July 2006 Archives

500 separate paths or shapes is the maximum allowed when copying and pasting editable paths from Illustrator into InDesign. If a set of paths is too complex, ID will place the paths as an embedded EPS rather than editable vectors. When using Illustrator's Live Trace feature, pay attention to the number of paths listed in the lower right just below the Preview button (number of anchor points is irrelevant...ID isn't looking at those). 501 or higher will get embedded as an EPS. When you plan to copy and paste into ID, 500 is the magic number.

Thanks to Tim Cole for this tip.

A: When text is still text, ID is designed to draw the stroke on the outside of the path IF the text has a fill color applied. If you assign a fill color of none, then the stroke will draw centered on the path, just like any ID frame. When you convert the text to outlines, it's now a frame, and so the stroke draws centered on the frame path. You can make the stroke draw outside the path (or inside the path) using the stroke alignment buttons on the stroke palette. Then it will look like stroked live text with a fill color.

Thank to Tim Cole for this info.

I spend a lot of time presenting/demoing/teaching/training Adobe software to our customers, and 99% of the time it's done on a Mac. If that sounds like something you do, then you should check out the new Mouseposé 2 from Boinx Software. Essentially, it's a Mac-only application ($10) that allows a presenter to draw the audience's attention to the curent cursor location. It's a great way to locate a cursor on a large screen or focus on a complex user interface element.

I've been using the first version of this great little app for a while, but now with version 2 they've add some nice enhancements including feathered cursor highlight (user customizable, of course), animated highlight (subtle, not obnoxious), and "visible" clicks (just try it).

Bonus Tip: Set the cursor opacity to zero percent and enable the mouse clicks option. Now when you invoke Mousepose you won't see the cursor highlight but you'll see concentric circles (in the color of your choice) to indicate the number of clicks.

It's really a great teaching/training tool. All you ACE trainers out there are gonna love this!