CreativeTechs » QuickTips #219

CreativeTechs QuickTips #219

Week of September 29, 2008

Creative Tip: Select and Distribute Guides in InDesign.

Need a series of equally spaced guides in your next layout? No problem. You can select and align ruler guides as easily as any other objects in InDesign.

Simply use the Selection tool (the arrow) and shift-click on several guides to select them, or drag a selection box over multiple guides. Then click on the horizontal or vertical distribution buttons in the Control Panel. You can also use InDesign's Align panel (Window > Object & Layout > Align).

Note: You can't select guides and other objects at the same time. When you drag your marquee over multiple guides, make sure not to select any other objects on your page.

Source: This tidbit found in the September 2008 issue of Design Tools Monthly. Seattle creative teams with a CreativeTechs support plan receive a complimentary subscription to Design Tools Monthly in their monthly care package.

Tech Tip: Check your Battery's Health with coconutBattery.

Does your laptop seem to die faster than it used to? It probably does. Laptop batteries lose capacity over time.

Download coconutBattery, a free utility, to reveal some important details about your laptop battery's health.

Apple says their batteries are designed to retain up to 80% of original capacity after 300 full charges. You can see in this screenshot from coconutBattery, how a 4-year-old iBook whose battery has been charged twice that number now has only about 17% of it's original capacity left.

You can maximize your battery lifespan with some good maintenance practices. But however well they are maintained, laptop batteries do lose capacity over time.

Source: This tip inspired by countless calls from laptop users over the years. For further details, see Apple's Battery Health page.

CS4 Tip: Second CS4 Preview Tonight at CreativeTechs.

Last week's CS4 Social at Luminous Works was a hit. Hours after the Adobe unveiling, a lucky group of Seattle designers and photographers had a chance to see CS4 in person (including some of the new 3D features in Photoshop CS4). Tonight, we're holding another CS4 preview at the CreativeTechs office in South Lake Union:

For readers outside of Seattle, we've posted a collection of links to CS4 blog posts, reviews, and videos that have been released in the last week.

Source: Trainer and founder Steve Laskevitch's fun CS4 presentation helps illustrate why Luminous Works has been ranked the #4 Adobe Authorized Training Center Worldwide. Check out the Luminous Works Calendar for upcoming classes.

CreativeTechs QuickTips is a free weekly newsletter for creative professionals who use Macs. Each week we publish a fresh mix of left-brain and right-brain tips based on our real world experience supporting hundreds of creative teams in the greater Seattle area. For a complete archive of previous tips, visit www.creativetechs.com/tips

For IT Professionals supporting Mac users, visit Make Mac Work. This weekly technical blog focuses on IT issues facing Macs in Enterprise environments. It is written by CreativeTechs' lead enterprise engineer, Jordan Bojar. For an archive of previous topics, visit www.makemacwork.com

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