Create multiples while dragging an object in InDesign

InDesign CS5 and later has an obscure keyboard/mouse maneuver that allows you to create multiple duplicates of an object as you drag. Here’s how:

1. Select one or more objects with the Selection tool

2. Hold down the option key (Mac) or alt key (Windows), and THEN grab one of the selected objects. It is very important to hold down the option/alt key BEFORE you grab any of the objects.

3. Begin dragging the object(s) horizontally or vertically, and you’ll see a duplicate of the object appear, because you’re holding down the option/alt key

4. While continuing to hold down option/alt, hit the right arrow or up arrow key on the keyboard once to create one duplicate, twice to create 2 duplicates, three times to create 3 duplicates, etc. You will see a dotted outline appear on the screen indicating that duplicates are being created.

5. When the correct number of duplicates is positioned the way you want them, release the mouse and the option/alt key

Note that this is a different technique than the more well-known technique of being able to tap the up-arrow and right-arrow keys while dragging out a frame on the page to create a grid of boxes, or while dragging out a frame with the loaded place cursor. The technique I’m describing above is useful when the object or objects you want to duplicate are already on the page, and now they need to be duplicated or stepped and repeated.

Open PDFs with Microsoft Word

Did you know that you can open PDFs in Microsoft Word 2013 for Windows? Just choose File > Open, select a PDF, and you’ll see the following dialog box before the PDF is converted to editable Word text:

PDFs that have complex layout will change in appearance significantly. If you don’t have the original fonts, they will be automatically be substituted with fonts on your system. In my limited tests, the conversion was far from perfect. But if you are working in Word, and just need to crack open a PDF to copy and paste some text, this could be useful.

As you would expect, PDFs that have password security applied can’t be opened with Word.

You can read more about this feature here.

Alas, this feature isn’t in Word for Mac 2011 (the latest version). 

For an alternate way to convert PDFs to Word, see PDF2Office (and PDF2ID) from Recosoft. If you have Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can open the PDF in Acrobat Pro and choose File > Save As Other > Microsoft Word.

The easiest way to share photos and videos with family, friends, and co-workers

Dropbox is essential to running my business. Its incredibly useful in so many ways. I like it so much that I authored a series of training videos called "Up and Running with Dropbox" for Lynda.com.

One of my favorite Dropbox features is the ability to share folders of images and video with any user, anywhere (they don't need a Dropbox account) with just a couple of clicks.

This is a fast, simple, low-overhead alternative to photo-sharing services such as Flickr, Picasa, SmugMug or Shutterfly. Watch the free excerpt from my Lynda.com course below to learn how.

2 free upcoming DPS Webinars

I’ll be doing two webinars for Adobe in the next few weeks.

1. Four Ways to Add Animation to Adobe DPS Apps on April 22

There are four ways to make things move on the screen in Adobe DPS apps: video clips, image sequences, animated slide shows, and HTML content from programs such as Adobe Edge Animate.

In this Webinar, you will see:

• The pros and cons of each approach
• When to use each method
• How to optimize animation for the best performance
• Examples of each method in use in the real world

… and more!

2. Working with Video Content in Adobe DPS Apps on May 20

Video content is one of the most desired features in many apps. Video content can be imported into Adobe InDesign CC, and then included in an Adobe DPS app. But there are many tips and techniques that can make this easier for you.

In this webinar, you will learn:

• How to prepare video for use in Adobe DPS
• When to embed video vs. stream video from a website
• How to use video for introduction screens
• When to set video to play full screen vs. playing "in place" in your layout

… and more!

These webinars are free! See more details and register here.

Once on Newsstand, always on Newsstand

If you are considering whether or not your app should go in the Newsstand category in the Apple App Store, take this into account: Once you’ve published an app in the Newsstand category, there is no going back. Apple documents this here. Specifically, they say "If a Newsstand-enabled app version has the the Ready for Sale status, you cannot disable Newsstand for any current or future versions of that app."

I have a customer that has an app on Newsstand, and now, for business- and marketing-related reasons, they want to remove it from Newsstand. When we discovered that this couldn’t be done in iTunesConnect, I called Apple to see if there was some way that they could override or make this change on their end. The answer was a clear “no”. So it looks like if you have an app on Newsstand, the only way to get the app out of Newsstand is to remove the app from the App Store, and publish an entirely new App. This is a poor solution, since there is no way to “update” users from one app to another.