After the brochure template has been created, it’s a simple matter each month or so to create a new edition of the brochure based on this layout. We demonstrate these time-saving techniques, and more, in our Adobe Indesign courses.
The template has been saved as an indt file (Indesign Template), so rather than choosing New from the File menu we choose Open, and browse to where the template has been saved. When we double-click on the template file a new document based on that template opens up. This new document has all the properties of the template – features like headers, footers, page numbering, master pages, text styles, logos and masthead on the front page. These functions are discussed in previous blog posts.
So it’s now a relatively simple matter to insert the text copy and images for this month’s edition. It doesn’t matter whether you bring in the images or the text first. This usually depends on the purpose of the document and whether it is image-heavy or text-based. Say, for example, we import the images first into the Graphics layer. We can scale and adjust these later if necessary. We then lock this layer and select the Text layer in order to import the text. This can be typed in manually or imported from a Microsoft Word document. By selecting Show Import Options we can choose whether to preserve or discard any previous formatting.
We would then apply our text styles created within the template file. At any stage in the process it’s easy to manipulate the various elements of the layout by locking one layer against the other. And the final step in the process is to create a multi-page PDF to send to the printer or client.
Working with templates thus makes brochure layouts consistent and straight-forward. Most designers will have a range of templates for various purposes. Once created they will save you a lot of time and effort, making the whole process fast and efficient.
More tips and techniques can be found at Adobe.com. There are many tutorials and forums for designers to discuss topics and the latest Indesign features. See also many examples of our own clients’ work on our Facebook page.
Other related Indesign Blog Posts:

• Indesign images and text
  
• Indesign workflow
• Indesign templates
• Indesign page numbers
• Indesign add hyperlink