Roger C. Parker's Graphic Design Tips

Are you a graphic designer that uses an Apple Macintosh?

If you are, you probably already know about Jay Nelson's Design Tools Monthly.

Each month, Design Tools Monthly summarizes articles, reviews, and software tips about Apple Macintosh software from dozens of books, magazines, and web sites, and also previews new typeface options.

Instead of spending a day or two each week keeping up to date with the latest news about desktop publishing software for the Apple Macintosh, Design Tools Monthly will quickly get you brought up to speed.

Find out  about the latest bug reports and workaronds for Apple Macintosh software like Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Quark XPress, as well as news about Macintosh fonts and upcoming software versions.

Proper punctuation in Publisher

Microsoft Publisher's autocorrect feature automatically creates the correct open and closed punctuation marks as you type. It also replaces two hyphens in a row with a single, long em dash.

But, you are still responsible for inserting other types of punctuation, like en dashes. An en dash is shorter than an em dash.

1. Em dashes are used to set-off parenthetical expressions.
2. En dashes are used to indicate duration, i.e. "Winter--spring romance."

To insert punctuation like an En dash, select  Insert>Format, then click the Special Characters tab. You can then choose a desired punctuation mark or symbol from those displayed.

Publisher 2003 and baseline alignment

If you are creating a two or three column publication with Publisher 2003, and you insert subheads,  you've probably noticed how the text in the first column is rarely aligned with the text in the remaining columns.

Publisher 2003 now offers baseline alignment, accessed through a simple 2-step process.

1. Select Arrange>Layout Guides followed by Baseline Guides. Enter the same amount of space you are using for leading, or body copy line spacing.
2. Select Format>Paragraph for the text styles you are using for headlines, subheads, and body copy, and click Align text with baseline guides.

Notice how more organized, and professional, your pages appear.

InDesign and Glyphs

The longer you work with Adobe InDesign CS, the more you appreciate its many efficiencies.

Select Type>Glyphs, for example, and InDesign displays all of the characters associated with the font, making it easy to find just the right character or symbol for a bullet list or a foreign language accent.