Advanced InDesign: Productivity Techniques

Learn advanced functionality of Adobe InDesign to make your everyday tasks faster and easier.

Introduction

• Welcome to this course
• Course prerequisites
• Understanding the challenges

1. Building Better Long Documents

• Long documents
• Creating running headers
• Adding a last page number
• Adding page color labels
• Challenge: Create your own running header
• Solution: Create your own running header

2. Preflighting Your Document

• Preflighting documents
• Knowing what to look for
• Building a preflight profile
• Fixing errors
• Exchanging profiles
• Challenge: Creating a custom preflight profile
• Solution: Creating a custom preflight profile

3. Laying Out an Interview

• Laying out interviews
• Building styles for the speakers
• Changing the prefix
• Challenge: Changing the interviewee
• Solution: Changing the interviewee

4. Merging Data and Layout

• Merging data
• Preparing the data in Excel
• Placing placeholders
• Merging the document as a single-record layout
• Merging a multi-record layout
• Challenge: Creating personalized mailing
• Solution: Creating personalized mailing

5. Creating Mixed Ink Swatches

• Mixed ink swatches
• Creating a mix ink swatch
• Creating a mix ink group
• Challenge: Mixing your own colors
• Solution: Mixing your own colors

6. Linking Images to Text

• Linking images to text
• What is an anchored object?
• Using image frames as anchored objects
• Setting options
• Duplicating the frames across your document
• Challenge: Adding anchored objects on your own
• Solution: Adding anchored objects on your own

7. Content-Aware Text Formatting

• Content-aware formatting
• Preparing character styles
• Using GREP to highlight negative numbers
• Using GREP to highlight a specific range of numbers
• Challenge: Adding your own content-aware expression
• Solution: Adding your own content-aware expression

8. How to Link Text to the Same Source

• Linking text to same source
• Placing and linking text
• Updating text
• Preserving overrides
• Challenge: Defining your own text variables
• Solution: Defining your own text variables

9. Creating Cool Knock-Out Effects

• Knock-out effects
• Creating knock-out groups with shapes
• Creating knock-out groups with placed artwork
• Challenge: Try and recreate artwork
• Solution: Try and recreate artwork

10. Creating a Duotone Postcard

• Duotone postcards
• Creating a monotone postcard
• Creating a duotone postcard
• Challenge: Recreate a duotone postcard
• Solution: Recreate a duotone postcard

11. How to Combine Images with Tables

• Combining images with tables
• Converting to graphic cells
• Setting padding and scaling
• Challenge: Placing your own images in a table
• Solution: Placing your own images in a table

12. Creating Multi-Sized Ads

• Multi-sized ads
• Duplicating and scaling ads
• Updating content across all versions
• Challenge: Create additional sizes
• Solution: Create additional sizes

13. How to Alphabetically Sort Lists

• Sorting lists
• Sorting the text alphabetically
• Challenge: Sort an alphabetical list in a table
• Solution: Sort an alphabetical list in a table

Conclusion

• Goodbye