Creative effects and controls

Creative effects and controls

Design compelling page layouts that include transparency, creative effects, and gradient feathers. Since effects are live and nondestructive, you can experiment with ease. Apply effects independently to an object's stroke, fill, or content.

Productivity enhancements

Perform a variety of tasks more efficiently using new and enhanced productivity features, including Multi-file Place, Quick Apply, faster frame fitting, and the visual Pages panel.

Table and cell styles

Table and cell styles

Quickly and consistently format tables using table and cell styles. Even use regional cell styles to apply unique formatting to specific areas of a table, such as its header, footer, and body.

Robust long-document support

Maintain consistency and streamline the production of long documents using advanced bullets and numbering, running headers and footers, and synchronized master pages.

Advanced Find/Change on text and objects

Apply changes to text and object attributes across one or more documents. Include master pages, footnotes, and locked or hidden layers in a search; save search settings for easy reuse; and perform grep pattern–based searches on strings of text.

XHTML export

XHTML export

Enable multiformat publishing, including print-to-web workflows, by exporting InDesign content as XHTML. Edit the exported content in Adobe Dreamweaver® CS3 software (available separately) and automatically format it using cascading style sheets.

Intuitive and customizable workspace

Work in an environment that makes it easier to be productive. Keep just the tools, panels, and menus you use most at your fingertips, and dock self-adjusting panels out of the way when not in use to free up your workspace.

Placed InDesign files

Reuse layouts by placing INDD files in another InDesign document. Links remain intact, and InDesign automatically notifies you of updates to the linked INDD file.

Rule-based layouts from XML

Use scripts that apply rules to automatically build page layouts and format text and graphics from XML content.

Automation through scripting

Automate tasks by writing scripts in JavaScript, AppleScript, and VBScript. Attach a JavaScript to a menu command so it runs automatically when the command is chosen, and protect scripts for commercial use through enhanced JavaScript.