To open a new document same as every other software. Majority of the time create a new document, even if the final outcome is a book the book option is only for text books that contain hundreds of pages.
There are only a few paper size options but it does offer custom option where any size can be made. The column selection adds guides to the document which is useful for newspapers and adding text. Margins adds guides that help achieve a constant margin, all of these presets will be added to each page of the document which helps maintain consistency.
By clicking more options it opens up a bleed and slug option. A bleed is to do with trimming , because we always have to trim a bleed helps us avoid a white trim edge. It compensates for inaccuracy of trimming, therefore we should always add a standard bleed of 3mm. A slug is an area larger than the bleed, its main use is to contain crop marks, registration marks (printers marks). For example when making a leaflet we can add dotted lines to show fold lines. Facing pages is used for books, it lays 2 pages next to each other.
This is what the document looks like, the black line is the trim edge, the pink line is the margin and the red line is the trim line.
This is the page palette, this makes it easy to navigate and manage our pages.
To edit and manage the document already open go to file and document setup, this allows us to edit margins, columns and page size as well a facing pages.
The create guides tool allows us to preview guides as we create them. It also allows us to set guides within page or the margin. The guides are also applied to every page allowing for consistency.
Type is similar to other software, we can create a type box with the type tool. We can also add example type by going to type and fill with placeholder text.
Once text is placed and the text box is too small, a small red indicator on the right hand side of the text box appears. This is called a text overflow indicator. There are two options, one is to make the text box larger, however if working in columns or limited space click and drag this red box and the text will appear in another box. The good thing about this is we can make the original box smaller and the text will automatically appear in the new text box along with the other type.
Content grabber
This tool on the right hand side is called the rectangle frame tool. It is used when we place illustrator images onto a page.