PAGEMAKER BASIC TUTORIAL (version 7.0)

OPENING EXISTING FILE OR NEW FILE

CLICK FILE / OPEN AND BROWSE OR FILE / NEW WHICH GIVES THE DOCUMENT SETUP WINDOW:

SET PAGE SIZE TO PRE-SET PAGE OR SET DIMENSIONS TO WHATEVER YOU LIKE IN WHICH PAGE SIZE WILL SAY ‘CUSTOM’.  LEAVE RESOLUTION AT 300 AT LEAST FOR PRINT SHOP.  PRESS ‘OK’ TO CREATE BLANK DOCUMENT.

SAVING

IMMEDIATELY SAVE DOCUMENT SO THAT ‘MINI-SAVES’ CAN HAPPEN EVERYTIME YOU GO FROM PAGE TO PAGE WITHIN DOCUMENT.  ALSO CLICK FLOPPY ICON (‘SAVE’) PERIODICALLY SO IF COMPUTER FREEZES AND NEEDS RESTART YOU DON’T LOSE EVERYTHING.

CLICK ‘FILE’ AND ‘REVERT’ TO REVERT BACK TO LAST SAVE AND DISCARD ALL CHANGES SINCE.

SETTING PREFERENCES

WITH DOCUMENT OPEN SETTING PREFERENCES IS ONLY FOR THAT DOCUMENT.  WITH NO DOCUMENT OPEN, SETTING PREFERENCES IS ‘APPLICATION WIDE’.  SET PREFERENCES BY CLICKING ‘FILE’ THEN ‘PREFERENCES’, THEN ‘GENERAL’ WHICH GIVES YOU THE PREFERENCES WINDOW…

SET MEASUREMENTS FOR RULERS ALONG SIDELINES TO INCHES, PICAS, OR CICEROS.  INCHES CAN BE DIVIDED INTO HALVES, QUARTERS, EIGHTHS OR BY 10THS (DECIMAL).  PICAS ARE DIFFERENT UNITS.  THERE ARE 6 PICAS IN AN INCH.  POINTS ARE SMALLER UNITS THAN PICAS.  THERE ARE 12 POINTS IN A PICA.  SO 72 POINTS PER INCH.  YOU CAN EXPRESS A DISTANCE IN PICAS AND POINTS SUCH AS ‘1p3’ WHICH MEANS 1 PICA PLUS 3 POINTS.  NUDGES ARE HOW FAR OBJECTS WILL MOVE WITH ARROW KEYS.  CLICK ‘MORE’ FOR MORE PREFERENCES.

PALETTES / TOOLBAR

TOOLBOX HAS VARIOUS TOOLS YOU CAN CLICK ON INCLUDING COMMONLY USED POINTER (ARROW), TEXT TOOL (T).

THE STYLES / COLORS PALETTE AND THE MASTER PAGES / LAYERS PALETTE CAN BE DISPLAYED (IF NOT) BY CLICKING ‘WINDOWS’ AND THEN ‘SHOW…’ FOR EACH PALETTE.

SINCE PALETTES OFTEN BLOCK VIEW OF DOCUMENT YOU CAN REDUCE THE SPACE THEY TAKE UP BY DRAGGING TABS WITH THE NAMES OF THE PALETTE INTO THE TAB REGION OF ANOTHER PALETTE TO CONDENSE THEM INTO ONE WINDOW.

BY PRESSING THE TAB KEY (WITHOUT TEXT TOOL SELECTED) ALL PALETTES AND THE TOOLBOX ARE REMOVED TO PROVIDE FULL VIEW.  PRESS TAB AGAIN AND THEY RE-APPEAR AS YOU HAD THEM.  PRESS TAB AND SHIFT KEYS TOGETHER AND ONLY PALETTES DISAPPEAR LEAVING TOOLBOX SHOWING.  PRESS TAB AND SHIFT AGAIN TO HAVE PALETTES RE-APPEAR.

SETTING COLUMN GUIDES

MUST BE IN A NEWLY CREATED DOCUMENT WITH NO GUIDES ALREADY SET TO SET COLUMN GUIDES.  CLICK LAYOUT, THEN COLUMNS.  ENTER NO. OF COLUMNS AND GUTTER WIDTH.  UNITS OF GUTTER WIDTH CAN BE CHANGED IN PREFERENCES / GENERAL.  PRESS OK.

MASTER PAGES

ALL NEWLY CREATED PAGES ARE BASED ON THE MASTER PAGE.  NEWLY CREATED PAGES WILL THEN HAVE ALL OBJECTS AND SETTINGS THAT MASTER PAGE HAS.  YOU CAN CHOOSE ‘NONE’ IN MASTER PAGE PALETTE AND THEN CREATE A NEW PAGE THAT IS TOTALLY BLANK AND IS NOT BASED ON ANY MASTER PAGE.  A MASTER PAGE BY DEFAULT IS CREATED WITH NEW DOCUMENT.  YOU CAN ADD OBJECTS TO IT TO USE AS A TEMPLATE FOR CREATING NEW PAGES.

YOU CAN CREATE ADDITIONAL MASTER PAGES (LIKE ADDITIONAL TEMPLATES) AND ADD WHATEVER OBJECTS YOU LIKE TO THEM.  THEN NEW PAGES CAN BE BASED ON THOSE MASTER PAGES INSTEAD.

TO CREATE A NEW MASTER PAGE, IN MASTER PAGE TEMPLATE, CLICK ICON THAT LOOKS LIKE A PAGE AT BOTTOM OF PALETTE.  IN RESULTING WINDOW, NAME IT , SET MARGINS, AND COLUMN GUIDES, CLICK ‘OK’

PAGES: CREATING, NAVIGATING, DELETING

TO CREATE A NEW PAGE SELECT MASTER PAGE FROM MASTER PAGE PALETTE THAT IT WILL BE BASED ON OR SELECT NONE FOR BLANK PAGE.  THEN CLICK ‘LAYOUT’, THEN CLICK ‘INSERT PAGES’.  CHOOSE NUMBER OF PAGES TO INSERT, AFTER OR BEFORE CURRENT PAGE, ETC.

TO CHANGE VIEW FROM ONE PAGE TO ANOTHER CLICK ON DESIRED PAGE ICON AT BOTTOM LEFT OF SCREEN.  IF NO PAGE ICONS APPEAR, MINIMIZE DOCUMENT FILE WITHIN APPLICATION AND THEN RESTORE AND THEY SHOULD APPEAR.

TO DELETE A PAGE RIGHT CLICK ON THAT PAGES ‘PAGE ICON’ AT BOTTOM LEFT OF SCREEN AND CHOOSE ‘REMOVE PAGES’

TEXT BLOCKS

CREATING TEXTBLOCKS

CLICK ‘T’ IN TOOLBOX.  WITH TEXT CURSOR, DRAG TO DRAW A RECTANGULAR TEXT BOX WHERE EVER YOU WANT IT.  CLICK MOUSE TO CHANGE TO CURSOR AND TYPE IN TEXT (OR PASTE IN – SEE PLACING TEXT BELOW)  NO WORRY ABOUT DRAWING RECTANGULAR TEXT BLOCK WRONG SIZE/SHAPE AS THAT CAN BE CHANGED.

MODIFYING SIZE, SHAPE AND POSITION OF TEXTBLOCKS

TO CHANGE SIZE AND POSITION OF TEXTBLOCK CLICK POINTER TOOL IN TOOLBOX AND CLICK ON TEXTBLOCK TO SELECT IT.  DRAG HANDLES ON TOP OR BOTTOM OF TEXTBLOCK TO CHANGE HEIGHT OF BLOCK.  IF TEXT IS HIDDEN BY DOING THIS RED TRIANGLE APPEARS IN HANDLE AND WILL RE-APPEAR IF DRAGGED BACK.  DRAG ON BLACK SQUARES AT CORNERS TO CHANGE WIDTH OF TEXTBLOCK.  TEXT WILL ‘FLOW’ TO ACCOMMODATE NEW TEXTBLOCK DIMENSIONS.  CLICK IN MIDDLE OF TEXTBLOCK TO DRAG THE WHOLE BOX AROUND.

CLICK ROTATION TOOL (CIRCULAR ARROW) IN TOOLBOX TO PROVIDE HANDLES THAT YOU CAN DRAG TEXTBLOCK AROUND TO ROTATE IT TO ANY ANGLE OR TILT.

DELETING TEXT BOXES:

WITH TEXTBLOCK SELECTED WITH POINTER TOOL YOU CAN PRESS ‘DELETE’ KEY TO TOTALLY DELETE TEXTBLOCK AND TEXT.  OR YOU CAN DRAG BOTTOM HANDLE UP ALL THE WAY TO TOP OF BOX AND HIDE ALL TEXT AND THEN CLICK ELSEWHERE TO HAVE IT DISAPPEAR.  IF YOU CLICK IN THE VICINITY OF WHERE IT DISAPPEARED IT WILL RE-APPEAR AND YOU CAN DRAG THE LOWER HANDLE DOWN TO RESTORE TEXTBLOCK WITH TEXT. (BETTER THAN DELETING IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND AND WANT IT BACK)

PLACING TEXT IN TEXT BOXES

THREE WAYS….

1.  COPY AND PASTE – OPEN WORD DOCUMENT WHERE TEXT IS AND HIGHLIGHT TEXT YOU WANT TO COPY. (CTRL + A WILL HIGHLIGHT IT ALL QUICKLY)   THEN PRESS CTRL + C TO COPY HIGHLIGHTED TEXT.  BACK IN PAGEMAKER, PLACE CURSOR IN TEXTBLOCK WHERE YOU WISH TO PASTE TEXT (WHERE YOU PLACE IT TEXT WILL BE PASTED BELOW AND TO THE RIGHT).  PRESS CTRL + V TO PASTE IT IN.  DRAWBACK TO THIS METHOD: IF PASTED TEXT EXCEEDS EXISTING SPACE IN TEXTBLOCK ONLY WHAT FITS WILL BE PASTED

2. USE ‘PLACE’ WITH ‘AUTOFLOW’ OFF – CLICK ‘FILE’ AND THEN ‘PLACE’.  IN ‘PLACE’ WINDOW BROWSE TO WORD FILE WITH TEXT YOU WANT. (WORD FILE MUST NOT BE OPEN)  WITH WORD FILE HIGHLIGHTED CLICK ‘OPEN’ AND CLICK MOUSE AT TOP LEFT CORNER OF WHERE YOU WANT TO PLACE TEXT.  TEXT WILL FILL ALL AVAILABLE SPACE AND IF THERE IS ANY EXTRA TEXT THAT WOULDN’T FIT A RED TRIANGLE APPEARS AT BOTTOM OF TEXTBLOCK OR COLUMN.  CLICK THIS RED TRIANGLE AND MOVE CURSOR TO TOP LEFT OF NEXT COLUMN OR TEXTBLOCK YOU CHOOSE TO CONTINUE PLACING TEXT.  REPEAT UNTIL ALL TEXT IS PLACED.  ADVANTAGE – YOU CAN CHOOSE MANUALLY WHERE TO CONTINUE PLACING TEXT.  DISADVANTAGE- FOR HUGE AMOUNTS OF TEXT YOU HAVE TO REPEAT PROCESS OVER AND OVER.

3.  USE ‘PLACE’ WITH ‘AUTOFLOW’ ON – CLICK ‘LAYOUT’ AND THEN ‘AUTOFLOW’.  CLICK ‘FILE’ AND THEN ‘PLACE’.  IN ‘PLACE’ WINDOW BROWSE TO WORD FILE WITH TEXT YOU WANT. (WORD FILE MUST NOT BE OPEN)  WITH WORD FILE HIGHLIGHTED CLICK ‘OPEN’ AND CLICK MOUSE AT TOP LEFT CORNER OF WHERE YOU WANT TO PLACE TEXT.  TEXT WILL FILL ALL AVAILABLE SPACE AND AUTOMATICALLY FILLS NEXT COLUMNS OR PAGES UNTIL ALL TEXT IS PLACED, CREATING NEW PAGES AS NEEDED. (NEW PAGES MUST BE CREATED ACCORDING TO MASTER PAGE DESIRED IF THEY ARE TO HAVE SAME FORMAT AS ORIGINAL PAGE)

COUNTING WORDS

CLICK TEXT TOOL IN TOOLBOX, CLICK ON TEXTBLOCK, HIGHLIGHT ALL TEXT IN BLOCK EITHER BY SWIPING IT ALL DRAGGING THE MOUSE OR BY PRESS CTRL + A.  WITH ALL TEXT HIGHLIGHTED, CLICK ‘UTILITIES’, ‘PLUGINS’ AND THEN ‘WORD COUNT’.

SPELL CHECKING

CLICK POINTER TOOL IN TOOLBOX, CLICK TEXTBLOCK TO SELECT IT.  CLICK ‘EDIT’, ‘EDIT STORY’, THEN CLICK ‘UTILITIES’ BACK ON TOP TOOLBAR, CLICK ‘SPELLING’.  CLICK ‘START’ IN SPELLING WINDOW.  (DOT ‘ALL STORIES’ TO SPELL CHECK ENTIRE DOCUMENT, DOT ‘ALL PUBLICATIONS’ TO CHECK ALL OPENED DOCUMENTS IN PAGEMAKER)  MAKE CHANGES OR REPLACEMENTS.  CLOSE SPELL WINDOW, CLOSE ‘STORY EDITOR’ WINDOW.  CHANGES WILL APPEAR IN TEXTBLOCK(S).

FIND AND REPLACE TEXT

FIND:

CLICK POINTER TOOL IN TOOLBLOCK, CLICK ON TEXTBLOCK TO SELECT IT.  CLICK ‘EDIT’, CLICK ‘EDIT STORY’.  (DOT ‘ALL STORIES’ TO SPELL CHECK ENTIRE DOCUMENT, DOT ‘ALL PUBLICATIONS’ TO CHECK ALL OPENED DOCUMENTS IN PAGEMAKER)  CLICK ‘UTILITIES’ BACK ON TOP TOOLBAR, CLICK ‘FIND’.  TYPE WORD TO FIND IN FIND BOX, CLICK FIND (FIND NEXT) BUTTON.

FIND AND REPLACE:

CLICK POINTER TOOL IN TOOLBLOCK, CLICK ON TEXTBLOCK TO SELECT IT.  CLICK ‘EDIT’, CLICK ‘EDIT STORY’.  (DOT ‘ALL STORIES’ TO SPELL CHECK ENTIRE DOCUMENT, DOT ‘ALL PUBLICATIONS’ TO CHECK ALL OPENED DOCUMENTS IN PAGEMAKER)  CLICK ‘UTILITIES’ BACK ON TOP TOOLBAR, CLICK ‘CHANGE’.  FILL ‘FIND’ BOX AND ‘CHANGE TO’ BOX. WITH WHAT YOU WANT TO CHANGE AND WHAT YOU WANT TO CHANGE IT TO.  CLICK FIND (FIND NEXT) BUTTON TO MAKE CHANGES ONE AT A TIME OR CLICK ‘CHANGE ALL’ BUTTON TO DO ALL AT ONCE.

IMAGES: IMAGE TYPES, PLACING IMAGES, WRAPPING TEXT AROUND

IMAGE TIPS FOR QUALITY:

AVOID JPEGS (.jpg) AND GIFS (.gif) IMAGE FILES BECAUSE THEY ARE COMPRESSED TO VARYING DEGREES AND THE COMPRESSION CAN REDUCE PRINT QUALITY ALTHOUGH THEY WILL LOOK FINE ON THE SCREEN.  USE EPS (.eps) OR TIFFS (.tif) AS THEY ARE NOT COMPRESSED AND WILL HAVE FINE PRINT QUALITY.  IF SCANNING AN IMAGE AVOID SCANNING DOT MATRIX PICTURES FROM MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS, AND MOST OTHER PRINTED SOURCES AS THE DOTS PATTERNS WILL COMBINE WITH THE PIXEL PATTERNS TO CREATE INTERFERENCE PATTERNS THAT WILL AFFECT QUALITY ON THE SCREEN AND IN PRINT.  SCANNING PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS IS FINE.

RESOLUTION OF IMAGES MUST BE AT LEAST 300 DPI OR BETTER DEPENDING ON HOW LARGE THE IMAGE WILL BE IN PRINT.

PLACE IMAGE FILES IN SAME FOLDER AS PAGEMAKER DOCUMENTS (.pmd FILES) TO AVOID RE-LINKING.

DO AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE OR ALL IMAGE EDITING IN PHOTOSHOP BEFORE INSERTING INTO PAGEMAKER DOCUMENT TO SAVE SIZE OF PAGEMAKER FILE AND RENDERING TIME.

PLACING IMAGES AS INDEPENDENT OBJECTS:

CLICK ON POINTER TOOL IN TOOLBOX.  CLICK ‘FILE’, CLICK ‘PLACE’, BROWSE TO IMAGE FILE AND HIGHLIGHT IT.  CLICK ‘OPEN’ BUTTON.  CLICK ANYWHERE IN DOCUMENT AND IMAGE WILL BE PLACED BELOW AND TO RIGHT OF THE POINT YOU CLICK.

PLACING IMAGES IN ‘FLOW’ WITH TEXT:

CLICK ON TEXT TOOL IN TOOLBOX.  CLICK ON TEXTBLOCK AND PUT CURSOR AT END OF TEXT OR PICTURE WILL GO OVER TEXT.  (YOU COULD MOVE TEXT TO PROVIDE A GAP FOR PICTURE)  CLICK ‘FILE’, CLICK ‘PLACE’, BROWSE TO IMAGE FILE AND HIGHLIGHT IT.  CLICK ‘OPEN’ BUTTON AND IMAGE WILL BE PLACED IMMEDIATELY WHERE CURSOR WAS.

RESIZING IMAGE:

ALTHOUGH RESIZING IS IDEALLY DONE IN PHOTOSHOP BEFORE-HAND YOU CAN RESIZE IN PAGEMAKER.  CLICK POINTER TOOL IN TOOLBOX.  CLICK ON IMAGE TO SELECT IT.  BLACK SQUARE TABS APPEAR ON SIDES OF IMAGE AND AT CORNERS.  CLICK ON ANY TAB AND DRAG TO RESIZE PICTURE.  NOTE: DRAGGING ON SIDE TABS DISTORTS THE PICTURE AND SHOULD BE AVOIDED IN MOST CASES.  DRAG ON CORNER TABS TO RESIZE PROPORTIONALLY WITHOUT DISTORTION.  IF PICTURE IS DISTORTED YOU CAN RESTORE IT’S ORIGINAL TRUE PROPORTIONS BY CLICKING ON A CORNER TAB WHILE HOLDING DOWN THE SHIFT KEY AND WAITING A COUPLE OF SECONDS.

WRAPPING TEXT AROUND PICTURES:

CLICK THE POINTER TOOL FROM THE TOOLBOX.  CLICK ON A PICTURE TO SELECT IT.  CLICK ‘ELEMENT’, CLICK ‘TEXT WRAP’ AND THE TEXT WRAP WINDOW OPENS.  CHOOSE A TEXT WRAP STYLE AND SET THE BOUNDARY SPACE OR MARGIN (STANDOFF) THAT IS LEFT OPEN AROUND THE PICTURE’S TOP, BOTTOM AND LEFT AND RIGHT SIDES.  PRESS OK.  YOU CAN DRAG THE PICTURE AROUND TO SUIT YOU.