Lynda – InDesign CS6 Essential Training (2012)

InDesign is an essential tool for design firms, ad agencies, magazines, newspapers, book publishers, and freelance designers around the world. This course presents the core features and techniques that make this powerful page layout application fun and easy to use. Author David Blatner shows how to navigate and customize the workspace, manage documents and pages, work with text frames and graphics, export and print finished documents, explore creating interactive documents, and much more. He also covers popular topics such as EPUBs and long documents and includes advice on working with overset text, unnamed colors, and other troublesome issues that may arise for first-time designers.

Introduction
Welcome
Using the exercise files

1. Learn InDesign in Thirty Minutes
Getting started
Adding or editing text
Adding or replacing graphics
Moving objects around
Printing and creating a PDF

2. Understanding Your Workspace
Exploring the application window
Navigating and magnifying pages and objects
Setting rulers and measurements
Working with panels
Setting the view quality of artwork
Adjusting view and preview settings

3. Creating a Document
Creating new documents
Saving and reverting documents
Saving for CS4 and CS5 with IDML
Setting the margin and column guides
Putting ruler guides on the page
Bleeding colors or images off the side of the page

4. Managing Pages
Inserting, deleting, and moving pages
Changing page size
Creating and applying master pages
Overriding master page items
Adding page numbering
Changing page numbering with sections

5. Text
Understanding text frames
Typing and editing text
Inserting special characters
Importing text
Threading text frames
Setting text frame columns
Setting text inset and vertical justification options
Allowing text frames to grow and shrink
Putting text on a path
Using the Story Editor
Checking spelling
Using Find/Change

6. Graphics
Importing graphics
Using the Links panel
Editing graphics in their original app
Fitting graphics to the frame
Taking advantage of image transparency and clipping paths

7. Formatting Objects
Selecting objects
Applying basic strokes and fills
Colorizing images
Adjusting transparency
Adding drop shadows
Using other transparency effects
Copying and formatting with the Eyedropper tool
Finding and changing object formatting

8. Color
Creating color swatches
Understanding the danger and power of unnamed colors
Creating gradient swatches
Applying gradients

9. Frames and Paths
Editing frame and path shapes
Adding rounded corners and other corner options
Making polygons and starbursts
Creating text outlines

10. Managing Objects
Positioning objects with the Gap tool
Stacking objects
Creating and controlling layers
Managing objects in the Layers panel
Grouping and locking objects
Nesting objects
Aligning and distributing objects
Understanding text wrap
Using anchored objects

11. Transforming Objects
Duplicating objects
Collecting, conveying, and placing content
Rotating objects
Scaling objects
Skewing objects
Mirroring objects

12. Character Formatting
Applying basic character styling
Applying advanced character formatting
Changing case
Using Find/Change for text formatting
Using Find Font

13. Paragraph Formatting
Applying formatting to a paragraph
Spanning a paragraph across multiple columns
Splitting a paragraph into multiple columns
Using drop caps
Setting tabs
Adding rules (lines) above or below a paragraph
Adding automatic bullets
Numbering paragraphs

14. Styles
Creating and applying paragraph styles
Using character styles
Editing and redefining styles
Using object styles
Applying styles with Quick Apply

15. Tables
Creating a table
Adjusting rows and columns
Adding and deleting rows and columns
Formatting a table
Formatting cells
Applying table styles
Placing graphics in cells
Importing Microsoft Word and Excel tables

16. Long Documents
Building a multi-document book
Creating “continued on…” jump lines
Constructing a table of contents (TOC)

17. Interactive Documents
Exporting EPUBs
Creating an interactive PDF
Building a Flash SWF

18. Packaging, Printing, and Exporting
Checking a document with the Preflight panel
Packaging for output
Using the Print dialog box
Printing a small booklet
Exporting a PDF
Exporting text

Conclusion
Next steps