Books, Magazines, Android and iPad

We’re on Facebook!

The Los Angeles InDesign User Group now has a Facebook page courtesy of member Michael Grant. We expect it will be the perfect way for user group members to interact with one another. Visit it. We know you’ll like it. (Soon you’ll be able to follow us on Twitter as well!)

Next Meeting: InDesign Automation

Catch a glimpse of the future of electronic publishing.

Max Dunn of Silicon Publishing will present examples of InDesign automation using scripting and CS Extensions. He will show techniques of automating flowing data through InDesign templates. Max will explain the workflow of Silicon Designer, an online editing solution for InDesign and InDesign Server that leverages the latest features of InDesign CS5.

Silicon Publishing automates the distribution of information to multiple channels. They build software and custom applications that let clients author and aggregate content, manage editorial and review processes, and deliver high-quality output to print and interactive electronic media.

Examples of their work include:

• Automating composition of directories, catalogs, and other documents from data and image sources
• Developing XML-based applications for page formatting, Web publishing, and information exchange
• Building and hosting interactive Web applications that let users access and manage information

Max L. Dunn is co-founder of Silicon Publishing, a software development company building solutions and products for web and print publishing. Max has been programming since the beginnings of the world wide web, and is an expert at Adobe InDesign Server automation and related technologies. He is an Adobe Community Expert, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, and he has spoken at numerous XML, DITA, and software development conferences.

$3 Raffles

• Adobe CS5 product (InDesign, InCopy, Illustrator, Flash Professional, Dreamweaver, Flash Catalyst) Value to $699
• Letterhead Design cards from StockLayouts
• InDesign Magazine. Value $69

Giveaways

Free Layers Magazine

Agenda

5:30 p.m. Meet and greet
6:00 p.m. Presentation (with a mid-presentation break)
8:30 p.m. Raffles and giveaways

Sponsors

Adobe
Recosoft
StockLayouts
InDesign Magazine
O’Reilly Press
David Blatner, Teacup Software, Blatner Tools, InDesign Secrets
Photolibrary

Meeting Notes

By Alvin Takamori

For the first time, the Los Angeles InDesign User Group held its meeting in the Community Room at the Yahoo Center in Santa Monica. Following announcements by Chapter Representatives DeShawn Burton and Alan Bell, a survey of the audience indicated a mix of both beginner and advanced users, with a significant number of first-timers. Michael Diaz led a brief session of questions and answers which allowed the featured speaker John Schuman time to travel directly from a delayed flight at LAX to the meeting.

John, who is a Senior Product Manager, WW Education, for Adobe Systems, Inc., provided insight into the process of creating content for mobile devices. His background includes work as a Solutions Engineer on higher education and some of his examples were promotion pieces created for universities, but the techniques demonstrated could be applied to any industry.

First, John informed us that iOS devices will not support Flash content. But, he said, Flash is still superior to HTML 5 for what it does, so Flash is not going away anytime soon.

Next John provided a summary of the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. DPS is a good way to design content for smart phones and tablets, but it does have limitations. For instance, it’s not ideal for creating a traditional textbook, because you cannot copy and paste, bookmark, or annotate the copy. For these things you’re better off using PDF files. However, if you have highly visual and interactive content, DPS could be the solution. It can pan and zoom into images, add slideshows, videos, and interactive maps as some of the possibilities. DPS generates folio files, as opposed to PDF files. Using a free viewer, folio files are recognized by mobile devices.

Starting with InDesign to create the files, the folio files are created and managed by a Folio Producer Service. The workflow for the Professional and Enterprise editions of DPS would then use a distribution service to deliver content to viewers by direct entitlement or through an App Store. This provides the potential to monetize the distribution process. Branded apps like iPad, Kindle Fire and Android could also be integrated into the process. Branded apps could also be connected to an analytics service such as the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite powered by Omniture. Omniture provides a dashboard interface to allow analysis of what viewers are looking at and clicking on and buying.

The Digital Publishing Suite is paid by subscription, but if you create a lot of material for the growing mobile device market, it could be worthwhile.

Michael Newton and Donald Chafetz traveled a long way to attend the meeting, which earned them subscriptions to InDesign Magazine. Another InDesign Magazine subscription was raffled off to Barbara Fier and a nice prize of Markzware software went to Kelly Lewis. But the brisk raffle ticket sales at the November meeting were not for those items. Attendees were excited by the possibility of winning the entire Adobe Creative Suite. The expletive uttered by Pat Cates as the number to her ticket was called showed just how big this prize was. Congratulations to her and all the winners, and thanks to John Schuman for an informative presentation.

Thank You

Here’s a shout out to the meeting’s facilitators: Adobe, Markzware, InDesign Magazine, O’Reilly Press, Peachpit Press.

Job Opportunities

We are looking for people who want to get involved with the administration of the group. Maybe you have web skills, newsletter skills, an eye for photos, want to conduct the raffles. Whatever. Let’s talk.

Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Los Angeles InDesign User Group will be held January 19, 2012 at 7 p.m. in the Rancho Park/Westwood/Cheviot Hills section of Los Angeles at Westside Pavilion, Community Room B, Level 3E, 10800 W. Pico Blvd. (at Westwood Blvd.), Los Angeles, CA 90064. Community Room B is located behind Landmark Theaters.

shaRon sachse will demonstrate Muse, an Adobe application, now in beta, that allows designers to create websites as easily as creating layouts for print. Design and publish original HTML pages to the latest web standards without writing code. One of the reasons Muse is a boon for us is that the user interface and way of working parallels working in InDesign! shaRon will walk us through designing and building a complete website with Muse.

shaRon creates art and expressions for the digital canvas, motion and web using a suite of Adobe tools. She studied design and photography at Minneapolis College of Art and Design and returned to the classroom at Santa Monica College for a degree in web design/development. Today she does front-end development incorporating video, animation and rich interactive experiences on multiple screens. shaRon also builds apps extending creativity to the new innovative handheld devices. Follow her at @PCartiste.