lesser-robust application, such as QuarkXPress 4 and or anything else that feels like "1998", it's totally reasonable to rely on EPS.
- There are a few graphics for which EPS is simply a better, more efficient file format. For example, the patterns and barcodes created by Teacup Software's plug-ins are better created as EPS for technical reasons (including the fact the that file sizes are far, far smaller (and print faster) than they would be in another format, such as PDF). I know this because I coded many of those patterns myself. You can typically hand code PostScript more efficiently than a program can write it. For example, download this "Circle/Spiral" EPS file (file size = 1 K) and drag it into InDesign. The equivalent PDF file = 648 K.
That said, EPS has many limitations, including: A. they can be difficult to preview onscreen accurately (requires a software RIP); B. they cannot contain any transparency effects (all transparency must be flattened); C. they rely on a PostScript printing workflow (not always a given anymore); D. they're typically difficult to change if editing needs to be performed; E. your podcast co-host laughs at you for having them on your hard drive.
Perhaps that's more than you wanted to know, but I hope that helps explain Anne-Marie's reaction, and my stubborness. Happy InDesigning!
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DesignGeek-y Events You Need to Be At
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2011 Print & ePublishing Conference
Early Bird deadline: April 8
(Group discounts and Education discounts, too)
May 23 - 25, Washington, DC
If you use Adobe InDesign to create publications in digital (SWF, EPUB, tablet app) or print form, this is THE event you need to attend. I wrote about the conference that David and I are producing in the last issue of DesignGeek, so I won't go over the same details. However you should know that since I wrote that, we've redesigned and updated the session schedule, and David wrote up a persuasive conference FAQ that you (and maybe your hard-to-convince boss, it says "ROI" in there) would appreciate.
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InDesignSecrets Live: All-day Workshop
$129 ($149 after March 25)
April 12, 2011, Madison, Wisconsin
This fast-paced, fun-filled seminar presented by InDesign expert James Fritz will give you the tips tricks and techniques you need to make the leap from "user" to "Power User!" Covers InDesign CS2 to CS5, and if you haven't had a chance to see James "Live Wire" Fritz present in person yet, you're in for a treat. All attendees get free software and publications, too . . . see details at the registration link above.
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2011 HOW Design Conference
Early Bird deadline: April 1
June 24 - 27, Chicago, Illinois
Though I'm no stranger to HOW magazine, I'm a first-time speaker at the HOW Conference this year, and I'm thrilled!
They've asked me to do a solid THREE HOURS on the best InDesign tips I know. They're even calling the session "Hard Core User Tips: InDesign". (Wondering if I should bring my own whip, or will they supply me one?) My session is on Friday afternoon (the first day of the conference, 6/24), and then on Saturday, I've volunteered to be one of the speakers you can join for lunch and pick their brains. And of course I'll be hanging around during the rest of the show .. there are over 35 session, eight in-depth workshops, and the hallmark of the HOW Design shows, studio tours of local design firms!
Here's the full schedule of seminars and events.
If you're coming to my sweet home Chicago for the HOW Conference, definitely let me know! And if you haven't registered yet, you can get an extra $100 off if you use my discount code: HAH11 when you register.
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InDesign to EPUB, Kindle, and the iPad!
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Do you ever wonder (or are you currently struggling with) how you can convert your trade books, journals, whitepapers, instruction manuals and such from a "designed for print/PDF" InDesign format to a digital eBook for the iPad bookstore, the Amazon Kindle, the Barnes & Noble Nook, and other devices? Then I think you'll love this.
Last month I completed recording a new Lynda.com video tutorial title (2, actually) which I'd been planning (read: researching and revising, sweating buckets over) for over a year. "InDesign to EPUB, Kindle, and the iPad" was the most difficult title I've done to date because the field is changing so rapidly! Every week or two there would be new publishing venues (e.g., Google eBooks), new software programs (Sigil), new rules (I'm looking at you Apple).
Finally in January of this year I took the advice of my Lynda.com producer, the ever-patient Kirk Werner, and simply applied a temporary stoppage on further research. Gah! It killed me. But that was the only way I could actually sit down and develop the course and its sample files. In February I went in and recorded TWO versions of the title, one for InDesign CS5 users and one for InDesign CS4 users.
InDesign CS5 to EPUB, Kindle, and the iPad
I hand-picked the free sample movies, so even if you don't have a Lynda.com subscription, you should be able to learn a few things. Or, use my Lynda.com free 7-day trial for full access to all the movies.
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From Creating to Selling
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As usual, I like to start from the beginning, the questions I hear all the time from experienced designers and publishers: What's an eBook, exactly? What's the difference between a PDF and an EPUB? What format are Kindle books? How do I buy these things, how do I read them, how do I proof them without buying every device?
Then we go through prepping the InDesign file, exporting, tweaking, and testing. All that fun nitty-gritty stuff like how to create drop caps and pull-quotes, what software to use on Macs and PCs for editing EPUB files, what are some different approaches to creating Kindle books, how can you check to make sure your EPUB file passes validation checks.
Ffinally, I dive into the topics that I'm curious about myself, but I haven't seen covered yet: Getting an ISBN. Creating publisher accounts on the Apple iBookstore, the Kindle store, and other resellers so you can upload your books and sell them there. How much do they pay and what if you're not in the U.S.? Selling eBooks on your web site or blog with ecommerce services that specialize in digital goods.
If you're interested in any of these topics, you should know that I also teach it (on-site or over the web); and have created an InDesign to EPUB syllabus, both a one-day and a two-day format, roughly based on my Lynda.com title. Contact me or my Training Coordinator, Sherri Austin, to learn more.
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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
http://incopysecrets.com/incopyflow
... and writes InDesign tips at the blog she co-hosts with David Blatner, InDesignSecrets, at
http://indesignsecrets.com
To subscribe to DesignGeek or read archived issues, go to its home on Seneca's site:
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Copyright 2011 by Seneca Design & Training, Inc.
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