Indesign Tutorial #3 – Interview Article

This tutorial produces a two-page spread that incorporates paragraph styles, character styles as well as a pull quote. Its kind of long but stick with it. As an added benefit, the content of the spread are job interview tips.

1. Create a new document with 3 facing pages, letter size, 3 columns, gutter (the space between the columns) 1p0 (12pts or 1/6 of an inch) , the top margin set 6p0 (1″), bottom 4p6 (3/4″), inside/outside 3p0 (1/2″), and the bleed (the area outside the page to extend images to) 0p9 (1/8″)

2. In the Pages panel click on page 2 and 3 (hold shift down to select both). Go to the LAYOUT menu > CREATE GUIDES set it to 4 rows, gutter 1p0 and fit the guides to the margins.

3. Download the Bebas Neue font download and uncompress the zip file. In the uncompressed Bebas Neue folder double click Bebas Neue.otf to install.
4. Rename layer 1 to ART. Make a content frame on the entire left hand page from the gutter to the bleeds. Download thumbsup.jpg. Go to the FILE menu > PLACE and select thumbsup.jpg.

5. In the layers panel Lock the ART layer, make a new layer and rename it to TEXT.

6. Go to the WINDOW menu > STYLES > PARAGRAPH STYLES to define a style for all of body text that will appear in this document. Go to the paragraph styles menu and click on New Paragraph Style. Change the name to Body Text, under Basic Character Format change the font to Baskerville (Minion Pro will suffice if the other doesn’t exist on your system) Size=9pt, Leading=12. Under Indents and Spacing change align to Grid to All lines. Click OK

7. Go to the WINDOW menu > STYLES > CHARACTER STYLES to define styles for separate parts of the copy based on the same body text. Go to the character style menu and click on New Character Style. Name it bold then click on the Basic Character Formats tab and under font family select Bold. Click OK

8. Make another new character style and base it on [None] and name it Questions, under basic character formats change the font style to Bold Italic, Under Character Color change it to the default red (C=15, M=100, Y=100, K=0) Under Underline Options click the checkbox for Underline On, change the weight = .25pt, offset = 0 and color = black. Click OK

9. Click on this link select all of the text and copy it. Make a content frame on the right hand page that occupies the space inside the margins. Select the type tool, click on the content frame and paste in the copied text.

10. Select all of the text in the text frame (cmd/ctrl+A) and the click on the Body Text Paragraph style – this defines all of the text with the Baskerville Font with its size and leading and baseline alignment.

11. Select the very first paragraph and then click on the character style Bold. This maintains the paragraph style but changes the type to bold. If you change the font definition in the paragraph style at this point all of the type set to Body Text will change as will the text defined as bold.

12. Select each question and apply the Question Character style – again this applies a red bold italic underlined style to the selected text and is dependent on the paragraph style to define the font.

13. The line length is too long at this point – after tracking the text 7.5″ across the page it will be difficult to find your place when you return to the left hand side. Select the text frame, go to the OBJECT menu > TEXT FRAME OPTIONS and change the columns to 2 with a gutter of 2p0.

14. With the type tool, place the cursor in front of the question “What do you look for in a job?” and go to the TYPE menu > INSERT BREAK CHARACTER > COLUMN BREAK, this will force the paragraph to skip to the next column leaving the response intact.

15. Save your file at this point, there’s still a few more steps to go but we want to ensure we don’t lose anything.
16. In the layers panel lock the TEXT layer. Make a new layer and name it CALL OUTS,

17. Make a new Paragraph Style and name it call out. Base it on [No Paragraph Style] In Basic Character formats change the font to Bebas Neue Size=33 and Leading =30. Under hyphenation uncheck the hyphenate box and under character color change it to black.

18. Make a content frame that occupies the bottom right corner of the right hand spread from gutter to margin and within one row. Click on this link and copy the text. In Indesign click on the content frame with the type tool and paste in the copied text. With the text selected go to the character style panel and change the style to [None] and then go to the paragraph style panel and change the style to call out. Highlight “‘NAILED IT'” and change the color to red.


19. Copy the content frame to the row above – use the black arrow while holding down the alt/opt key to drag and make the copy. Select all of the text in the copied frame and replace it with a single forward quote mark (“)  Select the text frame with the black arrow and go to the TYPE menu > CREATE OUTLINES.

20. With the quote shape selected, hold down the shift key and drag the bottom right handle down and to the right to the bottom of the row. Drag from the upper right to completely fill in the row top to bottom. Change the fill color of the quote mark to red.

21. Make a content frame on the left hand page that occupies the bottom two rows from left to right margin. Click in it with the type tool and change the character style to [none] and go to the paragraph style panel and change the style to call out. Type How To Rock A Killer Interview. Select all of the text and in the character panel change it to Bebas Neue size = 94pts leading = 72pts.

22. Select all of the text and in the paragraph panel change the alignment to right. Place the cursor before A and hit return. Select all of the text and change the color to red. Highlight Killer and make the color white (paper.)

23. On the right hand page make a content frame that begins below the upper margin, from the bleed line to the 1st column line, make it an arbitrary height. With the frame selected go to the measurements bar (below the menu), change the reference point to the top and change the height = 3p0 (1/2″)

24. Change the fill color of the box to red and then click on it with the type tool, change the character style to [none] and go to the paragraph style panel and change the style to call out. Type LANDING A JOB 101, change the type height to 18 and change the color to white (paper)  and the paragraph alignment to Right.

25. With the text frame selected go to the OBJECT menu > TEXT FRAME OPTIONS. Change the right indent to 0p6 so that the text doesn’t run all the way to the edge and 0p3 for the bottom indent. Center the text vertically within the frame.

26. Export the layout as a PDF. Go to the FILE menu > EXPORT > PDF (print) Export pages 2 to 3 only and export the two pages as spreads so that you can see the left and right pages together.