Making a Checkerboard Pattern With Nested Styles

I love coming up with new and unusual ways to make patterns in InDesign. Awhile back, I came up with a way to make 1950′s inspired floor tiles; basically, a black and white checkerboard pattern. But I recently thought it would be fun to try creating this same effect using text.

Read the entire article at InDesign Secrets.

An Improved Sample Buttons and Forms Library Panel

Did you know that InDesign has a built-in library of buttons and forms elements? Not only that, did you know that InDesign library items can be key wording for easy searching? Learn more by reading the entire article at InDesign Secrets.

Adobe InDesign Continues To Define Desktop Publishing

I was recently honored to be asked my opinions of Adobe InDesign for a article in Forbes magazine. InDesign is, in large part, one of the reasons why I am able to have a successful publishing company. My company creates owner's manuals for custom yachts and InDesign is the most efficient, the most capable, and the most flexible means of production.

Read the entire Forbes article here.

How to Run Acrobat XI Actions in 1-click Instead of 3

This post is deals with the annoyance of having the click three times to run an action in Acrobat XI. I stumbled across this solution when I noticed that running some of my actions requires three clicks, while others only require one click. I realized that the 1-click actions were ones that I had imported from Acrobat X.

You see, back in Acrobat X, when we ran actions using the Action Wizard, they simply ran when we clicked on the action name. The first time we'd run the action, we'd just have to click once on the "Don't show again for this Action" dialog box. It was so efficient!

The only additional user interaction that was required was an acknowledgment that the action was completed. And I don't even count this as a required click, since I can dismiss the dialog box using my keyboard.

But so several other of my favorite Acrobat features, this one was removed in subsequent versions of Acrobat. I imagine it was part of a greater Acrobat Wizard "enhancement," but if you have older Acrobat actions that you don't need to edit, and just want to run with one click (as they used to), here is the workaround.

1. Go into Acrobat X Action Wizard Pane and select Edit Actions.

2. Select the Action you want to run with 1-click in Acrobat XI. Then chose Export.

3. Save the Action.

4. Go into the Action Wizard in Acrobat XI. You will get the following dialog box:

"The action appears to have been created with Acrobat X or earlier. You will be able to run the action, but it will not take full advantage of the new Action Wizard features in Acrobat XI. Do you still want to import the action?"

5. Click "Import" to import the action. Then Click "Close."

Now the action will run with a single click in Acrobat XI. Of course, you can't edit, rename it, copy it, or export it here in Acrobat XI, but that's fine by me. I just wanted a way to run this action without having to click three times.