List and briefly describe the kinds of tasks you can accomplish with InDesign.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Create and place text: You can create text in InDesign and then format it. In addition to choosing fonts and font sizes, you can change the color of text, control the spacing between each character, and even place it along a path. You can also place text from another source, such as Microsoft Word, in an InDesign document.

Create and place graphics: You can create simple graphics in InDesign with the shape tools and the Pen tool. You can also place illustrations and photographs from other programs, such as Illustrator and Photoshop, in InDesign documents.

Choose from many colors: InDesign contains many color samples, called swatches, to choose from. The Swatches panel includes the basic colors used for printed materials. There are also other color libraries to choose from for special purposes. For example, there is a web swatch library for documents that will be used on the web or published digitally.

Position objects easily: InDesign offers many features that help you position text and graphics with accuracy. You can snap objects to ruler guides or a grid. You can also use the Transform panel and the Control panel to define an object's width, height, rotation angle, and vertical and horizontal location. The Align panel allows you to align and distribute objects by their tops, bottoms, centers, or sides.

Store items: Libraries are storage containers for items that you use repeatedly and want easy access to when working in InDesign. Company logos, legal jargon or standard language, and contact information are good examples of items to store in a library. Libraries look just like panels, but they are actually InDesign documents that are saved with the .indl extension. Libraries are not linked to one InDesign document; you can open and use them with multiple InDesign documents.

Create interactive buttons and hyperlinks: In InDesign, you can use buttons and hyperlinks to design clickable areas in a document that link to a web page, another file, or another page in your document. Hyperlinks and buttons that are created in InDesign become usable (clickable) when you export an InDesign document as an Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) document or as a web format.

Export documents: You can export an InDesign document as another file type so that it can be used in another program or as a standalone product, such as an ebook. For example, you can export an InDesign document as a Flash Player file (SWF), a Flash Professional CS6 file (FLA), an EPUB, or a PDF.