InDesign User Group

If you missed the December 6th meeting of the NY InDesign User Group, you missed one of the best meetings in a long time. The theme was InDesign automation, and we were lucky to have three experts on the subject.

Our first presenter was Caleb Clauset, of Typefi Systems (http://www.typefi.com). Caleb demonstrated the power of Typefi and in particular its free Auto-Fit plug-in for InDesign. To download this great addition to ID, go to http://www.typefi.com/TypefiAutoFit.

After Caleb we heard from Scott Carson of Noble Desktop (http://www.nobledesktop.com). Scott wowed the crowd by using GREP (General Regular Expression Parser) in InDesign to take one book index and reorganize it into a new format. Scott also left users with a great handout that explained his demo. This handout will be available on our website within a few weeks.

Following Scott was Dan Rodney, also of Noble Desktop and points unknown (http://www.danrodney.com/scripts/index.html). Dan showed off his two amazing JavaScripts: "Make Book Jacket" and "Proper Fraction Pro." If you design books or book jackets, you must get Dan's two great scripts.

A few comments from attendees:
- "Very good session. Real value in each topic, this is why I come to every meeting."
- "Excellent stuff!"
- "1) Reminds me again why I like InDesign over Quark.; 2) Learned things about ID that had nothing to do with the topics (good); 3) Found out some cool stuff that I can impress people with at work; 4) Don't do books or mags so the index info might not get used by me, but the rest was gold!"
- "Clear and interesting presentations."
- "Loved it. Many thanks."
- "Always interesting and informative."
- "Great seminar."

We hope to have our first meeting of '08 sometime in February, and are currently working with FIT to lock down next year's dates. In the meantime, the new New Jersey chapter will be launching their first event on January 28, 2008. If you live in The Garden State and want to be part of that group, please register on the InDesign User Group website (http://www.indesignusergroup.com/chapters/ and click on Central New Jersey). Best wishes go to new chapter rep Alison Cattelona, who will do a great job, no doubt.

Thanks again to everyone for your support this past year. We've got some interesting events planned for '08 so until then, have a happy and healthy holiday season. See you soon.