COMM 313, Editorial ProcessesCOMM 313, Editorial Processes
Instructor: Ross Collins
Editing and pagination exercise: Travel broadsheet
(Instructions based on InDesign version CS5 for Macintosh)
Note to editors: You have two broadsheet pages to fill for your travel feature section. Page one (example at right) is advertisement-free. Page two is partially filled with an ad. You need to fill the news hole that's left.
Want a video demonstration? Check out these Flash-based tutorials:
Your story budget includes two stories saved as Word files:
Each story includes three photos:
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 element 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.
To download photos: Contol + click on the photo (or right click on the PC) and Save As to your folder.
Note: You need to keep all your objects together because InDesign links the objects to the design. It automatically places low-res 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. Edlt and save stories in Word. They shouldn't need serious editing, but they do have a few problems. One or both probably will also need to be shortened to fit space. Do your cutting after placing the story in your layout.
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. Choose broadsheet for size. If no broadsheet size is listed, make the page size 78 picas by 133 picas, a standard size.
d. Choose Six for columns.
e. Leave the rest as default. OK. Save your document now and often (Command + s).
3. Set up your template.
Begin with 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.
Now set up page two:
a. Drag a guideline from top ruler to 50 p. The ad will begin below this. Copy will be placed above this.
b. Draw a text frame in the area below the 50 p guideline. Type NDSU International Office 6 x 13 (see page two illustration below). The ad staff will place the ad in this space.
4. 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.
5. Consider your body text style. It must be a sans serif typeface: consider helvetica, helvetica neue, or arial. You may choose another sans style, but keep in mind many look unattractive as body text. Style to 10 pt, auto leading, rag right (flush left), first-line indent 1 p.
6. 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 Times. Do not choose Times!
7. Consider setting up Styles.
A note on setting up 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 Style.)
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 Caslon, Garamond, or other choice as listed 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!
8. It's often easier to begin by placing photos, then running stories around them. You may choose either the Cambridge story or Darjeeling tea story for the top. In the illustration I chose the tea story, because it's longer. Consider the three photos you downloaded. After you've made your choice:
a. Click with Selection tool (solid arrow) outside your document (in the pasteboard) to avoid placing photo in an existing text frame.
b. Choose Place. Browse to find the photo.
c. Click the loaded cursor in the pasteboard to Place the photo.
d. The photo will be the wrong size. Normally we would fix this in Photoshop, as changing photos in InDesign also changes resolution. But editors will change size in InDesign when necessary, so let's do it that way.
e. With the Selection tool, drag your photo (don't drag in the middle donut area, but around the sides) into your document.
f. Decide how many columns you want to make it: at least two, probably three or four.
Note: General rule for broadsheets: at least two columns for vertical, three for horizontal.
g. Choose the Scale tool (it might be under Free Transform or another tool). Click on photo to bring up handlebars.
h. 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!
Note: CS5 has changed the way these handlebars work. Only the lower right corner will drag proportionally. The other corners will drag horizontally, vertically, or flip the photo.
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 (see circles in illustration, right) 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.
9. Place your text. Make sure you leave room at the top for your headline, and under the photo for your cutline. To Place:
a. Choose Place from the File pulldown.
b. Browse to find the story. Okay.
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 may not have space to place it all.
10. Style the copy you just Placed to the font as indicated above. Note you'll probably 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!
11. Do the same for your second story. See illustration for make-up possibility, or choose your own. You must have at least part of stories begin on page one. Avoid one-column stories.
12. 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. Edit stories to eliminate overset, if necessary (see page two illustration, left).
13. Cut 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!
14. 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 two-line head. If you choose a two-line hed, change the leading so that it's set solid, such as 24/24. Otherwise space between lines will look unattactive.
Design notes: Leave about a pica and a half (18 pts) space between headline and copy under it. Leave about 2-3p 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.
15. At the top margin, in about 12 pt, write your name to identify your work for grading.
16. Save your document as an InDesign file, if you haven't already.
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. Prepare a 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. Attach to email below.
19. Email the pdf as a file attachment to Ross Collins (ross.collins@ndsu.edu) for grading.
