Create new document in Illustrator or InDesign
We'll go through this together in class. To launch an application, find it's icon in the appropriate directory and double-click on it. Then create a new document from File Menu > New. Select the size and orientation you want, then click OK. Now you have a fresh blank page ready for your layout.
A layout is a vehicle for graphic communication, most often a combination of text and pictures, but can be text alone.
Type or Text... the first part of the layout equation
At left of your workspace is the Toolbox. Different tools do different things to the objects and type in your layout.
To put text on your page, use the Text Tool. Use your cursor to click on the T in the toolbox, then click and drag the mouse diagonally down and right to "draw" or create a text box on your blank page. Begin typing.
Use the Character Panel or Palette (on the right) to change type styles. Panels are used to control aspects of items in your layout, such as type size or alignment. To apply a new style or attribute to your text, select the type by highlighting it - click and drag across the text - with your cursor, then select or change the attribute in the Character Panel. Also note, the Control Panel at the top of the page changes with each tool selected, and has many of the same controls as the panels on the right of your screen do.
Menus drop down from the top of the screen and control many of the same aspect that Palettes do, and a few more that they don't.
Pictures... the second part of the layout equation
To place pictures (graphics) in InDesign, use Selection Tool (black arrow in upper left of Toolbox), go to File > Place. (If you like to save time, learn the keyboard shortcut.) Locate and select a graphic from the hard drive or a disk. When the graphic has been imported into InDesign and is ready to be placed on the page, the cursor will change from an arrow to a paintbrush when the graphic is loaded. Click once on the page to "place" the graphic. (Tip: when clicking the mouse to place an image, click outside any text boxes or graphics. If you click inside, the new graphic will be placed inside and replace or move the existing item.) You cannot open graphic files in InDesign.
Placing pictures in Illustrator is the same as in InDesign (File > Place), but note that there is no keyboard shortcut. You can open both vector and bitmapped graphic files in Illustrator: you can modify vector graphics, but you cannot modify bitmapped graphics.
Important Concept: Links
When you place pictures in an InDesign layout, you don't acutally make a copy of the graphic in your document. What you see on the page in your InDesign document is not actually the graphic file itself: it is a preview, a low-resolution representation of the graphic. InDesign creates a link to the original graphic and displays the preview to keep file sizes small.
Think of a link as a little breadcrumb trail, or a leash, or an umbilical cord... something that InDesign uses to connect to and keep track of graphics placed in a document. Because InDesign does not store a copy of the placed graphic file within your layout document, the link keeps track of all its data. If the document is printed with an outdated or broken, it can produce undesired results.
The Links Palette (at right) keeps track of all the graphics you place in your document. InDesign needs to know where the original graphic file is in order to successfully print a graphic in its proper resolution. Printing a document with a without its links (a.k.a."broken" links) can result in unattractive "bitmapped" or "jaggy" graphics. The Links Palette displays status of all the links in your document, and allows you to update or link them to different files.
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