Today, I spent most of the morning trying to get to grips with InDesign by refreshing my skills. At first, I was trying to do this myself but after some frustrations I decided to watch some tutorials, which I viewed, paused and then tried myself on my InDesign document....I now have a very rough draft of a layout (which I showed and discussed with my Lecturer yesterday).
I am still not wholly confident with using InDesign. So, I have been looking at other options. iBooks Author seemed to be a good solution, almost like a drag and drop facility which would suit me! But when trying to download, I need the Lion package on my iMac rather than my existing Leopard setup. I do not want to change my whole package on my iMac at this stage in case I lose any of my work!
Another idea is to use Illustrator (I am not using facing pages in my report, just right hand single sided) so this is an option, although most processes have to be done manually, for example, the page numbers! Whereas, these are done automatically in InDesign.
Again, Microsoft Word is an option as previously mentioned by my Lecturer, I just feel being a design student that I should not be using Word! But the layouts of creative presentation have improved in the later versions, it is a versatile program, letting me insert imagery with a variety of file types.
Whichever programme I decide to use, the outcome needs to be a PDF. This will do two jobs in one; allow for easy printing (as nothing should move once the PDF has been created) and a digital version is automatically made, which I can put on a CD or upload onto an appropriate sharing site, like Issuu.
Anyway, after some experimenting, I have looked into Browser Apps. I have not considered these before but my Lecturer did yesterday. The most appropriate 'provider' to choose seems likely to be Google Chrome or Mac App Store. Both other lots of opportunity, usability and coverage.
I have also been in communication with Andrew, the graphic designer, as he has started making my website for the Teachers today. He has sent an initial screenshot of its homepage via email in which I replied with some changes, and he has since sent back another image with the adjustments. I am pleased with the progress of this, as the aesthetic is what I wanted and in terms of timing, Andrew has said he is likely to be able to finish the Teacher website by the end of this week, and the Children's website by next Wednesday (the deadline that I have given him). I chose this day as this gives me 4 days to prepare my presentation to industry in time for the first of the 4 days of presentations. So, plenty of time!
After this presentation, I can make changes that are suggested and send off to print! All of the visuals can then be slotted into my report.
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