Tip 1

Zoom In on Anything in Mac OS X
Mac OS X 10.2 has a Universal Access item in its System Preferences panel. If you enable “Turn on Zoom,” you can then press Option-Command-+ to zoom in to anything on your display, including Web pages, word processing documents, and other difficult-to-zoom items. Each time you press Option-Command-+ you’ll zoom in a bit more. Use Option-Command— (minus) to zoom back out.


Tip 2

Show More File Information
In Mac OS X, icons on the desktop and in open windows can show basic file information as well as file names. Choose View> Show View Options (Command-J) and turn on Show Item Info. A line of slightly smaller blue text will appear under the file name, giving the number of items in a folder, the dimensions of an image file,
the length of an audio or video file, etc.


Tip 3
 
Temporary vs. Permanent Fonts in Suitcase
There are two ways to add fonts to Suitcase: you can add them permanently by
dragging them into Suitcase’s open window; or you can add them temporarily
by dragging them onto the Suitcase icon in the Dock. Gotcha: if you add fonts
temporarily, you can’t add them to Sets, nor can you add them permanently
until you remove the temporary fonts. You can identify temporary fonts by the T next to their name, and you can remove all temporary fonts by choosing Edit> Remove
Temporary Fonts.


Tip 4
 
Use Adobe PDF Printer
When you install the full version of Acrobat 6 or 7, it will install a virtual “Adobe PDF” printer in your Print dialog box. When you select it as your printer, it does the same
thing as creating a Post- Script file and then running it through Distiller. It’s a tremendous time saver, with no drawbacks.

If the Adobe PDF printer does not appear as one of the available printers in your Print dialog box, and you’re using Acrobat 6, make sure that you have updated to Acrobat 6.0.1. Here’s how:

Launch Acrobat 6.

Choose Update from the Help menu.

Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the update.


Tip 5

Attachments Within Acrobat 7
An Acrobat 7 document can serve as an “envelope” to contain attached files of any kind. To attach a file to a page of a PDF document, use the Comment tool. To attach a file to the PDF document without assigning it to a page, use the Attachment tool in Acrobat’s toolbar. Acrobat can search attachments as well as the PDF itself.

Acrobat indicates that a PDF has an attachment by displaying a paper clip icon in the lower-left corner of the document window. Page-level attachments are indicated on the page by a paper clip or pushpin icon, and are also listed in the Attachments
palette. Document-level attachments are listed only in the Attachments palette.

You can password-protect the attachments separately from the PDF by using the
Secure tool in Acrobat’s toolbar. This allows anyone to view the enclosing PDF,
but requires a password to open the attachments.


Tip 6

Save a Custom Workspace in FreeHand & Illustrator
It’s easy to set up a custom workspace in FreeHand or Illustrator that remembers
your color swatches, line weights, palette positions and more every time you open a new document. Start by creating a new, blank document. Set all of your palettes and tools exactly the way you want them, then save the document. In FreeHand, save
the document as Stationery named “FreeHand Defaults” and in Illustrator save two copies of the document and name them “Adobe Illustrator Startup_ CMYK.ai” and

Illustrator

Startup_RGB.ai.” Put the FreeHand file in the same folder as the FreeHand application. Put the Illustrator files in Illustrator’s Plug-ins folder.“Adobe


Tip 7

Nonprinting Objects in InDesign
To prevent a specific picture or text frame from printing, select the item then check “Nonprinting” in the Attributes palette. (To open the Attributes palette, choose Window> Attributes.) The item will be visible on the page, but it won’t print. To print a
picture frame’s stroke but not its contents, select the content using the Direct Selection tool then check “Nonprinting.”

Hal Hinderliter

 
Tip 8

Recover Damaged InDesign Documents
Sometimes, InDesign won’t open a document, telling you it’s “damaged.” But when you try again, it opens.When that begins to happen and you get the file to open again, try this: choose File> Export and choose the InDesign Interchange
format. This will create a new file with an .inx extension. Back in In- Design, choose File> Open and select this .inx file. In- Design will then recreate the entire document from the instructions in this file. Another time-proven approach is to resave the document with a different name, by choosing File> Save As. This removes any
unnecessary data from the document, such as items that have been deleted.


Tip 9

QuarkXPress 6, Acrobat, or Both?
You can make PDFs directly from QuarkXPress 6. So as a graphic arts professional,
do you still need to buy Acrobat? It’s true that QuarkXPress 6 makes press-ready PDFs, but it doesn’t make PDF/X files (yet). Acrobat Professional includes Distiller and Acrobat, and has features QuarkXPress 6 lacks, including the ability to create
PDF/X files, preflight PDFs for press, and edit existing PDFs. In the best world,
you would have both: use QuarkXPress to directly export PDFs, and use Acrobat
when you need to edit an existing PDF or create a PDF/X file. (Which is becoming
the print industry standard for PDFs, but isn’t required quite yet.)


Tip 10

The Fastest Way to Transfer Photos
The fastest and most convenient way to transfer photos from your digital camera to your Power- Book is to use a $10 credit-card-sized adapter that slides into your
PowerBook’s PC card expansion slot. You insert your camera’s memory card into the adapter, then slide the adapter into the PowerBook’s expansion slot, and your Mac sees it as a new storage device. Several models are available from companies such
as SanDisk.
www.sandisk.com

 
Tip 11

Camera Raw Tips
Photoshop’s Camera Raw plug-in lets you directly open image files created by your digital camera, bypassing any processing that your camera would otherwise apply. Often, a series of photos require the same adjustments, and the Camera Raw plug-in
lets you adjust one photo, then apply those same adjustments to the others.
Here’s how: edit one image in Camera Raw. Then select the others in Photoshop’s
File Browser. Choose Automate> Apply Camera Raw Settings in the File Browser’s
menu bar. In the resulting dialog box, choose Settings> Previous Conversion and then click on Update. Photoshop will then add your Camera Raw settings to the metadata of each image, and when you next open those images in Photoshop,
will apply them.
Bruce Fraser, Macworld 03/05, pg.72



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