Quick Tip (Mac OS X)

Most Mac users should know the key combination of Command+Tab keys will bring up the Application Switcher in the middle of the screen and you can choose and switch between applications by clicking the Tab key while holding the Command key. By just clicking Command+Tab keys once will switch between two applications you use last.

But do you know that, by clicking Command+~(Tilde, the key just above the Tab key) you can switch between windows/documents within the same application. This comes handy if you have multiple documents open up in Indesign or multiple windows open in Firefox or Safari.

However, watch out for some exceptions like Adobe Photoshop, the key combination is Control+Tab keys instead of Command+~ to switch between opened documents.

Quick Tip – Turn off default Black Overprinting in Indesign

To quickly make black not to be overprinted as default, say artwork for newsprint, here is a trick:

Go to Indesign(menu bar)>Preferences>Appearance of Black (Command+K), or then uncheck the box Overprint [Black] Swatch at 100%. And done!

Technical (Indesign) – Advanced Email Links in Interactive PDF

Wonder how to create a link in interactive PDF that will open a new message window of the user’s mail client? And probably with recipient and subject line fields filled with specific details?
Here is the step-by-step trick:

1. Go to Window>Interactive>Hyperlinks and bring up the Hyperlinks palette.
2. Highlight the email address that you want to create a link on, click on the palette right facing arrow and create New Hyperlink.
3. In the New Hyperlink window, leave the Name same as the email address you highlighted, select Type as URL and fill up URL as follows:mailto:email address, email address
   (You can put a few here, and use Commas without space to separate them)
   For example:
   mailto:jackkwan@iinet.net.au,jackkwan@hotmail.com
   
   If you want to add recipients to carbon copy (cc) and/or blind carbon copy (bcc) the emails to:
   mailto:email address?ccemail address=&bcc=email address
   For example:
   mailto:jackkwan@iinet.net.au?cc=jack.kwan@fitnessfirst.com.au&bcc=jackkwan@hotmail.com
   
   And if you want to add a subject line:
   mailto:email address?subject=subject line
   For example:
   mailto:jackkwan@iinet.net.au?subject=RE: you think you can mac operate blog
   
   Now if you combine all the variables together:
   mailto:email address?cc=email address&bcc=email address&subject=subject line
   For example:
   mailto:jackkwan@iinet.net.au?cc=jack.kwan@fitnessfirst.com.au&bcc=jackkwan@hotmail.com&subject=RE: you think you can mac operate blog
   
   Click Okay and now you create a hyperlink. You can test the link by click the thick right arrow at the bottom of the Hyperlink palette. You can mix and match the combination above but make sure the syntax is right.
4. When you export your Indesign document to PDF, remember to check the Hyperlinks box under General option.

And remember, always check the links in your exported PDF to ensure that they work the way as you desire .