How do you partners? In this video,
we're going to look at layers and InDesign where we split our contents.
We've got ticks on the top and we got our images underneath
and we can lock one of the layers so that when we try and drag on it,
we can't move it around.
It doesn't get in our way.
But know that when you're working with layers in InDesign,
you're one of the few.
When I'm working with InDesign,
99 percent of my job is do not use layers.
It can be useful if there's things you need to separate out and lock.
Most of the time though they're not that
complicated documents and often you just ignore the Layers panel.
But we've got a good use to use layers in
this case is this background I want it stuck to the background where I don't move it,
it doesn't get in the way.
You might have a watermark in the background.
It might be a map that you're drawing over and you just don't want it to move,
you can put it on its own layer and lock it.
Let's go and do that now.
It's the first thing we need to do is find the layers,
there in our Window and there's an option here that says Layers just next to Pages here.
You're given layer one by default,
we're going to rename ours by double-clicking the word "Layer 1".
I'm going to call mine main copy.
We'll leave the color just fine,
we'll actually leave all the defaults and I'll click "Okay".
Great, so we've done nothing really except renamed our layer.
Let's make a new layer.
You've this little tuned up page here,
create new layer, this is going to be called my background.
What I'd like to do is,
I want to move this gradient and this image onto that layer.
I stop selecting it,
makes less noise and I can turn on and off if I need to.
To do that, what we can do,
see over here, this my main copy,
this is what everything's on at the moment.
If I hit this little area here you see on this particular page,
all of these things here, there's a logo,
I can turn the eyeball on and off,
and there is the graphic,
there is the text, and there is that gradient.
What I can do is,
I want this gradient, him.
So I'm going to click, hold,
and drag him to the background layer.
Now, if you drag a bit high, can you see,
you get that little Ghost-busters go away caution can't go in symbol.
You want it just bit below and then it will go into the right layer.
If I toil down background, there it is.
The other thing I want was,
you'll notice as well that if I toil both of these up now,
that the background is on top of the main copy.
So I can't see anything past this gradient.
What I'm going to do is click, hold, and drag gradient.
You see the little line that appears underneath main copy.
Let's have a look in main copy as well and just see I want you my friend,
which is who is you?
Your tabletop.jpeg.
Grab this and drag it on top of background or just below it and it goes inside.
Now what we can do is I can double-check there
on the right layer by turning the eyeball on
and off for that whole layer, there it is there.
They all disappear because of that white, the stuff on top.
What I want to do is I want to lock this and this empty box here,
you meant to just know that that's the locking icon.
You just click in the box next to the word and now what happens is,
can you see, I can't move it with it off.
I can move them around and then get my way.
But what I want to do is click on this,
lock it, and it just means these can stay in the background.
It might be a watermark, it might be some map you're drawing over the top of.
You can lock on its own layer,
but know that a lot of people don't use layers in InDesign, but we're pros.
There's going to be times when you need it.
I'll show you one of the times that I use it quite a bit is during my notes.
Here are some of the notes that I write for another course of mine.
This is an after effects course I do.
If you are into motion graphics,
go check out that course.
They'll be a link on the screen here.
But what you'll see here in my Layers panel,
I have a tutor's notes and a student's notes and what
I do is can you see if I turn the tutors on and off?
Can you see it adds a level of ticks across the top.
It adjusts here and what I do is I add teacher notes to this layer to say things like,
"Now would be a good time for the teacher to explain this concept or something",
because I build classes for lots of other teachers and they have to go through.
So I have a bit where I can turn it off, hit "Make PDF",
and that goes out to the students for the class and then I have
a teacher version that I turned on and I just write notes in here for the teacher only.
They print, I make a second PDF for them with their notes on it.
All using the same InDesign file,
but I can make two separate PDFs very quickly by just turning that off,
export PDF, turning it back on,
export PDF for the tutor.
The other reason I show you here is that even if you don't use it,
there are people that are,
and they'll be templates that you'll download that
do end if you don't know how layers work,
that can be very confusing.
Because you think you're selecting them and they're all in different layers,
that can be a little bit of a pain.
One of the big pains is sometimes people will have them non printing.
So what they'll do is they'll go into,
let's say our document here.
Let's go to our Layers and let's say that I'm going to
double-click the word main copy and people can do this,
the print Layer, you can turn that off.
If I hit "Print now", nothing,
none of this text is going to actually print.
I've spent days trying to work out why my InDesign file
exported to PDF without a whole layer of stuff and it's because somebody turned that off.
That's just a little heads up in case you get stuck with that exact same problem,
layers can be turned on to not print.
Let's click "Okay", and move on to the next video.