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Deleting Guides from Your InDesign Document
I know that lots of use work with Graphic Designers. We can’t all be design experts. Or you may have inherited InDesign documents from a previous staff member, etc.
And lets just say that the way the did things doesn’t quite mess with your style. One of those migh, just might, be the use of guides. I’ve opened up some documents where the author had gone whole hog with the guides. I mean they were everywhere! I could hardly see the content on the page through the forest of guides.
Now if this has ever happened to you, let me share a little trick that the folks over at GraphicMac posted to their blog. A way to delete all the guides at once, without having to select them individually. If you use the keyboard shortcut Command + Option + G then Delete if on a Mac or Control + Alt + G then Delete if on Windows. This selects all the guides on the page and deletes them.
Pretty slick! Besure to check out their post as it also gives you the keyboard shortcut to unlock the guides if they’re locked.
Working with a Designer pt.2
Well this week seems to be my week for follow-up posts. Recently I commented on working with a graphic designer and who owns what. Well today I came across a post that dealt with the same issue but from a web site perspective. It apply to print too and the author makes some fantastic points.
You can check it out at http://blog.pixelita.com/23/who-owns-your-web-site/
Hidden Characters in InDesign, pt. 2
A while back I posted a link to Adobe’s website that listed hidden characters that InDesign can show you for spaces, tabs, etc. Well the folks over at InDesign Secrets went one step further (and better). They created a great PDF of these characters. What makes it better is it’s LARGE, so you can actually see the characters easily. And it shows them in context.
Check it out!
Staff Reductions in the Business and Nonprofit Communities
I’ve been thinking a lot about the layoffs happening all over the world, brought about by a combination of the economic crisis and the ensuing environment of fear. I don’t have a great list, but a quick web search tells me that:
- Bank of America announced plans to cut up to 35,000
- WaMu: Most!
- Dell: 8.800
- Citigroup: 50,000
The list goes on and on. But nowhere am I seeing the rest of the story. For instance – what services are being cut to accommodate these layoffs? If there aren’t any service cuts, then I’m left with the impression:
- These agencies were obese – fat with people performing work that wasn’t needed
- These agencies are going to provide fewer services
- If these agencies don’t trim services – their product offering/customer service will drop
Maybe I’m wrong about all of these things. I’m keenly aware of step costs – you know – I can fit 10 people at the dinner table and feed them with a single turkey – but when I invite that 11th person – I need another turkey and another table – and I won’t utilize much of that second turkey or table. So – maybe it’s just that at that size – you can trim that number of people, go down a step, and be at business as usual, but with less business.
For years (and years and years) the nonprofit sector has been told that we need to behave more like businesses. And I think there is some truth to that – we should gather data and analyze it, we should evaluate our work, we should ensure that our overhead remains as low as possible and so on. Solid budgets, strong business acumen, salaries that are based on work product – the list goes on. In my career at nonprofits –I’ve found that most agencies are doing those things already. Maybe we can do them more effectively – but they aren’t absent.
So – how come I’m not hearing about nonprofits reducing their staff by huge margins? Is it because we aren’t fat? Is it because we’ve managed our growth well? Is it because we aren’t newsworthy? I know that some nonprofits are closing their doors, and still others are trimming entire programs. But I can understand both of those things – because a reduction in staff ought to mean a reduction in services provided. That means nonprofits are focusing on what they do best. But huge reductions in staff without an accompanying reduction in service? I’m mystified!
Stripping out Styles from an InDesign Document
InDesign Secrets has an interesting post on their website where they answer a graphic designers question about stripping out styles & master pages from a document that one of their clients requested. For me this isn’t of any value at all. I don’t think most people really need to know how to do this in the first place.
However, it does bring up a good point to keep in mind if your nonprofit is working with a graphic designer. For some reason, there are designers out their that feel that they “own” the pieces they created. Even though your organization may have paid them to create it for you, they feel it’s their work and you shouldn’t have it.
Do I agree with this? Absolutely not! If you’re paying them to create it, you own it. The point here is not who’s right or wrong, it’s that you need to be clear who owns what. That means get it in writing. I have no problem with a designer “owning” the work they create. I’m just not going to pay them the same amount that I would if I owned it. That’s the cost of their ownership.
Plus in my experience, the only reason a designer would want to “own” a piece is to prevent you from taking your business elsewhere. And if they need to resort to those methods to prevent that, that in itself tells me they’re not a designer that I want to work with.
