Right off the bat, the title for today’s thought, Become a Slave to Master Pages, is probably one of the hokiest titles I’ve ever come up with. Apologies for not being more clever (or original considering it’s probably been used a thousand times in the past.)

With that said…

I almost got caught making a layout task much less efficient than it needed to be. Fortunately, a better solution came to me before I wasted my time on the less efficient solution. The incident illustrates what can happen when we forget just how amazing our layout tools can be.

I’m doing the layout for a book and the client wanted to add 36 pages of lines so that the reader could keep a journal in the back. Each page would have the same heading, then about 20 lines for the reader to write whatever he or she wanted. In other words, 36 pages exactly alike.

My very first thought was to create the first page, then copy/paste the text box with the heading and lines into the 35 other pages. Not smart! Why?

If the client wanted any change, like a different heading for the page, or a change in the spacing between the 20 lines, I’d have to change the first one, then do the copy/paste routine over again 35 times. And imagine the fun if the client decided on another change after that!

Instead, I created a new Master Page, something you can do in both InDesign and QuarkXPress. On this Master Page, I created the header and lines once. When I added the new pages to the layout, I indicated that the new pages should use the new Master Page I created.

In an instant, I had 36 pages of lines. But the real beauty is that if the client wants a change, I only need to make it on the Master Page and it will be applied instantly to all 36 pages.

Master Pages are nothing new for me… I use them on just about every project. But I don’t often have a need to use multiple Master Pages and that’s why I almost got tripped up. I had gotten so used to not using multiple Master Pages, I had forgotten just how valuable they can be.

One reason I bring this up is because it’s so easy to forget (or never learn!) everything our design tools can do and how they can make things easier for us. That’s why I always encourage beginners to spend time learning how their design tools work. Take advantage of those slow moments as you’re building your direct market design career and see what’s hiding in all those menus and sub-menus.

Sites You Should Know About:

I’ve been stumbling across some great sites recently… it’s not that they’re new, I had just never seen them before.

All Graphic Design – A lot of great content here. Two recent articles – Designing A Catalog From Conception To Completion and Logo Design Creation Process from Start to Finish – are among many useful tips you’ll find on this site.

LogoBlog.org – Speaking of logos, many long-time readers here will know that logo design is not something I feel I’m good at. But I am fascinated by the process because, to me, it requires a different type of thinking. If logos are your thing, this site is for you. I really liked the article from April 9, Magic of the First Letter. It’s amazing how something so simple in a logo can still be very effective.

When you run a graphic design business, you feel both the excitement and fear of upgrading your computer software. Over the last number of months (and in the next couple of months), we’ve had a number of software upgrades to consider.

For PC users, there has been Windows Vista, Office, QuarkXPress 7 and Adobe’s CS3 products.

For Mac users, QuarkXPress and CS3, along with Leopard that was released last week, and Mac Office which comes out early next year.

When I worked for Microsoft testing Windows, I knew what to expect by the time a new version of Windows was available. That made upgrading a much easier decision. Now, as both a PC and Mac user, and one that has no ties to Microsoft (or Apple for that matter), a new operating system is something to be carefully considered.

Already, there are scattered reports of Adobe CS3 not working 100% with Leopard, so I guess it will be some time before I upgrade my Mac.

But let me give you a little advice to help you make operating system upgrades go a little smoother. (And this will also save you lots of time if your hard-drive crashes and you have to start from scratch.)

1. Create an inventory of all the software you use or depend on for your business. That includes any font management programs, FTP programs, etc. Sometimes we forget programs that we don’t use often, or third-party plug-ins that aren’t obvious. Any one of these might not work after an operating system upgrade, so you want to have an accurate inventory or what you use so you can investigate how it might work after you upgrade your operating system.

2. Next to each software title, note the serial number. This is especially important for software you downloaded where the serial number is sent separately in an e-mail. It’s easy to misplace these serial numbers if you haven’t come up with an organized way of keeping track of them. If you have to reinstall software, you’ll want those serial numbers handy.

3. If the program lends itself to it, take screenshots of your settings or preferences, or export the settings if possible. For example, if you have lots of sites configured in your FTP program, make sure you have that information in a separate place.

Take all that information and either make a hard copy, or an electronic copy, and keep it in a safe place.

4. For your downloaded software, collect all the installation files and put them somewhere easy to find on your hard-drive or burned to a disc in case you have to reload them later. If you installed from a CD, put all those CDs together so they’re easy to find. Unfortunately, a common solution for software that doesn’t work after an operating system upgrade is to reinstall the software. If that’s the case, you don’t want to waste time tracking down all your installation discs or files from various locations.

5. In your browser, bookmark the specific website support pages for your key software. This way, you can quickly find out if there are any updates or what information is available when you’re planning to upgrade your operating system. There’s nothing worse than upgrading your operating system only to find, for example, that your FTP software won’t work with the new operating system and a fix won’t be coming for a couple of months. This is something you want to investigate before you upgrade. And don’t forget to export your bookmarks and keep them in a safe place in case something ever goes wrong with your computer.

Admittedly, it’s a bit of pain to go through all this. But after having upgraded numerous times over the years, I can tell you that taking these steps and keeping your information current is easily worth the up-front time it will take.

When you’re running a freelance design business that is so dependent on your computer, you can’t afford any more downtime than is necessary.

First, note that I said a “little” love in the title. I still feel that for a solo designer, QuarkXPress is inferior to InDesign in just about every way and I only use it when the job demands it.

But that’s just my view of QuarkXpress based on my own experience and my needs in a layout program. There are many people out there happily using QuarkXPress and it does exactly what they need it to do.

But I do sometimes feel guilty (for only a second or two) that I talk more about InDesign (and by extenstion, Adobe) than I do QuarkXPress.

The trouble is, there are not a whole lot of QuarkXPress resources to get excited about in terms of podcasts, third-party magazine tutorials, etc. In fact, I just looked at Amazon to see what QuarkXPress 7 books were available. Not a lot, at least not by the major publishers. I’m not sure if that means anything or not, but it does make me wonder how popular QuarkXPress is with the general public these days.

So, it is nice to see that there’s a new site out there dedicated to QuarkXPress: Planet Quark

If you’re a QuarkXPress, take a look at the site and even send a note of thanks to the folks who put the site together. Since there’s not a lot out there, anyone dedicated to serving the QuarkXPress community deserves a pat on the back.

As I continue to advance my design skills, I’ve been trying to pay more attention to design decisions that are made in various publications I run across.

Today, I’m going to point you to two examples that are basically the same type of content, but done different ways. The key to remember is that each example is very effective, yet really easy to create.

Both examples come from X-Ray magazine which is all about QuarkXPress. The magazine is available for free on their site, so I’m going to give you direct links to the PDFs so you can see exactly what I’m talking about.

In both examples, go to page four of the magazine and look at how the designer handled the Contributing Authors section.

First up is issue 4.2. (http://www.xraymag.com/pdfs/xrv42.pdf) Like a lot of magazines, X-Ray includes photos of their authors, commonly referred to as headshots. What we’re going to focus on is how the designer is tying those pictures together with the bio text. We’re not going to concern ourselves with color or font choices.

As a background for the author bios, the designer used a rectangle with curved corners. Anyone with even minimal knowledge of their layout program could create that in a few seconds.

The pointers that come out from the rectangle point to the author headshots. My guess is that the designer created a small square, then rotated it 45-degrees and positioned it so half the square couldn’t be seen since it’s using the same color as the rectangle. So you’re left with half a square visible giving the impression of an arrow or pointer. Even if the designer used some other method, what I just outlined would work and could be done pretty quick.

Next up is issue 4.4. (http://www.xraymag.com/pdfs/xrv44.pdf) The designer used a different approach for the Contributing Authors section this time. The headshots were placed in a circle with a line connecting the photo to the author’s bio. The right side of the line ends with a solid circle.

Designing a magazine takes a lot of skill, but this designer used very simple, yet effective techniques to add interest to what could have been a visually boring page. To me, that’s the mark of an very good designer. Not surprisingly, that’s often the same type of design that direct marketers are looking for.

When you’re starting out it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the decisions you need to make on projects. But as you’ve seen in these examples, keeping things simple and using shapes that you can create in just a few seconds is often an excellent starting point when you’re not sure what to do.

If there’s any “trick” to this process, it’s how to take the different things that you know how to do – like how to create a circle, square, line and rectangle – and combine them into something useful for your projects. That’s why it’s important for you to pay attention to what’s being done by other designers, break it down into pieces, then rebuild it into a layout or design that’s all your own.

This post took an unexpected turn. I was going to recommend you get serious about your goals for the new year by pointing you to a book that was a big help to me when I started freelancing.

I mentioned the book in my own book, I Still Can’t Draw Good Stick Figures.

The book that was such a big help was Goals! by Brian Tracy.

I was going to add that to my Recommended List with a link to Amazon as I do for the other books I recommend.

After a few clicks, I had this. So that’s my list of recommended books in a variety of categories. I own every book listed there in the main window. Actually, I own far more books than that, but the ones you see on that site are the only ones I recommend to other people. (The books listed under Similar Items are not necessarily ones I own, but based on purchasing habits, Amazon includes those as possible books you might be interested in.)

On a totally different note, I’m working on a client project that requires me to use QuarkXPress 7. While I prefer InDesign, there are times when a client or project requires Quark. After using Quark 7 for a while, I still think InDesign is a superior layout tool, but I’ll give Quark credit…they actually included two printed books in the package.

One book is just a quick look at the new additions to version 7. But the other book is a 400+ page guide to using Quark. That’s a big deal. Those of you who have been around for a while remember the days when you actually got a printed manual with your software…especially software that you’re shelling out a lot of money for.

But to save costs, software makers either started putting together PDF books or created a separate user manual that you could buy.

For me, it was just nice to see a company put together a thick manual to go along with their software.

Talk to you in the new year!