Four Adobe InDesign “Tips & Tricks”

Over the years of using InDesign regularly for client and in-house projects, OPP has four “tips and tricks” to help streamline your work with InDesign. These tips aren’t ground-breaking, but we’ve found them especially helpful and hope you will, too.

“Tips and Tricks” #1: Paragraph and Character Styles

When working on multi-page documents for our clients, paragraph styles is an essential function InDesign offers. Paragraph styles shape the document as it’s assembled, and allows for quick and efficient adjustments.

In the Paragraph Style Options (Figure 1), all aspects of the paragraph format can be set, from font settings to underline options. For more reliable and faster editing, any Paragraph Style (F11 or PC, ⌘+F11 for Mac) can be copied and applied to another.

For example, a subhead and accompanying body copy are likely to share many properties, and you can replicate this style throughout the document. Also, it takes minimal effort to change a typeface midway through a project with this function.

In this example, the header style was set based on the body style, since there are only minor differences. It’s also possible to set the style of the next paragraph; here the next style is Subhead since one will follow each header.

    Figure 1

Focus on the Basic Character Formats section next. Plan to format the base font for the entire document here. When specific character styles are required, use Character Styles to “override” the paragraph settings.

As a general rule, application of Character Styles (Shift + F11 for PC, ⌘+Shift+F11 for Mac) should be limited to full sentences or less. Editing the appearance of hyperlinks in keeping with your style guide, for example, is a good use of character styles. With Character Styles, you can control every aspect of appearance and, if adjustments are needed, they can be done all at once.

In the Character Style Options (Figure 2), styles can be modified to bring attention to selected text. In this example, the hyperlink style is modified from the body text.

    Figure 2

“Tips and Tricks” #2: Table of Contents

Paragraph styles are an important element when creating a Table of Contents (TOC). The hierarchy of the TOC is specified based on paragraph styles; in a standard document, the first level is the header style, the second level the subhead style, and so on.

Paragraph styles are selected and added to the TOC with the Table of Contents settings box (Figure 3). Once the hierarchy is set, you can format the TOC itself and set it in the document. The TOC can mimic the paragraph styles included or have its own style.

    Figure 3

“Tips and Tricks” #3: Manage Assets with CC Libraries

Creative Cloud Libraries will sync your frequently-used assets (colors, styles, and logos) across your entire CC account. This includes the popular Adobe products – Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign. The CC Library organizes your assets to increase the accessibility of elements you use on a regular basis across different programs.

Assets are imported by simply dragging the item into the Libraries Panel, where they are automatically organized by type and identified by the program used to create it (Figure 4).

“Tips and Tricks” #4: Calculate Values in Panels and Dialog Boxes

We’ve found this tip to be quite handy, especially to reduce human error when creating a grid. Instead of calculating distances between grid lines, for example, just add the desired distance in the dimension text box and InDesign will automatically calculate the new location. In the example here (Figure 5), the object will be moved 2p6 to the right and down. Select Constrain Proportions if you want to maintain the proportions of your grid when editing the height or width.

   Figure 5

We hope you found some benefit from this post. We are proud of the many awards our clients have won for the OPP support creative materials—many of which were done in InDesign.

Come back to the OPP blog for more tips and tricks on the latest cool tools. Thanks for reading!

SURVIVING CONFERENCE PLANNING WITH 10 TIPS & TRICKS!

Casey Thayer, CGMP 

One of the main goals when planning a conference is for your attendees to walk away with a memorable and impactful experience. Conferences are a way for people to connect and communicate with others in their industry who share the same interests and goals. Effective meeting planning is essential to accomplishing this. Although not always easy, it is attainable. Here are the top ten tips and tricks for planning a successful conference based on my professional experience as a Certified Government Meeting Planner (CGMP).

1.       ORGANIZATION IS KEY. If there is one thing I can’t stress enough it’s to be and stay organized throughout the planning process. There are three parts to a conference; pre-planning, the actual conference, and post-conference. Seventy percent of your work will take place in the pre-planning stages before the conference even takes place. You must remain organized or you will become overwhelmed. Use spreadsheets, timelines, notebooks with tabs, whatever helps you stay organized.  For larger conferences, online event planning software is key and will pay for itself in time saved and errors avoided.  See #4 below. 

2.       START EARLY. Begin your planning and timeline as early as you possibly can. Venues book up fast, food and beverage negotiations can go back and forth for months, not to me when you can start planning can depend on contracts and client approval, it is important to make every effort to start as early as possible.  A year to nine months is not too soon to start plannention, your attendees need time to get approval and register for the event. Although the dating.

3.       AGENDA FINALIZATION. No matter how early you start planning, people are going to be looking for an agenda to see if the sessions and speakers peak their interest. Set an abstract submission deadline and create a committee to review and decide which speakers to select. The sooner you can finalize an agenda and a key note speaker, the sooner you will see people registering for the event.

4.       ONLINE REGISTRATION. Do away with paper registration. In this era, there are more online registration options than you can imagine. Use your registration website for registration, hotel booking, logistics, FAQs, agenda, etc. If you are collecting funds set up a merchant account to automate this process (Paypal and many other services offer this for a small fee). The reporting options and on-site registration opportunity will make your life easier. Ask about our reseller discount for Cvent, the #1 event planning software in the industry.

5.       SPONSORS & EXHIBITORS.  Use sponsors and/or exhibitors to defray the costs of the event for attendees and/or fund meals, breaks and evening social events.  Determine your levels of sponsorship and what benefits come with each level.  Sponsor logos on the conference website, banners, and programs … acknowledgements from the podium during plenary sessions … pre- and post-conference email blasts … inserts in the conference registration bags -- these are just a few of the creative ways that sponsors can be acknowledged.  Whether it’s a networking event, reception, or print materials-use their money to help fund your event while promoting their business.

6.       SMART COLLATERAL. The signage and materials handed out at your conference can really be a time saver if done right. It will save both the attendees and the planner the hassle of asking conference staff where rooms are, which way are the bathrooms, and who is speaking in which session. The use of proper directional signage is key:

a.        Rooms should be visibly labeled.

b.      Agenda should include room numbers and speaker names.

c.       Include a map of the venue with all areas of interest highlighted in the attendee packets.  

7.       SUPPLY BOX. Have you ever managed a conference and you find yourself in need of tape, a stapler, paper clips or scissors? To save yourself time, prep yourself with a small box of office supplies-including attendee materials like extra lanyards and name badges.  Having a portable onsite printer is handy because there is inevitably someone who needs to register onsite.  All badges professionally printed instead of some hand-written reflects well on your professionalism as an event organizer. 

8.       A/V. It’s likely that your speakers will have a PowerPoint they need shown on a large screen in the front of the auditorium or room. One of the worst things is having your audiovisual not function properly. This delays a speaker’s presentation (cutting into their allotted time), wastes attendees time, and makes conference staff look unprofessional. When touring venues, ask if there is a designated A/V person that will be assigned to support your event. Get their contact information and keep them informed with what you will need from them. If you have to hire an outside vendor for A/V, get quotes and shop around. Look for customer ratings and make sure they can provide what you need.   During the event, assign “room monitors” -- volunteers or event staff who will be responsible for checking the A/V and setting up the presentations prior to each session.

9.       POSITIVE ATTITUDE. There is nothing worse than being greeted by a grumpy, unfriendly person at the registration desk. Make sure staff at the registration desk are upbeat and knowledgeable as they can set the tone for your event. General customer service training is advisable for all on-site support staff--especially when you are hiring local students or temps just for the even.   I use a tailored version of industry best practices to cover the basics like greetings and de-escalating stressful situations.  Make the attendees feel welcomed and excited for a great conference!

10.   POST-CONFERENCE SURVEY. Always send out a post conference survey. Not only will this let you know how well the event was perceived by attendees, it will give you specific feedback on the sessions; speaker choices; topics; the venue; social events and lunches -- all of which will be helpful for planning next year’s conferences.  Make sure to ask in the survey what you can improve.  Once the feedback is received and compiled, hold a “hot wash” meeting with the key individuals responsible for the conference to discuss what went well and what should be changed for next time.  Knowing these things and reviewing lessons learned will make for a better conference the following year! TIP:  To increase the response rate, offer a random prize as an extra incentive to people to fill out the surveys.  Be sure to announce the winner--perhaps with a “save the date” for next year.

All in all, no matter how much you prepare, something will go wrong.  There are so many details and personalities--It’s inevitable.  You can minimize your risk by being prepared, however know that most things can be fixed rather easily if you don’t panic and work with your team to sort out the issues.  You know you are a professional planner when only you notice the mistake(s) while the attendees and your client have a great time.  After the conference don’t forget to reflect on a job well done........and start the planning for next year!

More information on Conference Planning:

CONFERENCES THAT WORK: Creating Events That People Love by Adiran Segar

Event Planning: The Ultimate Guide To Successful Meetings, Corporate Events, Fundraising Galas, Conferences, Conventions, Incentives and Other Special Events by Judy Allen

We've Got to START Meeting Like This!: Creating inspiring meetings, conferences, and events by Dana Wright

Need help with conference planning? Contact us about OPP’s BOOST^SM Conference Planning services.   

Section 508 Compliance Made Simple

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, requires that when Federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology (EIT), they shall ensure that EIT allows Federal employees with disabilities to have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to the access to and use of information and data by Federal employees who are not individuals with disabilities, unless an undue burden would be imposed on the Federal agency.

Section 508 also requires that individuals with disabilities, who are members of the public seeking information or services from a Federal agency, have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to that provided to members of the public without disabilities, unless an undue burden would be imposed on the Federal agency.

For many documents, Adobe Acrobat Professional offers all the tools you need to be Section 508-compliant.  But sometimes you will see errors and come to a stopping point.  At that point, you'll need more robust Section 508 compliance tools, such as SS Bart Group'sAccessibility Management Platform (AMP) to provide a deeper level of analysis than Acrobat Professional.

When beginning a Section 508 compliance effort, first review the Agency requirements. While there are standard 508-compliance requirements, there may be differences in how they are applied.  For example, some Agencies require that all photos be described while others want the image to be tagged "artifact" when the image is decorative, such as a stock photograph.  Additionally, there may be some guidance for what information to use in the meta data tags. 

Ideally, we recommend that clients provide us with an original clean electronic document to convert to PDF.  Scanned documents can be made compliant but there are extra steps required and it is thus more resource intensive to make compliant.  For documents originating in Office products (i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), it is much easier to add alternative text in the original document prior to converting to PDF.

When converting a Microsoft Office document into a Section 508-compliant PDF, it is important to change conversion settings to "Enable accessibility and reflow with Tagged PDF" prior to creating the PDF.  Do not "print" to PDF as this will not generate a compliant file. 

When making an existing or converted PDF Section 508 compliant, tag the file for accessibility using Acrobat Professional, then run a full check  to identify any errors to be fixed in both Acrobat and AMP.

Then check the reading order to ensure the flow that an automatic reader would use is consistent with the document content flow.  Then ensure each image has alternate text that describes it for the blind. 

It is important to ensure that metadata is included in the PDF.  Metadata typically includes author, title, subject, and keywords.  If this data is not included in the original file, use the Adobe Acrobat Document Properties Window to add or edit metadata. Although the lack of metadata will not render errors in the compliance check, it is a component of making a PDF Section 508 Compliant that is not to be skipped.

Bookmarks help people navigate through a long document. If the bookmarks pane displays by default when the document opens, it lets people see the menu of bookmarks.  Bookmarks should be included in any PDF of ten pages or longer.  If one exists, the bookmarks should follow the document’s Table of Contents or otherwise use the major headings of the PDF document. 

Depending upon the project, it is possible that a number of unidentifiable formatting errors could occur due to the way the document was originally created, saved, and/or formatted.  When this occurs, use AMP to identify and correct the errors by utilizing the program’s powerful testing engine, work flow, and catalogue of accessible development best practices.  This is another reason why providing the document in its original format is important.

Powerpoint slides that have been converted to PDF are a common example.  An accessibility checker will throw errors when background images are not tagged.  Sometimes, the best course is to re-do the Powerpoint into a simpler form, removing the decorative images and leaving in only those images that have meaning for the presentation.

For Section 508-compliant videos, OPP recommends using Adobe Premier which in combination with SubtitleWorkshop to create subtitles that match with the audio file. This enables you to make videos completely 508 compliant with time-stamped XML files compatible with all formats (flv, wav, and mp4).  This is of course an over-simplification.  OPP has a 15-page step-by-step guide in-house to document our process for making Section 508 compliant videos.

For more information, https://www.section508.gov/ - is the primary resource for guidance on Section 508 Compliance.