COMM 313 Editing and pagination exercise: Travel broadsheet
(Instructions based on InDesign version CS6 for Macintosh)
Note to editors: You have two broadsheet-sized pages to fill for your travel feature section. Page one is advertisement-free. Page two is partially filled with an ad. You need to fill the news hole that's left.
See the pdf for sample.
Your story budget includes three stories saved as Word files:
Washington dc.
Cambridge.
Darjeeling tea.
Each of these stories includes accompanying photos, two for Washington D.C., and three each for Cambridge and Darjeeling tea.
Cutlines are available in a separate document for you to cut and paste, as needed.
Note: you will not be able to use all the copy or photos, and the Darjeeling story, at the least, will need to be cut. You should try to use all three stories.
Proceed based on the steps below.
1. Set up a folder on your hard drive, travel broadsheet. Download all your elements to that folder, stories, pictures, graphics and InDesign file. Keep all elements together. Even if you don't plan to use all the photos, keep them together, just in case. Drag the folder to your flash drive after you're done working.
Note: You need to keep all your objects together because InDesign links the objects to the design. It automatically places low-resolution copies of your photos in your design so that you can move around the design more quickly. But when you print or save as a pdf, it substitutes the low-res files with your high-res files. If you haven't saved them in the same folder, it may not find them, and so you'll get the low-res copies.
2. Edit and save stories in Word. They shouldn't need serious editing, but they do have a few problems based on our copy editing lessons from earlier this semester. One or more will also need to be shortened to fit space. Do your cutting after placing the story in your layout. Note: cut judiciously! The story must make sense, and the cuts should not be obvious.
As you edit you may note the stories sometimes include two hyphens instead of an em-dash (keystroke combination option-shift-hyphen) and rabbit-ear apostrophes and quotes. You can change these now in Word, or after Placing in InDesign, but they MUST be changed. As well, you’ll need to delete spaces between paragraphs. You’ll set up paragraphs in InDesign using indents.
3. Set up a six-column broadsheet in InDesign.
a. Choose New and Document from the File pulldown.
b. In the dialogue box, toggle off Facing Pages. Choose 2 pages.
c. Set up a standard broadsheet size: 78 picas by 133 picas vertical.
d. Choose Six for columns.
e. Leave the rest as default. OK. Save your document now and often (Command + s).
4. Set up section head, Travel.
a. Choose the Text tool. Draw a text frame about half way across the page. Note: the frame goes inside the margin line 3 p from the top, and not at the trim line (top of page). You must leave space for margins.
b. Type Travel. Drag with Text tool to highlight, style to about 72 pt bf (boldface); typeface is your choice.
c. Drag a second text frame on the right side for your folio (date and page).
d. Using the same typeface that you chose for the section head, type West Gulch Gazette, and today’s date.
e. Highlight, style it to about 14 pt bf, Set Solid (14/14, that is, 14 pt leading).
f. Choose the Stroke (line) tool from Toolbox. Drag a rule (line) across your page under the section head, as shown above. Holding down the shift key while dragging will constrain the line to be straight.
g. In the Stroke panel (choose from Windows pulldown if you don't see it) or at contextual menu bar at top, choose 4 pts, and the thin thick stroke style.
5. Move to page two; you can do this by scrolling, from the Pages panel icons, or from the pages window at bottom left.
Drag a guideline from top ruler to 75p. The advertisement will begin below this. Copy will be placed above this. In the ad space, write “NDSU International Office 6 x 9.” (See pdf for reference.)
6. Now you're ready to make up your two pages. You may use rules, drop caps, borders, screens, or other features, but need to style the text as noted below.
Consider your body text style. It must be a sans serif typeface: consider helvetica, helveticaneue, or arial. You may choose another sans style, but keep in mind many look unattractive as body text. Style to10 pt, auto leading, rag right (flush left), first-line indent 1 p.
7. Consider a headline style. It must be an old style serif typeface: consider Caslon, Adobe Caslon, Garamond, Adobe Garamond, Goudy, or Hoefler. Note: InDesign usually defaults to Minion Pro or Times. Do not choose defaults.
7. Consider setting up Styles.
A note on styles: You can Place each story, choose Select All, and go through the procedure to style as noted above using the Paragraph panel, or the contextual menu at top. But this is not the way professional editors do it. Instead, they set up a separate style sheet, and then apply that style to all text. Style sheets save time, and you don't have to remember the style you set up from issue to issue.
To set up a Style Sheet:
a. Open the Paragraph Styles panel by clicking it on the dock at right. (If it's not showing, go to the Window pulldown, Styles, and Paragraph Styles.)
b. On the flyout menu at top right of that panel, choose New Paragraph Style. Style Name: broadsheet body; Based on: none.
c. Choose Basic Character Formats. Set the style: 10 pt auto sans serif as indicated above. Under Indents and Spaces choose Alignment left, indent, 1 p.
d. Leave other options as default, OK.
e. After Placing text, call up the Paragraph Styles panel. Choose Select All, and click on your style, broadsheet body. Ta-dah! Set up a separate style for headlines.
8. It's often easier to begin by placing photos, then running stories around them. You may choose any of your three storiesfor the top. In the illustration I chose the tea story, because it's longer. Consider the three photos you downloaded for quality and interest.
9. After you've made your choice, consider that your photos should be at a resolution of at least 150 ppi, and sized to fit the space you’d like to leave for it. Do this in Photoshop, based on the exercises we did earlier this semester. Crop, if necessary. Save the photos for placement into the InDesign space.
How big should your photo be? General rule for broadsheets: at least two columns for vertical, three for horizontal.
10. Now Place your photosinto your document.
a. Remember InDesign will Place into any chosen text frame. To avoid this, click with Selection tool (solid arrow) outside your document (in the pasteboard).
b. Choose Place. Browse to find the photo.
c. Click the loaded cursor in the pasteboard to Place the photo.
11. The photo may be slightly too larger or small. You can make small adjustments in InDesign using the Scale tool
a. With the Selection tool, drag your photo (don't drag in the middle donut area, but around the sides) into your document.
b. Choose the Scale tool (it might be under Free Transform or another tool). Click on photo to bring up handlebars.
c. Drag diagonally from on lower right corner to reduce size proportionately, until it fits the space. Hold down shift key to constrain proportions; otherwise you risk distorting the photo. Distorted photos look really amateurish!
Need to measure? You can begin your measuring scale at 0 anywhere in the publication. Drag the crosshairs from the upper-left-corner intersection of the two scales to the point where you want the zero mark to start. Change from picas to inches scale, if you wish, from the Preferences dialogue box (InDesign pulldown in Macintosh), Units and Increments, and horizontal and vertical rule in inches.
12. Place your text. Make sure you leave room at the top for your headline, and under the photo for your cutline. To Place, make sure you have no text frame chosen.
a. Choose Place from the File pulldown.
b. Browse to find the story. OK.
c. When the loaded cursor appears, move to your layout and drag to create a text frame. When you release the cursor, text will automatically flow into that frame.
d. Click on the small red plus sign at lower right, indicating "overset," or more text to place. Move to the next column, drag text frame, and place. Continue until you've filled the space.
e. With a loaded cursor move to page two, and place the rest of the story. You will need to cut one or more of the stories.
13. Style the copy you just Placed to the font as indicated above. Note you may have to clean up the copy by removing extra carriage returns, tabs, etc. Replace two hyphens with an em-dash (Shift + Option + -). Make sure your copy is the correct font and size before continuing, because it affects the other stories you place!
Consider drop caps (from Paragraphs panel), subheads, decks, or kickers, to add interest.
14. In your Copy Control Sheet, write the name of the story that you just placed. Fill in the headline and other information when possible.
15. Use the same procedure for your other stories. See illustration for make-up possibility, or choose your own. You must have at least part of stories begin on page one. Avoid long one-column stories.
16. You'll need to include a jump line (10 pt bf) at the bottom of the story you jump from page one, and a jump head (14 pt bf) at the top of page two. Carefully stories to eliminate overset, when necessary.
17. Copy and paste cutlines. These should be set the same font as body text, but ital (italic) or bf to stand out. Be sure to edit cutlines!
18. Write standard headlines for each story. Size as you wish, but the top headline should be at least 60 pt. You may wish to include a deck or kicker, or write a multiline head. If you choose a multiline hed, change the leading so that it's set solid, such as 24/24. Otherwise space between lines will look unattractive.
Design notes: Leave about a pica (12 pts) space between headline and copy under it. Leave about 2 p space above headline. Leave about 6 pts between cutlines and photos. Avoid letting text touching headlines, borders or rules. When in doubt, it's better to leave a little extra white space than to cram elements together.
19. At the first-page top margin, in about 12 pt, write your name to identify your work for grading.
20. Save your document as an InDesign file, if you haven't already. Proofread your work:
- Headlines spell checked?
- Copy threaded correctly from column to column?
- Cutlines placed?
- Jumps and jumpheads placed?
- Styling accurate?
- Extra space between paragraphs deleted?
17. Export your document as a pdf; most printers work with pdf ("Portable Document File") files. To do that in InDesign:
a. Choose Export from the File pulldown.
b. In the dialogue box, choose Adobe PDF (print). Leave the rest of the options as default. Save.
18. Finish the Copy Control Sheet (worth 3 pts). Indicate stories with their sizes in column inches (6p to an inch, or change measurement scale, as described above), and photos. You can use the sample sheet, or create your own in Word. Put your name at top, submit with pdf for grading.