Using Templates In Adobe InDesign
When the number of pages required by the publication is definitely the same, the web pages can be contained in the template and then any common layouts created. So, for instance, when the font page of the newsletter includes a masthead as well as an "In This Month's Issue" section, they can be added to web site utilizing a combination of final and placeholder items. InDesign has a nifty method of generating placeholder text. Simply position the cursor inside a text box and from the Text menu, choose Fill With Placeholder Text.
All the various style which InDesign allows users to create can also be included in a template. Just about all documents benefit through styles and InDesign's utilization of styles is very sophisticated. For formatting text, you may create paragraph and character styles. Object styles can be created for formatting text and graphic frames. There's also cell styles for formatting table cells and Table styles for formatting the table in general. Any styles defined within the template will automatically be available in all documents in line with the template, ensuring consisting formatting throughout.
For extended documents master pages can also be contained in the template. Master pages provide a way of standardising the layout of document pages and including elements that are present with all pages, in both one portion of the document or inside the document in general. InDesign even allows you to produce a hierarchy of master pages; so, for instance, you might have one key master upon which several subordinate master pages might be based.
The use of colour can also be standardised by including colour definitions within the templates. Colour definitions are called swatches in InDesign and every swatch definition represents a modifiable representation of the colour which is printed wherever that swatch is used.
Having setup many of these elements, to transform your document to some template, just choose File - Save As and hang the document type to InDesign Template rather than InDesign Document. To produce a file from a template, simply choose File - Open and double-click the name of the template. Since the document is a template, InDesign only will generate a duplicate of the template; so that, when you save the document, web site will not be overwritten.
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