howdy partners in this video. We're going to look at layers. And in design where we split our contents. We've got text on the top. Okay. And we've 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 and in design you're one of the few. Okay. When I'm working with in design, 99% of my jobs do not use layers. Okay. It can be useful if there's things you need to kind of separate out and lock. Okay. Most of the time though, they're not that complicated documents and often you just ignore the layers panel. Okay. But we've got a good use to use layers in this case. Okay? It is this background. I want it stuck in the background where I don't move. 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 to move. Okay, You can put it on its own layer and lock it. Let's go ...

and do that now. Okay. So the first thing we need to do is find our layers. There are no window. Okay. And there's an option here that says layers. Just next to pages here. You're given layer one by default. We're gonna rename emails by double clicking the word layer one. I'm gonna call mine main copy. Okay? We'll leave the color just fine. Well actually leave all the defaults and click Ok, great, so we've done nothing really except renamed al layer, let's make a new layer. Okay, you have this little turned up page here. Okay, create new layer, give this and this is going to be called my background and what I'd like to do is the background, so I want to move this gradient and this image onto that layer, so I stop selecting it and makes it less annoying Okay? And I can turn it on and off if I need to to do that. Okay, what we can do you see over here there's my main copy, this is what everything's on at the moment. If I take this little arrow here, you see on this particular page, all of these things here, so there's a logo, I can contain the eyeball on and off. See Okay, and there is that graphic, there is the text and there's that gradient. Okay, so what I can do is I want those gradient. Okay him. So I'm gonna click hold and drag him to the background layer. Now if you drag a bit hi, can you see get that little um Ghostbusters go away. Um caution. Can't go in symbol you want just a bit below. Okay and then it'll go into the right layer by 12 down background there he is. Okay. And the other thing I want was you'll notice as well that if I twirl both of these up now, Okay that the background is on top of the main copy. Okay so I can't see anything past this gradient. So what I'm gonna do is click hold and drag gradient. See the little line that appears underneath the main copy. Cool. Let's have a look and main copy as well and just see I want you my friend which is who is you? Your tabletop dot jpeg. I want to grab this and drag it on top of background, okay? Or just below it and it goes inside. Okay? Now what we can do is I can double check there on the right layer between the eyeball on and off for that whole layer areas there. Okay, They all disappear because they're white. This stuff on top. What I want to do is I want to lock this and this kind of like empty box here. You're meant to just know that that's the locking icon. Okay, so 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 they get my way. Okay? But what I want to do is click on this locket and it just means these can stay in the background. It might be a watermark, it might be some sort of 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 and in design but we're pros, there's gonna be times where you need it. I'll show you one of the times that I use it quite a bit is during my notes, here's some of the notes that I write for another course of mine. This is um an aftereffect. Of course I do. If you're into motion graphics, go check out that course, there'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 kind of adds a bit of a level of text across the top, It adjusts here. And what I do is I add teacher notes to this layer, to say things like that would be a good time for the teacher to explain this concept or something. Okay, because I build classes for lots of other teachers and they have to go through. So I have a bit where I can turn that off and make pdf and that goes out to the students for the class. And then I have a teacher version that I turn on and I just write notes in here for the teacher only. So they print I make a second pdf, okay for them with their notes on it all using the same in design file, but I can make two separate in design files real quickly or sorry, two separate PDFs very quickly by just turning that off export pdf. Turn 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 there'll be templates that you will download that do and if you don't know how layers work, they can be very confusing because you think you're selecting them and they're all in different layers. Okay, 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 say print layer. You can turn that off if I hit print now. Okay. Nothing. None of this text is going to actually print. I've spent like days trying to work out why my end design file exported to pdf without a whole layer of stuff. And it's because somebody turned that off. Okay, so 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 kick Okay, and move on to the next video

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Daniel Walter Scott

Multi-award winning, influential media designer & Adobe Certified Instructor with 15+ yrs of experience.

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topics covered in this class

Branding Graphic Design Adobe InDesign Design Projects

Ratings and Reviews

Jerome Clark

I think Dan is very good at explaining and breaking down complex content. I like the way there are lots of small sessions which is good for keeping focus. I would advise anyone who does this course and is taking notes to label which session the notes are referring to as I have struggled to find a few looking back and this helped me. It really made me realise how much I didn't know and had been fudging. Thank you Dan I will be taking plenty more of your courses in the coming months it's been a great help.

Giuseppe Lipari

Excellent course, instructor is great well spoken, clear and a great teacher. I highly recommend this class for beginners and those who learned indesign on their own.

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Do I need to use layers in Adobe InDesign

Do I need to use layers in Adobe InDesign

Lesson Info

55. Do I need to use layers in Adobe InDesign

Lessons

InDesign Tutorial Basics Class Introduction

Exercise files & Projects

What Does Adobe InDesign do?

What are the differences between InDesign and PageMaker, Illustrator, Photoshop, Quark?

How to change MM to Inches & changing UK to US dictionary in InDesign?

New document in InDesign - what is bleed & slug?

How to create your own RGB & CMYK colors in Adobe InDesign

How do I steal colors from a logo using InDesign?

How to color the background of a page in InDesign?

Importing resizing rotating & flipping images & Logos inside InDesign

How to Import text from Microsoft Word into Adobe InDesign

How to group, ungroup & rotate images in Adobe InDesign

How to make a dotted line, dashed line & borders in InDesign

How best to preview your work in Adobe InDesign

How to make a simple PDF from InDesign

How to save your InDesign file as a JPEG

Why should I use CC Libraries in InDesign?

How to share your InDesign files with others by using package document

Class Exercise 1

Quiz - One Page Flyer

Ideas, Inspiration & starter templates

Working with other people's InDesign documents, missing images

How to find missing fonts in InDesign?

How to replace images in InDesign?

Opacity, transparency and see through ness in Adobe InDesign

Why is InDesign adding [Converted] and making me 'save as'

What if I can’t find the InDesign file - can I open the PDF?

Quiz - Other people's files

Creating a new company newsletter or brochure, what are spreads in InDesign

How to use a Master Page in Adobe InDesign

How do to add automatic page numbering to a InDesign file

Removing a master page & deleting parts off the master page in InDesign

Production Video 1

What is Effective PPI & Image resolution in the InDesign links panel

How to add drop shadows to an image or logo in InDesign

What is TypeKit used for in Adobe InDesign?

How to add the Copyright, Registered & Trademark symbols in InDesign

Where can I find the different versions of letters in InDesign - Ligatures.

How to add placeholder text & lorem ipsum & get a word count in InDesign

Importing Text from Microsoft Word & keeping or removing the formatting

Creating Columns in a text box using Adobe InDesign

How do I justify text & turn off hyphenation in InDesign?

What is the space after & leading in Adobe InDesign?

How to underline text with a full width line in Adobe InDesign?

How do I make a paragraph style in Adobe InDesign?

How do I update a Paragraph Style in Adobe InDesign?

How to use Find & Change to remove double spaces after a period or full stop.

Stealing colours from images, is there a format painter in Adobe InDesign?

InDesign Class Exercise 2 - Magazine Spread

Quiz - Company Newsletter/Brochure

How to bring in lots of text into InDesign at once

How do I import paragraph styles from another document

How do I insert completely blank pages in Adobe InDesign

How do I create a gradient in Adobe InDesign

Do I need to use layers in Adobe InDesign

Opacity advanced, mater marks and Transparency Effects in Adobe InDesign

How do I add rounded corners to an image or box in Adobe InDesign?

How to add a large first letter to my text aka Drop Cap

How do I increase the space between letters in Adobe InDesign aka Tracking or Kerning

How do I get text to move around an image or shape using text wrap

Why can’t I put text over anything that has text wrap applied?

How to draw an arrow or triangle or star in Adobe InDesign

How do I put an image inside other shapes like a circle - cropping

What is Adobe Stock

Where can I find free images & icons that I can use for my business

How do I add bullets and numbered lists in Adobe InDesign?

How can I create a table inside Adobe InDesign?

How do I convert tables from Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel into Adobe InDesign

How do I get images to move with the text in Adobe InDesign using anchored objects?

How do I create a Line Break, Column Breaks & Page Breaks in Adobe InDesign?

How do I make an automatic table of contents in Adobe InDesign?

How do you change the tabs in Adobe InDesign?

Can I change the numbering of my pages so 1 starts later in the InDesign file?

Quiz - Long Business Document