Chapter 1 - Basic Information (Part 3) PageMaker

Creating and Opening Publications:

Once you start PageMaker, you can either create a new publication from scratch, or open an existing PageMaker Publication, or you can begin a new publication based on an existing design by opening a template.

When you are creating a publication from scratch, you make basic design decisions in the Document Setup dialog box, which opens automatically when you choose > New. You specify page layout details – number of text columns, paper size, orientation, page numbering scheme, and the basic design of the publication. When under Option, Double sided is selected, side margins are labeled Inside and Outside. Otherwise, side margins become Left and Right. If you know how many pages the publication will have, you can create them at this point by filling up the appropriate number in Number of Pages. If you do not know, you can easily add or remove pages later. Select the option Adjust Layout when you change the page settings of an existing layout and want PageMaker to automatically move and scale text and graphic objects. If the current publication is a part of a larger book (a linked set of publications), and not numbered sequentially, then select the option Restart Page Numbering. You also have to specify the printer that you will use to print the final version of your publication under Compose to Printer, and select the dots per inch (dpi) of your final output device under Target Printer Resolution (fig 1.4).

Fig 1.4

To open an existing PageMaker publication, use the File > Open command to open the original version or a copy of a PageMaker publication or template. When you select this command, a dialog box appears (similar to File Open Dialog box of Word) with options of opening it as Original or Copy. PageMaker also keeps track of the eight last publications you opened and saved and lists these when you choose File > Recent Publications.

You should give careful thought to your page setup when you are creating a publication. Before you add any text or graphics to the page, make the following important decisions:

1.Paper size of the final document.

2. Margin settings.

3. Whether you want the page orientation to be tall or wide (PageMaker does not use the terms like Landscape and Portrait).

4. Whether the final document will be double-or single-sided.

5. How many columns your publication will have.

PageMaker provides you a choice of 14 industry-standard page sizes: Letter, Legal, Tabloid, A3, A4, A5, B5, Magazine Narrow, Magazine Wide, Magazine Broad, Compact Disk. Letterhalf, and Legalhalf. Furthermore, by choosing Custom, you can create a page of any size. By using PageMaker’s Printer Marks (a fancy name for crop marks), you can tell your print shop exactly where to cut the paper to achieve the desired size.

You should also be aware of how the Orientation setting impacts other PageMaker options. First of all, when you select the Wide (landscape) orientation, the two page dimension values switch. Second, PageMaker automatically changes the print orientation in the Print Document dialog box to match the page orientation.

If your final publication will be printed on both sides of the page, leave the Double-Sided check box alone, because its default setting is on. You will need to create double sided publications when the pages are going to be bound together in some way. However, this option still needs that you print on the two sides of the page, in two steps. Still leaving this option on has some advantages. In a double sided publication, the pages on the right and left sides might not be laid out the same way. If the Facing Pages option is also on, PageMaker shows the left and right pages that appear side by side in a double sided publication. The two facing pages create what is called a page spread.

Unlike some of the other options in the Document Setup dialog box, the page numbering fields and the number buttons are not crucial to your document setup, they can easily be changed at any time. If you know how many pages your publication will have, just enter that number in Number of pages. In case you do not know about it, you can use Insert Pages or Remove Pages option on the Layout menu to add or delete pages as necessary. 

The margin you set in the Document Setup dialog box define the white space around the adges of the page. Although you can place text and graphics outside the margins, most of your elements will be confined to the body of the page – the work area of the page. The most common elements that influence top and bottom margins are headers and footers (Format Header / footer Text Block), because you need to allow more space for them. The Inside and Outside settings apply to double-sided publications only. A single-sided publication does not have inside and outside margins. It simply has the normal left and right margins.

PageMaker’s default measurement system is inches, but you can choose one of the other available measurement systems by selecting the Preferences option under the File menu. If it is easier for you to enter inches for some measurements and picas (there are about 6 picas to an inch) for others, you can override the default system and specify a different system on the spot.

If you find that you are frequently changing the document setup to the same values and options, you may want to modify your default setup. To do this close all open publications, choose Document Setup from File menu, adjust the settings and choose OK. From this point onwards, any new publication you create will automatically have this page setup. Thus when you change a setting while a file is open, you are changing that publication only. When you change while no files are open, you are changing the program’s defaults.