Adobe InDesign

Introduction Class

2 days minimum; 3 days recommended

1. Setting up the Work Area
1. Working with panels
2. Suggested Workspace
   1. Panels you always use
   2. Panels to avoid (dpending on type of job)
3. Changing default units
2. Creating new documents
   1. Facing Pages vs. Single Pages
   2. Page size
   3. Margins
   4. When to use Auto Text Frames
   5. Bleed
   6. Slug area
3. Navigation
   1. Zooming in and out
   2. Fit in Window
4. Master Pages
   1. Why use Master Pages
   2. Naming Master Pages
   3. Adding Ruler Guides
   4. Adding text boxes
   5. Adding page numbers and other info
      1. Inserting Special Characters
   6. Using the Slug area
      1. Inserting Variables
   7. Adding graphics
   8. Adding new Masters
      1. Dupe vs. Based-On
   9. Using Master Pages in document
      1. Adding new pages
      2. Changing existing pages
      3. Deleting pages
5. Paragraph and Character Type Styles
   1. Importing Text
      1. MS Word Import Options
   2. Creating Paragraph Styles
      1. Font selection
      2. Type size and leading
      3. Indents and alignment
      4. Hyphenation settings
      5. Type color
   3. Creating Character Styles
      1. Why use Character Styles
      2. Char. Styles vs. Manual formatting
      3. Removing Manual formatting
6. Graphics
   1. Creating graphics in InDesign
      1. Basic shapes
   2. Color Swatches
      1. Creating new ones
      2. Editing Swatches
      3. Deleting Swatches
   3. Importing Graphics
      1. Importing Photoshop/raster files
      2. Importing Illustrator/vector files
      3. Importing PDFs
   4. Editing Graphics
      1. Resizing
      2. Cropping
      3. What Effective Resolution is and why it is important
      4. Editing Photoshop and Illustrator layers
   5. Adding Effects to:
      1. Graphics
      2. InDesign shapes
      3. Text
7. Tables (if time permits)
   1. Inserting tables
   2. Basic table formats
   3. Importing Excel files
8. Printing and Export to PDF
   1. Packaging ID files
   2. Print options
   3. PDF
      1. Import settings
      2. Create PDF