Adobe Photoshop CS4 is known to computer users of every type. Adobe Photoshop’s Marquee tool is one of the three tools which are used to make selections, the other two being the Lasso and Magic Wand. It is perhaps the most basic of the three, allowing you to make a rectangular or elliptical selection on any part of the image. As with all of the other selection tools, it can be used to make both new selections and to modify existing selections. To choose the marquee shape you wish to create, simply click on the tool and hold the mouse button down until the flyout menu appears then choose either “Rectangular” or “Elliptical”.
When making new selections, the modifier keys can be used to determine the behaviour the tool. If the Shift key is held down while you drag to describe the selection, the resulting selection will either be a circle or a rectangle. If you hold down the Alt key while creating the shape, the shape will be drawn outward from the point you initially click on. Naturally, you can use these two keys in combination to draw a circle or square from the centre.
Similarly, if there is an existing selection in place, you can use the same two modifier keys to determine how the selection you make will interact with the existing selection. This time, Shift is used to add to a section while Alt is used to subtract from the selection. Thus, for example, if you want to make a semi-circular selection, you could start by making a circular selection with the elliptical Marquee tool. You could then switch to the rectangular Marquee tool, hold down the Alt key and draw a rectangle which intersects one half of the circle. The area where the two shapes intersect will be subtracted from the selection.
The options toolbar also allows you to change the behaviour of the Marquee tool. You can switch from Normal mode to Constrained or Fixed Size. Thus, for example, if you were creating a series of images which all need to have a 4 by 3 aspect ratio, you could choose the Constrained option and enter 4 for the with and 3 for the height. Each selection you make with the Marquee tool will then automatically have this shape.
You will also notice that the Marquee tool flyout menu also allows you to choose “Single Row” and “Single Column”. In this mode, simply clicking on any part of the image creates a selection one pixel high or wide going right across the image. If you zoom in, you can hold down the Shift key and click again to make it two pixels, three pixels, etc This mode is sometimes useful when restoring old photographs to select a crease in the original photograph prior to using the cloning tools to remove the flaw.
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Adobe InDesign is one of the best and most popular programs for graphic design and formatting. The layers facility is a feature of several of the programs within the Adobe Creative Suite: Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator and InDesign. Their function differs from program to program but, in general, the use of layers serves to offer flexibility of composition. Items of related content can be placed on their own individual layers. Layers can then be made visible or hidden or can be locked to prevent their content being changed. Equally, the stacking order of layers can be changed to determine which elements are displayed in front of which other elements. Layers are not always required when creating documents in InDesign but they can beneficial in several situations.
1. One of the most common reasons for using layers is where you need to produce several different versions of a publication. For example, there may be one version of a catalogue for in-house use and another for clients; or you may need to create different language versions of the same document.
2. Another situation in which layers is useful is where certain page elements take a long time to redraw. For example, if you’re creating a large poster with a high resolution background image, you may find it useful to place it on a separate layer and hide the layer when you are working on other elements.
2. Using layers can also help to speed up your screen redraw. For example, if you’re creating a large poster with a high resolution background image, you may find it useful to place it on a separate layer and hide the layer when you are working on other elements.
4. Complex page layouts often require the creation and intricate manipulation of many different InDesign elements. This process can sometimes be made much easier by placing elements on a series of layers.
5. Another trick is to use layers for creating a document by using a similar publication as a template. A full sized scan of the original document can be placed on a locked background layer and used to ensure that each part of the layout is in the right place, has the right dimensions and so forth.
4. Many complex page layouts demand the creation and intricate manipulation of numerous InDesign elements. The process of manipulation of these elements can sometimes be made much easier by placing elements on a series of layers.
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On just about every Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 training course I run, I emphasize the benefits of using templates. This article explains how to create editable regions in a template which can be used to contain different elements each time the template is applied to a page. Once you have created the locked regions of a Dreamweaver template, you must then specify which areas of the page will be editable. To define an editable region, perform the following steps.
1. Make sure that the cursor is in the part of the page or the table cell which you want to make editable.
2. Choose Editable Region from the Template Objects sub-menu of the Insert menu.
3. Enter a name for the editable region and click OK.
If the editable region is to contain text, it is also possible to control the initial appearance of the text by formatting the placeholder text on the template. However, it is only the initial appearance of the text which will be controlled. Formatting applied to text on a particular page will take precedence over formatting applied the placeholder text in the editable region of the template on which the page is based.
When placing an editable region in a table cell, you can set the alignment of the content within the cell, both horizontally and vertically. For example, you can specify whether the content is anchored at the top of the editable region or in the middle.
Each editable region which you create create is marked by a text label. This text can be modified at will. If you are creating templates for other people to use, you may find it useful to replace the original placeholder text with a message which will benefit the users of the template.
Whenever you are deleting editable regions, it is not enough simply to delete the text which marks the editable region.
1. Choose Unmark Editable Region from the Template sub-menu of the Modify menu.
2. Click on the name of the editable region which you wish to unmark then click OK.
3. This last operation does not delete any placeholders in the editable region. These still have to be deleted manually.
Occasionally, you may find it useful to use a graphic element as an editable region placeholder. To do this, simply insert the graphic anywhere on the page, highlight it, choose Insert – Template Objects – Editable Region. Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 creates the editable region and places the selected graphic inside it.
The writer works for an organisation offering in London and the UK.
Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 is the main component of Adobe CS4. Hyperlinks are the cornerstone of interactivity allowing users to move from one place to another within a web site. Links can be attached to both text and images. To attach a link to text
1. Highlight the text.
2. Click on the folder icon next the Link box in the Property Inspector.
3. Locate and then double-click the file to which you want to link.
The appearance of the link text will change to the default blue (with underline) or to the link colour specified with the command Modify – Page Properties. CSS styles can also be used to change the appearance of links and to exploit Internet Explorer’s Hover feature whereby the link colour can be changed when the mouse rolls over it. (See the section on using CSS styles in Unit 5: working with text.)
The Point to File and Browse icons are especially useful ways of creating links since they minimise the risk of errors. However, if the file to which you want to create the link has not yet been be saved to disk, these methods cannot be used. To create a link manually:-
1. Highlight the text.
2. Enter the URL in the Link box in the Property Inspector.
3. Press Enter.
Another useful way of defining a link is to use the point-to-file icon, located next to the Link box in the Property Inspector (to the left of the folder icon).
1. Resize and reposition the site and document windows as necessary until they are both visible next to each other.
2. Highlight the text.
3. Drag the point to file icon into the site window directly onto the file to which you want to link.
To use an image file as a link
1. Click once on the image to highlight it. .
2. Click on the folder icon next the Link box in the Property Inspector.
3. Locate and then double-click the file to which you want to link.
Naturally, the point-to-file and manual link creation techniques can also be used with images. Images which have been hyperlinked can normally be distinguished from other images by a border which appears around them in a colour which matches the link colour for that page. Dreamweaver suppresses this border by setting the border attribute of the IMG element to zero. If, for any reason, you wish to have a border around a linked graphic, in the Property inspector, change the zero to one or more pixels.
Most links that are created on a web site involve sending the user from page to page within the site. For links of this type, it is not necessary to specify the method and domain name in the link URL, such as “http://www.”. Instead, the URL is expressed relative to the page containing the link in a system known as relative addressing.
The author is a trainer and developer with Macresource Computer Training, a UK IT training company offering on-site Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 tuition in London.
Cascading Styles Sheets (CSS) are one of the recommendations of the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) and offer web designers precise control over the formatting and layout of web pages. They enable you to set up default formatting rules which the browser will automatically apply to headings, paragraphs and any other elements on a web page. CSS allows web developers to separate the content of their web pages from the style and formatting information. This means that the HTML code is not cluttered with style information and will be processed more quickly by browsers, leading to faster download times. Also, since style definitions are normally stored in external files to which all HTML pages are linked, the entire site can be updated by modifying the CSS file(s), without even having to open any of the HTML pages.
CSS can be implemented in three different manners. Firstly, it can be placed inside an HTML document, in the HEAD area of the page. Secondly, CSS can be placed in an external file with a “.css” file extension. Thirdly, CSS can be placed inline; that is to say, inside HTML tags. The three methods are not mutually exclusive. A typical website may have one or more external style sheets, combined with internal CSS on certain pages and a few smatterings of inline CSS within certain HTML pages. In general, the closer the CSS is to the HTML element it controls, the higher its precedence. Thus inline styles normally take precedence over internal CSS, which, in turn, takes precedence over external CSS definitions.
Dreamweaver CS4 by Adobe offers a number of sophisticated features for creating and editing CSS. To create internal CSS rules in Dreamweaver, simply open the HTML page then display the CSS Styles panel by choosing CSS Styles from the Window menu. Next, choose New from the CSS Styles panel menu. At the bottom of the New CSS Rule dialog, Dreamweaver invites you to “Choose where your rule will be defined”. Choose “This document only” from the drop down menu. If, instead, you choose “Create New Style Sheet”, the new CSS rule will be placed in an external file. (Dreamweaver will allow you to specify where the file is placed.) If you would like to link an existing CSS file to an HTML page, choose “Attach Style Sheet” from the CSS Styles panel menu and click on the Browse button; locate the file then click “OK”.
Having associated a CSS source, whether internal or external, with a given HTML file, Dreamweaver will display the name of the CSS document in the CSS Styles panel whenever the HTML file is open. If the CSS is being stored internally, the rules will be grouped under the heading “style”, indicating that it has been defined within a style element in the HEAD area of the current page.
The author of this article is a developer and trainer with an independent computer training company offering Dreamweaver and Adobe Flash CS4 training in London and throughout the UK.
You have probably noticed that whenever you choose File – New in Adobe’s InDesign CS4, you may have noticed the option to create a new book without ever knowing exactly what a book is. Well, in fact, books are a fairly nifty feature: they allow you to take a series of related Adobe InDesign document and treat them as a single entity; a book. All documents in the book can then share resources such as paragraph and character styles, colour swatches, master pages, sections and page numbering.
Once you have created a book, by choosing File-New-Book, the Book panel is displayed. It features a panel menu with all the necessary Book options. Your first task is to add documents to the book: from the Book panel menu, choose “Add Document” and select the documents you want to be treated as part of the book.
There is also some useful feedback about the status of each chapter in the book by displaying an icon next to the name of each chapter. The “Available” icon indicates that the book may be opened by one member of the team of people using the book. The “Open” icon indicates that you have the book open and that no one will be able to use it until they have finished with it. The “In Use” icon will appear when someone else has that chapter open; this means that you have to wait until they have finished with it before you can use it. The “Modified” icon shows that changes have been made to the book since last time you opened it. And, finally, the dreaded “Missing” icon indicates that the InDesign document associated with that chapter has been moved from its original location.
Once the book file is saved, the book becomes a separate entity to the documents it contains and the documents in a book do not have to reside in the same location as the book or as each other. To save a book, choose Save Book in the Book panel menu.
It is possible to replace an existing chapter of a book with another InDesign document by simply selecting an existing book chapte and choosing Replace Document from the panel menu. Next, navigate to the replacement document and double-click to select it. InDesign will then replace the selected chapter with the new document. Deleting chapters from a book is equally straightforward. Just highlight the chapter(s) and choose Remove Document from the panel menu, or click the Remove Document icon at the bottom of the Book panel.
You must also choose which of the documents in the book will be treated as the style source. The document elected as the style source will be used as the master document in the process known as synchronization whereby InDesign replaces the colour swatches and styles of all documents in the book with those in the style source document.
To set page numbering across the whole book, choose Book Page Numbering Options in the Book panel menu. The default is “Automatically Update Page & Section Numbers”: this will cause InDesign to number pages in the documents within the book according to the order in which they are listed in the Book panel.
The Book panel can also serve as as a navigation aid or launch pad from which you can open any InDesign document which has been specified as a chapter of the book. To work on any chapter of a book, simply double-click the name of the chapter in the Book panel. The chapter will open like any regular InDesign document and can be closed when you have finished editing without it being removed from the book.
InDesign books are a great tool for collaboration since the fact that a document is part of a book does not stop it from being a regular InDesign document. If a book contains five documents, five different people can work on each of those documents and then, at the end, the whole book can be preflighted, printed and output as PDF as a single unit.
Both Tables of contents and indexes can also be generated for an entire book as well as for a single document. Simply design and create the table of contents or index in the normal way but activate the option “Include Book Documents”.
Author is software consultant with a computer training company who carry out Adobe InDesign CS4 training classes all over the UK.
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