Twin Cities InDesign User Group Home Meeting Summary Archive

Meeting Summary

Twin Cities InDesign User Group: Efficiency and Productivity
Tue, Aug 4th, 2009 at 7:00 PM
Minneapolis College of Art & Design (MCAD)
Event Details

118 faithful InDesign users spent National Night Out together learning about InDesign. The theme for the meeting was Efficiency and Automation, and everyone learned something to make them more efficient and productive.

Ken Friberg and Daniel Life, partners in Rat Race Studios (http://ratracestudios.com) demonstrated how they use Adobe ConnectNow to collaborate onscreen in real-time with their design firm clients. They also discussed the benefits and drawbacks of working remotely, and when it is better to have art directors on-site for a photo shoot. They also discussed how designers can use ConnectNow to collaborate with customers. ConnectNow is free for sharing screens between 3 participants, and there are paid subscription models for larger groups. ConnectNow can be accessed via File > Share My Screen in most CS4 applications. If you have CS3 or older, you can access ConnectNow through www.acrobat.com.

You can download an information sheet about ConnectNow (provided by Ken and Daniel) at the bottom of this page.

Keith Gilbert, a local design software consultant and educator (http://blog.gilbertconsulting.com), discussed automated data publishing in InDesign. He showed four diverse real-world examples of projects he has helped customers automate. First, he showed a simple certificate example using the Data Merge functionality built into InDesign. Next, he showed an example of a trade-association Buyer's Guide, and how it was created using InData, a plug-in for InDesign from Em Software (www.emsoftware.com). In this example, he also showed how GREP Find/Change was used to make the formatting of all the phone numbers the same, and also discussed some non-breaking space tricks.

Keith's last two examples used the XML import capability to import data into complex InDesign catalog pages. Keith briefly discussed what XML is, how how go about making an XML workflow work. Keith also touched on a couple of scripts he had written to get around complex formatting problems in his long catalog projects.

The evening concluded lots of great giveaways: books, mice, iTunes gift cards, giant mousepads, a professional photo shoot, and more provided by Central Coast Solutions (http://centralcoastweb.com), Rat Race Studios, Peachpit Press, and Adobe Systems.

Thank you

Once again, the facility fee for the evening was generously underwritten by MCAD and Central Coast Solutions. Their support is why the Twin Cities InDesign User Group meetings continue to be completely free for registered members.

Upcoming Industry Events

Back to School Fall Seminar Series, Sept. 9 & 11, Minneapolis, MN
Attend one, two, three, or all four of these half-day seminars presented by Keith Gilbert. Topics include InDesign Styles, Typography, Photoshop Masking, and Flash for Print Designers. http://gilbertconsulting.com/backtoschool.html

Comments from attendees

“Great info - my head is FULL.”

“Both presentations done very well -- extremely helpful. Thanks.”

“Thanks for the night. ConnectNow - WOW - will use this week.”

“Good pacing. I’ve been using InDesign regularly at work for the past year and learned so much from this!”

“Great time saving tools, shortcuts and info. Thank you!”

“Great to hear about ConnectNow -- I definitely plan to introduce it to my work team! Info about automation is also excellent -- I have projects I can use this info for! I'm coming back!!”

“ALL GOOD!! NICE JOB.”

“Rat Race Studios did an excellent job of presenting. Adobe should pay them to promote ConnectNow!”

“Keith's topic was EXCELLENT. I don't use this stuff very often. But when I do this knowledge saves me time (thus, saves me money). Feel free to come back to this topic any time.”

“Very useful information, great tips, great presenters!”

“Keith's presentation was one of the most useful I have seen at an InDesign meeting! Do more!”

“I wish I would have known how to use some of these automated data publishing tools YESTERDAY...tonight's meeting has been helpful and will definitely increase my efficiency in the future. Overall, good topics, good presenters. And - I always appreciate the little general tips thrown in!”

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Attached File/s

• Adobe_ConnectNow.pdf  -  Delete...

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