This is the very first step to starting a new project with InDesign. In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a new document and fully understand the settings. It is crucial to get this part absolutely right to avoid annoying troubles later. Click to find out how to create a new document properly to avoid annoying problems later.

Creating a new document

Run InDesign CS3. When InDesign is running, you'll see a welcome screen like the image below.

What do you want to do?

The very first thing to do when you start InDesign is to decide what you want to do. There are three choices:

• Create a new document
  If this is your first time using InDesign, this is what you want to select.
• Create a new document from a template
  If you have a template saved on your computer, you can select this option to create a new document using that template.
• Open an existing document
  Already have an InDesign document? Want to continue editing where you left off the previous time? This is the option you select to continue working on a file.

Create a new document

Select Create New Document from the left column.

A new window will appear with many settings. This is the most important part of any project because it sets the width, height, and other factors of your project.

1. Enter the number of pages. If you're not sure how many pages your document will have, leave the setting at 1.
2. Do you want the pages to be facing each other? If you are creating a magazine or book, enable this option. If you are creating single-sided pages that will be inserted into a binder, uncheck this option. If you are unsure which one you want, find out first. You need to know if the final product will have facing pages. Although you can change this setting later, the layouts may be messed up. You don't want to create a double page spread to realize that later your publication will be printed on non-facing pages.
   
3. Do you want a master text frame to be placed according to the columns and margins settings? Confusing? If you want to get started quick, leave this unchecked. You don't need to set this option. What this does is add a text frame (area that you can enter text into) into the master pages (The page that when edited, appears on all the pages. Add a picture to the master pages and it'll show up on all the other pages.)
4. Select a page size. What is the size of the page? If you want your pages to be letter sized, select letter. If you want another output size, select the appropriate option from the page size drop down menu. If it is not listed, simply edit the width and height to your likings. Note that the measurement used is picas. Most people aren't familiar with the pica measurement so instead, you can use inches or centimeters by typing the inch or cm at the end. For example, if you want the page size to be 8 inch by 10 inch, enter 8 inch in the width field and 10 inch in the height field. Make sure that you get this setting correct because when you change the page size later, you'll had to adjust every page to fit in the new page size.
5. Select the orientation. Will your pages be in tall or wide? This setting will automatically be set according to the width and height that you entered. There's no need to touch this setting.
6. How many columns? Enter in the number setting the number of columns that you want per page. Enter in the gutter setting the spacing between the columns. If you're unsure, you can leave this setting at 1 and add columns later if you need to.
7. Set the margins. This setting is used to adjust the border around the column. If you set this to 0, the text will start from the very edge of the corner. This is another important setting that needs to be properly set. First, you need to make sure that your margins are large enough. If you have no margins, the edges may be clipped off because many printers cannot print on the very edge of the paper. The default settings are the standard margin settings that most printers can print out fine.
   
8. When you're done, click OK and a new document based on the settings you entered will be created.