Section 8: Using Adobe Bridge - Adobe 27510753 - InDesign CS2 - PC Switching Manual

Section 8: Using Adobe Bridge

One of the key capabilities of InDesign is its tight integration with other Adobe applications. For
example, if you use InDesign with Photoshop and Illustrator, you can import native Photoshop
and Illustrator files into InDesign layouts, and you can export PDF documents directly from
within InDesign. But the integration of InDesign with other Adobe programs goes much further
than support of native graphic formats and direct PDF export. Adobe Bridge is one of the most
powerful integration features included with both the standalone version of InDesign and Adobe
Creative Suite 2. In this section, you'll learn how you can use Bridge to manage and access the
files you use in your InDesign layouts.
What is Adobe Bridge?
Bridge is a standalone application that serves as the file management hub of Adobe Creative
Suite 2 and provides a central location for browsing and viewing the files you create with
InDesign and other Adobe applications — and much more.
Accessing Adobe Bridge
You can launch Bridge as you would any other standalone application—by double-clicking the
program icon in the Finder (Mac OS) or Windows Explorer. From within InDesign, you can
launch Bridge by choosing File > Browse, by clicking the Go To Bridge icon in the Control
palette, or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+O (Windows) or Command+Option+O (Mac OS). After you
open Bridge, you can display its window at full size, or you can toggle it to a smaller palette by
choosing View > Compact Mode for easier access to your InDesign layouts. You can quickly
toggle between Full Mode and Compact Mode by pressing Ctrl+Return (Windows) or
Command+Return (Mac OS).
Adobe Bridge is a standalone application that provides quick access to all the files on your computer and makes
it easy to place graphic and text files into InDesign layouts.
Locating and placing assets
Once you launch Bridge, you can browse through all of the assets available on your hard drive
or network as easily as you can in Windows Explorer or the Mac OS Finder. The key benefit of
Bridge is the ease of locating the assets you want to use in InDesign and then dragging and drop-
ping them into your layouts. To replace the contents of a frame, just drag and drop a new asset
from Bridge onto the frame. To layer one asset on top of another, press Ctrl (Windows) or Com-
mand (Mac OS) as you drag and drop the asset on the frame.
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Switching from PageMaker to InDesign CS2