Working with Palettes (PageMaker)

Working with Palettes:

PageMaker includes several palettes; the Colors palette, the Control palette, the Hyper-links palette, the Layers palette, the Master Pages palette and the Styles palette. In addition, some plug-in palettes, such as the Library palette, are installed automatically and are listed separately on the Window menu.

A. The Control Palette:

The control Palette displays the properties for the selected paragraph, Character or object. It is a sort of shortcut to the object, text, and paragraph properties. Choose Window and select Show Control Palette to display the Control palette.

a1.  The Control Palette in Object Mode:

The control Palette when it has an object selected displays the object properties such as the reference point, position, size, scaling, cropping, printer resolution, rotating, skewing and horizontal and vertical reflection.

Horizontal/vertical mirror : mirrors the currently selected object along the x or y-axis.

Height/width: sets the height and width of the currently selected object, either numerically in inches or in percentages of the current size.

Rotate: Rotate, is used to rotate the selected object around an axis. The center of rotation is set as the object's center and exact measurements can be used.

Skew: This skews, the currently selected object, in degrees.

XY position: sets the horizontal and vertical position of the upper-left corner of the currently selected object.

a2.  The Control Palette in Character Mode:

The Character Palette is displayed when the text tool is selected. It has options for changing text styles, size, leading, tracking, width and Kerning. There is a toggle button to shift between paragraph view and character view.

Kerning:  Text Kerning adjusts the spacing between characters in text. It is selective, so you can adjust just one or two characters, or whole sections of text. Negative numbers move characters closer together, whereas Positive numbers space them out.

Leading:  Text Leading adjusts the spacing between lines of text. This is applicable on line-by-line basis. Positive and Negative numbers have the same effect as they have on Kerning, except that the spacing is between the lines of text.

Tracking:  Text Tracking adjusts how closely characters follow each other. Very tight tracking brings text closer together, very loose spreads it out a bit.

Size:  Text Size adjusts point size of text.

Position:  Text Position adjusts the placement of the text on a given line. Positive Numbers move the text into a super text position (above the line), and Negative numbers move it into a subtext position (below the line).

Width:  Text Width adjusts the character width and does not affect height. The larger the percentage, the wider the word. Percentages over 100% make it proportionately larger than the standard sizing, under 100% make it proportionately smaller.

a3.  The Control Palette in Paragraph Mode:

The control Palette displays options for the paragraph style, alignment, indents, spacing, grid spacing and grid alignment

B. The Color palette:

Use the Color Palette in PageMaker to assign spot, process and tints for all objects and text within the document. Note that placed EPS graphics will import their colors within the color palette. This is an example of when consistent color naming is essential. Remember to delete unused colors before sending files to Printing Services. There should be only one entry in the color palette for each unique spot color.

C. The Style Palette:
 

The Style palette contains styles (combinations of typographical means) which are applied to the corresponding items in the text (e.g. chapter heading, caption) in order to give them their distinctive appearance in the publication.

Most publications contain structural text items, such as chapter headings, body text, listed enumerations, captions, etc., which you will want to distinguish from one another typographically. Usually, a chapter heading has a larger type size than a caption, and enumerations are often indented to set them off from the rest of the body text. But the choice is yours: all typographical options available in PageMaker you will find under Type Menu. You can combine type font, size, style, alignment, etc. to design a different style for each kind of structural item.

Typographical convention almost decrees that a particular style for a particular item is maintained consistently throughout the publication. To promote this consistency PageMaker has a Style palette. It holds a number of styles which you can apply throughout your text by selecting structural items and clicking on the appropriate style in the palette. Compare it to selecting a first chapter heading, giving it all specifications manually from the Type Menu, and repeating this for every chapter heading all over again.

PageMaker has a palette with standard styles, but using the option Define styles under Type menu, you can make your own Style palette. Part 2 of the course explains in detail how to do this.

D. The Layer Palette:

Layers offer you unprecedented control over your documents. The Layer Palette is used where a multiple layers document structure is required. Layers allow you to separate the different elements that make up your document. You can hide, display, add or delete layers as required. Choose Window and select Show Layers to display the Layers Palette.

E. The Master Pages Palette:

The master Pages palette is used to create and apply masters. It displays a list of available master pages for a particular document. The master page icon at the bottom of the window is used when you want to go to a master page for editing. Choose Window and select Show Master pages to display the master Pages palette.

F. The Hyperlink Palette:

A hyperlink has two parts: a source, which is the hyper linked text, or graphic that you click, and a destination, which is where the source jumps. Inside a PageMaker publication, destinations are called anchors. You can also give a valid web hyperlink. Choose Window and select Show Hyperlinks to display the Hyperlinks palette.