Creating a One-Page

Newsletter in Indesign
Tutorial

Newsletters are a key component of the communications of businesses and organizations. They are used to keep followers of an organization up to date. This tutorial will
teach you how to create a one-page newsletter in InDesign. It will show you how to get
setup in InDesign, create a mockup, add content, and add formatting and colour. You will
be left with a complete one-page newsletter ready to be sent out to your subscribers.
PART ONE: GETTING STARTED
This section will help you set up your document and familiarize you with the InDesign
workspace, specifically the Menu Bar (File,
Edit, Layout, etc.).
1.
Open InDesign and create a new
print document. A Document Setup popup menu will appear.
2.
Set up your document with the following properties:
Intent: Print
Pages: 1
Page Size: Letter
Orientation: Portrait
Margins: 0

Click OK. If you want to change these settings later, go to File > Document Setup.
Many people prefer to work with inches instead of picas (the default unit of measurement).
3.
To change to inches, go to Edit > Preferences (at the very bottom of the list) >
Units and Increments. Change both the horizontal and vertical ruler units to inches in
the pop-up window.
If your newsletter is being printed then you need to think about margins. If your newsletter will only be accessed digitally then margins are optional.
4.
To change your margins, go to Layout > Margins and Columns. Keep the margins at zero if you have no intention to print. Keep them around 0.5 to 1.0 inches for
print.
5.
If you prefer to work with a background grid then go to View > Grids &
Guides > Show Document Grid.
You can always use CTRL + + or - to zoom in or out respectively.

PART TWO: CREATING A MOCK-UP

It is helpful to come up with a basic layout
or mockup before you actually start arranging text, images, and graphics. Select from
the Tools Panel (on the left of the page)
and create some frames and text boxes
using the Rectangle Frame Tool and Type
Tool.

Example of a mockup
for a one-page newsletter.

Tools Panel

The Frame Tool

The Selection Tool
The Type Tool

1.
Use the Rectangle Frame Tool
to create a frame at the
top of the page, where the logo banner and page title can be placed.
Select the tool from the Tools Panel and then click and drag on the
page to create the frame.
a.
You can create differently shaped frames
by right-clicking the
Rectangle Frame Tool
in the Tools Panel. Select your
desired shape and click and drag
on the page to create the frame.
2.
To resize and reposition the frame, select the Selection Tool
from the Tools Panel. Click on the frame to select it; drag from the corners to
resize. Click and drag the frame around on the page to reposition it. You can also
use your keyboards arrow keys to reposition objects, once they have been selected.
3.
Use the Type Tool
to create a text box. Select the tool from the
Tools Panel; click and drag on the page to create a text box. Use the Selection
Tool
to rezise and reposition the text box. Just as with frame boxes, you can
click
and drag the corner to resize. To reposition a text box, click and drag it
across the page.

A one-page newsletter needs to use

multiple small chunks of content to
deliver information efficiently with
style. InDesign will automatically
display Smart Guides (differently-coloured lines) as you reposition
and resize objects. These guides will
help you lock your objects into relative alignment, distribute spacing
equally, and position content relative
to the pages horizontal and vertical
axes. Play around; reposition the objects and let the Smart guides help
you.

4.
Arrange various frames and text boxes of different shapes and sizes around the
page.
Here are some objects you could include:
a rectangle frame and/or text box at the
top for the logo banner and page title
a vertical text box along the side that can
be used for a list or calendar
a text box under your banner for the top
story
an image to accompany the top story
a mix of different types of content: paragraphs, lists, images, and graphics
a mix of shapes, rectangles, and circles
Note: The mock-up is not set in stone. Its
purpose is to provide a rough guideline for
where different chunks of content will be
positioned. The next section is about adding
each block and arranging it appropriately.

PART THREE: ADDING CONTENT

This section will teach you how to add images and text. By the end of this section, your
mockup will be filled with content, and ready to be polished in the final section.

1.
To add your logo to the banner, use the Selection Tool
to select the frame
placed at the top of the page. Click File > Place (or use the keyboard shortcut, CTRL +
D). Choose an image file from your computer to use as your logo.

2.
Right-click on the image in the frame and click either Fitting > Fill Frame Proportionally or Fitting > Fit Content Proportionally. Any time you place an image in
a frame or resize a frame containing an image, it is best to select these fitting options to
re-fit your image.
Note: Both of the fitting options above preserve the original dimensions of the image.
As long as your original image is large enough, it shouldnt be strecthed out. Fill Frame
Proportionally might crop some of the original image if it is larger than the frame. Fit
Content Proportionally might leave extra space between the image and the frame if
the frame is larger than the original image. Select the appropriate fitting option and resize the frame if necessary. You can re-fit the image after resizing the frame.
Do not worry if the image appears blurry. By default, InDesign keeps the display performance low to keep the program running quickly. To view your document in high resolution, go to View > Display Performance > High Quality Display, though this will
make the program run more slowly.
3.
Place images in the remaining frames using the same process: File > Place (or
CTRL + D), then choose a file from your computer. Select the appropriate fitting options, and resize your frames if necessary. Always re-fit the image if you resize the
frame.

Once you have placed images in all of your

frames, you can start to add text to your text
boxes. The example on the left is the same
mockup as earlier, just with a few images added.
4.
Add text to a text box by selecting the
Type Tool
and clicking the text box. You
can also add text to a text box by double-clicking a text box with the Selection Tool
.
You can copy text from another document
using CTRL + C and paste it into your text box
using CTRL + V. You can also type directly into
the text box using your keyboard.
5.
Fill all of your text boxes with text. If the
text does not fit then you need to change the
font size, resize the text box, or both. Resize
the text box using the Selection Tool
;
drag the corners of the box to resize it.

6.
Change the font size and font appearance by modifying the Character Formatting Controls in the Control Panel.

If you see the red plus sign

(like
the one highlighted in the image to
the right), it means that you have text
overflowing from your text box. If so,
you need to resize your text box, take
out some text, or make the font size
smaller.

PART FOUR: ADDING THE FINISHING TOUCHES

Each organization will have its own style and
design, which will impact how you construct
the layout of your newsletter. That said, here
are the changes that were made between the
newsletter mockup and the version on the left:
Headings were added as separate text boxes
The text box with the top story section was
formatted into two columns to resemble a
newspaper
A bulleted list was added to format the text
on the lower-right side of the page
The text box accompanying the three circular graphics was replaced with three separate
text boxes, each to accompany its own circular
graphic
Frames and text boxes were resized and repositioned to maximize alignment

Adding Columns to a Text Box:

1.
To make your top story into two
columns, use either the Selection Tool
or the Type Tool
to select and then
right-click the text box.
2.
Select Text Frame Options; a popup
menu will appear.
3.
In the Text Frame Options menu,
change the column number to 2, and select
Preview in the lower left side of the menu.
This will allow you to see the changes you
make to the text in real time.
4.
If necessary, adjust the column width.
It is important to find a balance between
what looks good and what format fits your
text.
5.
Click OK to finalize your text formatting.
Note: Consider resizing your top story
image to make it the same size as the text
columns. If you do, make sure to re-fit the
image.

By this point, you should have all of your images and text included in frames and text boxes.
Dont fret if it doesnt look like the newsletter
above; this section is about applying the final
elements of designlike colour, alignment, and
structural consistencyto make your newsletter look professional.

Adding a Bulleted List

1.
Select all of the text that you would like to make into a bulleted list. Use the Type
Tool to select the text box, and the click and drag to select all of the text that will be
turned into a bulleted list. If all of the text in the box will be a part of the list, then you
can simple click CTRL + A.
2.
With the text selected, click Type > Paragraph (located at the top of the screen
in the Control Panel). This will make the Paragraph popup box appear.
3.
Click the dropdown paragraph icon in the top right of the Paragraph popup
box. Select Bullets and Numbering.

4.
From the Bullets and
Numbering popup menu,
change the List Type to bullets, check the Preview box,
and adjust the Tab Position
options. Checking the Preview box allows you to see
the changes as you adjust Tab
Position in real time.
5.
Click OK to finalize your
bulleted list.

Extra Hints for Arranging and Aligning Objects

It is important to have the edges of objects (frames and text boxes) align, wherever
possible. Smart Guides will generally coax you into achieving this whenever you reposition objects. Using margins and grids will also help you achieve this.
It helpful to move multiple objects in groups when arranging them. Grouping objects
can be achieved in two ways:

1. use the Selection Tool

to click and drag over an area containing multiple objects. Once the group of objects are selected you can move them as a group.
2. You can also hold the Shift key while selecting objects individually with the Selection Tool
. Once the objects have been selected, they can be moved as a group in
the same way.
Moving groups of objects is best achieved by using the arrow keys on your keyboard.
This allows for more fine-tuned and subtle repositioning.
As with any change you make to your document, if there is a repositioning or change
that you do not like, click CTRL + Z to undo.

Adding Colour to your Newsletter

Colour can be added to text, text boxes, frames, and more. The following steps
will explain how to use the Colour Theme Tool
to draw colours from an
image in your newsletter and apply them to elements of the document.
Select the Colour Theme Tool
from the Tools Panel. You might need
to right-click the Eyedropper Tool
and then select the Colour Theme
Tool
, if it does not display in the Tools Panel by default.
Using the
Colour Theme Tool
, click and drag over an area in an
image. Once you have selected an area using the tool, a panel with a series of
colour will appear.
You can select a colour directly from this panel with your cursor; you will then
have that colour contained in the Eyedropper Tool
, which can be used to
apply colour to text, text boxes, and frames.
To apply colour to text, use the Eyedropper Tool
text. Click and drag to highlight the text.

to highlight a block of

Use frames to add colourful shapes, or a colour background, to your newsletter.

To add a colour background, draw a frame
the size of the whole page. Select a colour,
drag and place it in the box.
This will likely cover your entire document
in a blanket of colour. If you want the colour
to be in the background, use the Selection
Tool
to right-click the frame. Click
Arrange > Send to Back.

Conclusion
There are many ways to create a one-page
newsletter in InDesign. Hopefully this tutorial has provided you with some essential
information that you can apply to newsletters and other kinds of documents as well.
InDesign does not need to be complicated.
If you take anything away from this tutorial,
let it be that it only takes a handful of tools
to create a professional-quality document.
And, when something goes wrong, just remember CTRL + Z.