An Introduction to 'In Design'

Alan Rolfe, University of West London, Ealing, London

Saving and Printing

'In Design' documents are saved using the standard 'File/Save' or 'File/Save As' menu options. The default suffix is .indd.

'In Design' can only open the following file types:

• 'In Design' documents (.indd)
• 'In Design' CS3 interchange (.inx)
• 'In Design ' Markup (.idml)
• 'In Design' templates (.indt)
• 'Pagemaker' files (v6.0 or later)
• 'Quark XPress' files (v3.3 or later)

In the last 3 cases, 'In Design' will open a copy of the original file, which you will subsequently need to save under a new name (unless you are updating a template). You cannot produce Pagemaker or QX files with 'In Design'.

Embedded and linked graphics

When you place an image into a document, 'In Design' actually puts a link into the document tying it to the original graphics file. This has several advantages:

1. The document file size is kept relatively small, as the full graphics file (which may be quite large) is kept separately.
2. If the same image is used several times in the document, the image details do not need to be duplicated, only the link.
3. If the original image is updated, the document is automatically changed, even if the image is used several times.

The main disadvantage is that the document is not self-contained; if you want to put it on to a CD-ROM, for instance, to give to someone else, or take it to another machine, you have to remember to include all the graphics files as well.

[Exception: Small graphics files (less than 48k) are automatically embedded.]

Embedding linked graphics

It is possible to embed linked graphics into the document. This means that you lose the advantages mentioned above, and your document will be considerable larger, but it will be completely self-contained. To do this:

Click on 'Window/Links' to bring up the Links palette. Then select one or more of the items and click on the arrow in the top right of the palette to display the options:

Choose 'Embed Link' and the graphics files will be embedded into the 'In Design' document.

Mending broken links

If, when you open a document, you get a message saying that you have broken links, you can choose to fix them. The message looks like this:

If a link is broken and you have permanently lost the original graphics file. 'In Design' will still display and print the image, but it will be in a lower resolution than the original.

Printing

Printing is done in the usual way via the 'File/Print' menu item, but 'In Design', being a DTP application, has a bewildering array of print options for you to choose from:

There is not space here to explain all of these, which differ anyway according to which printer you have, but you need to consider the following:

• Do you want to print all the pages or just a selection? (You could print all the odd pages first and then print the even pages on the back of them, for example.)
• Have you selected the correct paper size?
• If more than one printer is available, have you chosen the right one?
• Do you want to scale as you print?

For further information on the printing options, see the built-in 'Help' system.

Maintained by Alan Rolfe

© Copyright UWL 2011

Last updated July 6, 2011