Tips

Using Graphic Bullets in InDesign

April 15, 2010 By CDT 3 Comments

You can use any character of any font available to you in InDesign as a bullet point. If that isn’t enough, you can also use the vector graphic of your choice. Here’s how.

Add bullet points to your text in InDesign. I am using CS4, but this probably works in other versions.

Bullet points can be added two different ways.

Select the text.
Go to the options flyout menu on the paragraphs panel.
Choose Numbering and Bullets.
Select Bullets from the drop down menu in the dialog box.

-or-

Select the text.
Go to the paragraph styles panel.
From the options flyout menu of the paragraph styles panel, select NEW STYLE.
Name your new style
When the dialog box opens, select Bullets and Numbering from the list at the left.
Select Bullets from the style drop down menu.

The benefit of adding bullet points as a paragraph style is that you can reuse the bullet style with a click.

Note: Only change bullets to graphics when you are finished editing the text. This process changes bullets to text instead of bulleted lists, so they will not be editable as bullets. You can still edit them as text with tabs.

Get your graphic for the bullets.

Bring your vector image into InDesign. I am copying and pasting from Illustrator, but you can also place (file -> place) in InDesign.
Size it to the size you need for the bullets.
Copy your vector image to the clipboard.
Select the bulleted text.
Under Type -> Bulleted & Numbered Lists -> Convert Bullets to Text.

Change the bullet to a graphic.

Select the bulleted list.
Go under Edit -> Find/Change.
In the dialog box, make sure you are in the TEXT tab.
Click the flyout menu button to the right of the Find What drop down list.
Select Symbols -> Bullet Character.

Click the flyout menu button to the right of the Change To drop down list.
Select Other -> Clipboard Contents, Unformatted.
Click Change All.

Your bullet points are now graphics!

Filed Under: InDesign Tagged With: bulleted lists, bullets, CS4, graphic, how to, InDesign, Quick Tips, Tips

4 WordPress Tips to Optimize Performance

June 2, 2009 By CDT Leave a Comment

WordPress comes ready to use as soon as it installs. However in order to properly leverage the power of WordPress you need to customize WordPress so that it works and performs at its peak. Here are a few WordPress tips that should help you get off to a flying start.

Remove the version number

By default WordPress adds the version number to the header of your blog. The information in your header might prove to be a goldmine for a hacker who are trying to take down or take over your blog since you are using an older version of WordPress which is not as secure as the latest version. All you need to do to remove this is to add this line: <?php remove_action(‘wp_head’, ‘wp_generator’); ?> to the functions.php file which is located in your themes folder.

Prevent snooping in your WordPress files:

With the default options people can easily browse through your WordPress folder and files using explorer view within their web browsers. In order to prevent this you just need to add the following line of code: Options All –Indexes to your .htaccess file that can be found the main worpress directory.

Filter out spammers:

Spammers love to include .html code in their comments so that they can some how attract people to their comments. Even if you aren’t targeted by spammers it’s always a good idea to reduce the load on your blog especially as a result of spam comments. The best way to disable html code in the comments box is to add the following line of code in your functions.php file: add_filter( ‘pre_comment_content’, ‘wp_specialchars’ );.

Speed up sitemap creation:

This tip is for those who use the XML sitemaps plug-in. usually its set to “rebuild sitemap if you change the content of your blog”, you need to change that to “enable manual sitemap building via GET request. The reason you should do this is because in auto mode every time you make a post its going to take a very long time for your post to process because your entire sitemap is going to be redone from the very beginning. For very large blogs it can even take up to half an hour.

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: performance, speed, Tips, WordPress

Organizing Photoshop Files

October 29, 2008 By CDT 8 Comments

Do your Photoshop layers look like this? Take five minutes more and organize the files before archiving or handing off to a service bureau or another designer.

Organizing files in general is important. Photoshop files can become unwieldy after adding a couple dozen layers, paths and alpha channels if you don’t maintain an organization system. Files are archived for later use or handed off to another design for some reason or another. Taking over a Photoshop file, or any file from a disorganized designer can be a nightmare, so just take a few extra seconds while you are working to tidy up the file. The sanity you save may be your own.

Do your Photoshop layers look like this? Take five minutes more and organize the files before archiving or handing off to a service bureau or another designer.

Recently, a designer sent me a Photoshop document with over 130 unnamed, unorganized, scattered shape layers. It took 45 minutes to organize the layers before I could start working.

Here are some tips to keep your files neat and organized.

Name your layers.

Yes, all of them. Give them unique, meaningful names that will be easy to recognize later.

Group related layers.

If you have twelve layers of type, put them in a layer group called “type”. Not too tough. If you have a tree, branches, apples and a drop shadow on seventeen different layers, put them in a group called “apple tree”. Simple.

Collapse expanded layers or groups.

Yes, I know Photoshop defaults to expand everything all the time. Yes, it’s a pain to click that extra time. Yes, I have requested that Adobe change this. Just take the fraction of a second necessary to collapse each expanded layer as it is created. You will gain the benefit of seeing more layers in the panel at one time making it easier to edit.

Always save the original PSD.

Seems like common sense, but you would be surprised how often the original file is unavailable when revision time comes around. Save the original layered PSD and send a flattened file to clients for approval.

Delete empty layers

As you are working, you may copy text from one layer to another leaving the first layer empty. Deleting an object in Photoshop does not make the layer containing it to go away. The shape or text may be gone, but the layer is left behind.

Work in the correct color mode.

This may not seem like an organization issue, but it is a common mistake. If you designing for print, work in CMYK. Designing for web, RGB. It really doesn’t seem like a big deal when you are printing from your desktop ink jet, but when you send your file out to a commercial printer you might find this to be a costly oversight.

Happy Photoshopping.

Filed Under: Photoshop, Tips Tagged With: featured, file, organization, Photoshop, Tips

Using Graphic Bullets in InDesign