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DM's Guild: The Advice You Didn't Ask For
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<blockquote data-quote="Sacrosanct" data-source="post: 6800755" data-attributes="member: 15700"><p>That brings me to some other very basic layout advice. I say basic because I'm no professional, but some lessons learned:</p><p></p><p>* no Orphans. This means if you have one line or less left in a paragraph, make it fit in the same column as the rest of the paragraph. Don't let one lines stay out there by themselves in the next column, or worse, a new page</p><p></p><p>* Don't be afraid of white space. This doesn't mean leave giant blocks of blank pages, but don't feel like you have to use every single millimeter of of the page to cram things into. The key is to make the page uniform, and avoid chunks of text here, but a big blank space there. Good usage of white space breaks up the subject and allows your eyes to "catch their breath", so-to-speak</p><p></p><p>* Use text wrap sparingly. Cool feature, sure. But used too much and it's more of a challenge to follow the text.</p><p></p><p>* Use fancy design features sparingly. Putting a fancy scroll-work image below every header for every section can be off-putting. Waste of space as well. You don't want your product looking like a 90s Geocities webpage</p><p></p><p>* Somewhat related, but use fonts sparingly. Don't put a dozen different font types in your product, especially if they are completely unrelated in theme. You'll need to embed them all, and it can be a distraction.</p><p></p><p>* Definitely related, use a font for the media type. I.e., if you're intending for it to be read on a computer, use something like Arial. If you're intending for it to be used in print, use Times or similar.</p><p></p><p>*When doing a PDF, USE BOOKMARKS. They are easy to set up, and most people expect them</p><p></p><p></p><p>*Edit* One more piece of advice I find helps me a lot. Don't write your product in the same software you're using for layout. I write everything in Word. I have horrible spelling, so it helps a lot and is much easier to spell check a large document in Word than it is in something like InDesign where you have individual text boxes to check.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sacrosanct, post: 6800755, member: 15700"] That brings me to some other very basic layout advice. I say basic because I'm no professional, but some lessons learned: * no Orphans. This means if you have one line or less left in a paragraph, make it fit in the same column as the rest of the paragraph. Don't let one lines stay out there by themselves in the next column, or worse, a new page * Don't be afraid of white space. This doesn't mean leave giant blocks of blank pages, but don't feel like you have to use every single millimeter of of the page to cram things into. The key is to make the page uniform, and avoid chunks of text here, but a big blank space there. Good usage of white space breaks up the subject and allows your eyes to "catch their breath", so-to-speak * Use text wrap sparingly. Cool feature, sure. But used too much and it's more of a challenge to follow the text. * Use fancy design features sparingly. Putting a fancy scroll-work image below every header for every section can be off-putting. Waste of space as well. You don't want your product looking like a 90s Geocities webpage * Somewhat related, but use fonts sparingly. Don't put a dozen different font types in your product, especially if they are completely unrelated in theme. You'll need to embed them all, and it can be a distraction. * Definitely related, use a font for the media type. I.e., if you're intending for it to be read on a computer, use something like Arial. If you're intending for it to be used in print, use Times or similar. *When doing a PDF, USE BOOKMARKS. They are easy to set up, and most people expect them *Edit* One more piece of advice I find helps me a lot. Don't write your product in the same software you're using for layout. I write everything in Word. I have horrible spelling, so it helps a lot and is much easier to spell check a large document in Word than it is in something like InDesign where you have individual text boxes to check. [/QUOTE]
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