How to Create a Sitemap in Indesign

By Michael Epstein

Adobe InDesign is Mac and personal computer compatible.
i David Sacks/Lifesize/Getty Images

Adobe's premier desktop publishing software, InDesign allows users to create a site map. Web crawlers use site maps to organize pages and index your website. This enables faster searches when people look for your site. Web developers also use site maps to navigate root folders, because a site map is a physical layout of the website's content. Adobe InDesign helps any level user, including amateur and professional, to create a site map to put their site literally on the worldwide Internet map.

Open Adobe InDesign and select a "New Document" to be created in the opening menu.

Adjust the orientation of the document to landscape in the settings of the dialog box that appeared after you opened the new document.

Draw a medium-size rectangle on the document with the "Rectangle" tool found in the toolbar at the top left of the screen. Make the size of the rectangle approximately 10- to 14-points to accommodate text. Use the rulers in the margin of the document for accurate measuring.

Highlight and select the original rectangle with the "Selection" tool, located on the toolbar.

Copy the rectangle and paste an additional one for each of your website's sub-pages. For example, if the website has a homepage and five additional sub-pages, then ensure that six rectangles are on the document.

Select the rectangles and drag each one into position on the document according to the layout of the website. The first rectangle will represent the homepage and it is placed at the center top of the document.

Place the other rectangles in descending order from the homepage. Pull vertical and horizontal ruler lines onto the document for more specific measuring. The final site map layout will be particular to your website.

Add the website's sub-page names to the rectangles. Select the "Type" tool on the toolbar and create a text box within each of the rectangles. Type the name of a sub-page into the text box.

Add connecting lines between the rectangles to visually link the sub-pages. Use the "Line Segment" tool on the toolbar. The main line should stem from the "Home" rectangle, then branch into additional vertical lines that connect downward to all of the sub-page rectangles.

Save the finished document by going to "File" in the menu bar then selecting "Save."

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