This week's shortcut is a twofer. Let's say you're entering info in a field of a panel, and you want to move to the next field. Type the Tab key to jump to the next field of the panel you're working in. Need to go back? No problem. Hold down Shift and type Tab to jump to the previous field of the panel. Remember, though, that Tab is also a text character, so make sure you've moved your cursor out of live text, and into the panel you want to work with, or you'll end up with a typo.

HOT TIP: This works across Adobe applications, and beyond. Use it in Microsoft Office, in a web browser, and pretty much anywhere.

PS: If you haven't done it yet, download a free poster with our first 25 Shortcuts to Success!

 

Manually adding page numbers to a document in sequence, a process know as paginating, can be tedious, especially when the order of the pages changes. Save yourself lots of time and effort and let InDesign do the work for you. Click in a text frame with the Type Tool, and type command + option + shift + N to insert the Current Page Number Marker. 

HOT TIP: Do this on the file's Master Page(s), and any existing or new Document Page based on those Master(s) will automatically paginate, even if moved to a different position.

PS: If you haven't done it yet, download a free poster with our first 25 Shortcuts to Success!

 

The easiest and fastest way to add a left indent to a paragraph is to use the Indent to Here Character. To insert the Indent to Here Character, type command + \ (backslash). See it in action after the jump. 

 

A hyphen can be one of the most dangerous characters to use, because it can lead to a typo if your text reflows. InDesign has a special character called a discretionary hyphen, which appears when it's needed, and goes away when it isn't. To insert a discretionary hyphen, type command + shift + hyphen. See it in action after the jump. 

Forget rules, forget formulas--just show us the best stuff you have. If your work is chosen by our jury of top-notch editorial design professionals, we will showcase it in an exclusive online gallery here on the SPD website. It's a great way to get your work in front of magazine art directors with the power to hire fresh, young talent like yourself. All the rules and details after the jump...

 

If you don't know about the Glyphs Panel, your life is about to be changed, forever! But, first, what is a glyph? Well, in typography, it simply means any mark. A character can have more than one glyph. Let's say a font has two versions of the letter F. The F is the character, and each version is a glyph. The Glyphs Panel is a great tool, because it lets you see and select every glyph for any font loaded in your system. See how it's done, after the jump.

 

option + e + character; option + `  + character

Every so often, you'll need to use a word that requires an acute or grave accent. This is frequently the case if you're working in a language other than English, like our friends and Pub Crawl hosts at People en Español. Here's how to do it:

PS: If you haven't done it yet, download a free poster with our first 25 Shortcuts to Success!

This is a great chance to get your work in front of multiple reviewers from a variety of publications and companies, so you can get loads of advice and see where their opinions agree and disagree to better shape your book. Doesn't matter if you're portfolio is practically done or whether you just have a pile of printouts .... bring us whatever you've got, we'll give you our opinion and advice.

And to help you build your online portfolio (which you all should have!), we'll have experts from Wix.com (our lovely hosts!) on hand to show you what their web-building tools can do and how to create an expert online portfolio using them.

Hope to see you Wednesday!

 

You probably know that using swatches to manage color is a big time-saver, because you can define them, apply them, and once you edit them, the change will be applied throughout your document. Save even more time with this shortcut that lets you choose how you want to apply your swatch to a selected object. Type X to toggle between the fill and stroke, activating one and deactivating the other. Just make sure, as usual, that you're not in live text, or you'll end up with an unwanted X.

HOT TIP: Check out our shortcut from September to learn how to swap the fill and stroke.

PS: If you haven't done it yet, download a free poster with our first 25 Shortcuts to Success!