I’ve been using the new version of Adobe InDesign CS6 for while now and wanted to share my experience of some of the new features in this release and how they impact the way we work when developing Oomph publications in InDesign.

I’m very happy to say, that I for one, am going to embrace these new features and I’m confident most Oomph designers will as well. That said what is it about these features that makes me all warm and fuzzy. Well there are a number of new features but the two that will have the most impact on the way I build Oomph publications will be Liquid Layouts and Alternate Layouts.

Screengrab of a current project in InDesign 6

It’s a lot of work developing publications for iPads and iPhones. There is more work than ever coming down the pipeline and we are always hoping for new tools to help us and speed up our workflow. Recognising the dual orientation of mobile devices and finding ways to create and manage both Landscape and Portrait versions has been with us from the start.

Now with InDesign CS6 Alternate Layouts we finally have some tools to help us. Alternate Layouts can really help us manage these dual orientations by putting these different layouts into the same document, reconfigure print pages for iPad/iPhone orientation and size while copying all the content across all or selected pages from the original.

So while Alternate Layouts create the multiple versions. Liquid Layouts provide the rules for how that content will port from one configuration to another. Liquid Layouts allow us to scale content, re-centre it, align asset to guides or simply tell it to “auto fit” and let InDesign decide. Alternate and liquid layouts will undoubtedly bring new ways of working when developing for Oomph publications. Aside from the obvious production benefits of being able to easily and quickly create dual orientation layouts and manage the content inside them, there will be other benefits. For example, the ability to easily and quickly create additional layouts that hold specific layers intended for use as animations within pages.

As our understanding of digital publishing grows and the demand for more sophisticated interactions grows, tools such as these provided by InDesign, combined with Oomph’s expansive toolset, can only help us as we push the boundaries further and further.

Tony Redhead

Creative Technologist