Adobe InDesign CS5 : Importing Graphic Objects (part 1) - Understanding Adobe Bridge

You can import graphics into an InDesign document in several ways:

• Use the File, Place command.

• Drag a graphic into the InDesign document from programs such as Bridge, the Mini Bridge panel, Photoshop, Illustrator, Finder (Mac), Explorer (Win), or from another open InDesign document.

• Copy and paste a graphic from the Clipboard.

Understanding Adobe Bridge

Adobe Bridge is a separate media manager application that lets you organize, browse, locate, and view your images and other file assets. Bridge provides centralized access to your images. You can use Bridge with any of the Creative Suite applications.

Importing Graphics from the Mini Bridge Panel

With CS5, it is now possible to import graphics into an InDesign document using the Mini Bridge panel. This panel enables you to access graphic links, including those placed in other InDesign documents, just as you would with the Adobe Bridge application, but without having to leave InDesign.

1.	To display the Mini Bridge panel, choose Window, Mini Bridge.
2.	Click the Browse Files button to display the Bridge Content panel in Mini Bridge.
3.	Click the icons in the navigation bar at the top of the panel to browse to the graphic(s) you would like to import (see Figure 1). Figure 1. You can place graphics by dragging and dropping them from the Mini Bridge panel.
4.	Select the graphic(s) and from the Tools drop-down list, choose Place, In InDesign, or drag and drop from the panel into the document (refer to Figure 10.1).
5.	If you’d like to access graphic links that are placed in a separate InDesign document, browse to the InDesign file (.indd) in Mini Bridge and Control-click (Mac) or right-click (Win) the link’s icon in the upper right of the thumbnail.
6.	Choose Show Linked Files from the contextual menu to display all the linked graphics from the separate InDesign file in Mini Bridge (see Figure 2). Figure 2. Control-click (Mac) or right-click (Win) the thumbnail links icon and choose Show Linked Files from the contextual menu.

Copying to and from Adobe Illustrator

In addition to placing native .AI (Adobe Illustrator format) files, you can copy and paste or drag and drop vector artwork that was created in Illustrator into an InDesign document. It is possible to edit simple objects in InDesign that have been copied from Illustrator, and vice versa.

To edit Illustrator objects in InDesign, you must disable the Prefer PDF When Pasting option in InDesign’s Clipboard Handling preferences. After this preference is disabled, you can edit Illustrator paths using InDesign’s drawing tools. Note that when you’re copying and pasting or dragging and dropping an Illustrator graphic into InDesign, the paths are automatically grouped. InDesign indicates this by displaying a dotted line around the graphic (see Figure 3). You can edit grouped paths using the Direct Selection tool.

Figure 3. An Illustrator graphic showing grouped paths when pasted into InDesign.

Some limitations exist to the kinds of objects you can copy and paste and the kinds of edits you can make. For example, InDesign converts editable text copied from Illustrator into objects that can be transformed but not edited with the Type tool. However, InDesign enables you to edit colors and simple gradients that are copied from Illustrator by using the controls in InDesign’s Color and Gradient panels.

To copy and paste or drag and drop editable paths from InDesign into Illustrator, enable the Copy PDF to Clipboard option in InDesign’s Clipboard Handling preferences.

Objects that you copy and paste from Illustrator into InDesign are not treated as links, and therefore do not appear in the Links panel.