InDesign: Creating a new project

Decision time

What are you making? How are you going to put it together? How many pages do you need? Picture files do not automatically attach to an InDesign file, so it’s a good idea to save to a flash drive or hard drive.

Gather your assets

Find your text so you can copy and paste it right into InDesign. Find any image files you want to use and make sure you’ve put them somewhere you can find them again.

Create a new project

File > New > Document.

Explore the interface

Click around on the menus and to get a feel for where everything is. You may see something you’ll need later. Try out different setups by choosing one from the Window > Workspace menu.

The Properties tabs on the right side of the screen are particularly useful. You can change fonts, choose colors, add text wrapping and more here.

Adding columns

If you need to add or revise margins or columns, you may do so by going to Layout > Margins and Columns (see below). If you are printing this file and have images or color blocks that go up to the edge of the page, you’ll need to add a bleed: File > Document Setup > Margins and Columns