In InDesign CS3, you have much better control of Transparency than ever before because you can apply Transparency to the individual parts of an object. So, if you want to lower the Opacity of just the Fill of an object, but not the Stroke, you can do so in the new Effects panel. One thing that many users of InDesign may not know is that some of the laws of Transparency have changed entirely. In InDesign CS 2, if you selected a Group of objects with your Selection tool (V) and lowered their Opacity in the Transparency palette, the Transparency was applied to the Group as a whole, not the individual objects. So, if you Ungrouped them (Object > Ungroup), the individual objects lost any Transparency that had been applied to the Group. Well in CS3, this Transparent Group law has been repealed. If you apply Transparency to a Group, and then Ungroup, the individual objects will still be Transparent.
Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.
Author: jeff witchel
Jeff Witchel graduated from Pratt Institute in 1973 with a B.F.A. (Cum Laude) in Advertising Design and Visual Communications. He has been an award-winning advertising art director, writer, designer, illustrator, and TV producer ever since.
Before starting his own advertising agency in New Jersey, Jeff built his career at top New York ad agencies such as Young & Rubicam, Grey Advertising, and Wells, Rich, Greene. Over the years, he has created award-winning work for many clients including AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Jell-O Pudding, The Plaza Hotel, and Pfizer. His many prestigious awards include N.Y. Art Directors Club Gold Award, One Show Gold Award, N.J. Art Directors Club Award, multiple Andy Awards, Graphis Annual, numerous readership awards, plus an Emmy Award nomination.
Jeff is a self-taught computer artist with over 19 years of experience. His initial introduction to the computer was with PageMaker, but he switched to Quark 1.0 when it was first introduced in 1987. Having arrived on the desktop publishing scene so early, Jeff became the “go to” guy for answers when others started getting into computer graphics.
As an Adobe Certified Expert, he’s provided online support for Adobe and is now an Adobe Certified Training Provider for both Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Adobe InDesign CS2. Jeff is one of just a handful of Adobe Certified Instructors in the New York metropolitan area. He also is a Quark Certified Expert in QuarkXPress 6 as well as a master of Adobe Photoshop and related applications. He counts among his training clients ad agencies, design studios, magazines, illustrators, and photographers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
