2 days. In this fundamentals class, you will learn to use Adobe InDesign 2025 to create graphics and text-intensive publications that can be output to any publishing medium, including print and web screen devices.
We focus on setting up and organizing both InDesign and the document, and placing both text and graphics on its pages. This course introduces you to the main principles and ideas of page layout software and covers key procedures including:
- Getting to know and organize the tools, panels, and workspaces
- Learning how to navigate around and zoom (magnify) an InDesign document
- Setting up InDesign preferences to help workflow efficiency with global defaults
- Working with content in layers for efficiency and organization
- Starting a new document defining the page, margins, columns, grids, and guides
- Setting up parent pages for things that repeat, along with automatic page numbering and page numbering sections
- File > Place: Placing text and graphics on document pages
- AI-powered Text to Image (Beta) and the Contextual Task Bar
- Content Aware Fit when placing image in frame
- Content Aware Text Wrap draws a stand-off text-wrap path
- Creating text and graphics placeholder frames
- Grouping and transforming (moving, scaling, rotating, skewing) frames
- Power-user features of text and graphics frames
- Workflow benefits of formatting text using paragraph and character styles
- AI-powered Style Packs for auto-styling text
- Design principles that make good-looking layout and typesetting
- AI-powered Find Similar Fonts in Adobe Fonts
- Flowing, threading, and spell-checking text in text frames
- Adding color using swatches, gradients and tints of colors
- Re-using styles and colors and content among ID documents
- The CMYK printing process versus RGB screen device process explained
- How to export your design for print or screen devices
- Typesetting and printing terms and history are explained
- Frequently-used shortcuts and speed techniques
- Additional resources
- What's new in InDesign 2025 including AI
- Your questions are always welcome
Suggested Follow Ups:
- Adobe InDesign II and III
- Authoring Section 508 Compliant Documents in InDesign
- Adobe InDesign for Long Documents
- Adobe InDesign EPUBs
- Adobe InCopy for Workgroups
- Adobe Acrobat Pro
- Adobe Illustrator I and II
- Adobe Photoshop I and II
- Typography and Font Management
Reserve today! Click for our Onsite Custom Training Request form.
Take a look at our classroom training materials and handouts! Click for our InDesign useful resources.
Adobe InDesign level II (managing document content)
2 days. Take the next step in learning Adobe InDesign 2025 page layout software. We take a deeper look at its powerful typesetting capabilities. Then we go deeper into the proper workflow of Photoshop and Illustrator graphics placed into the InDesign document, including how files should be created in those programs. Also, we will get to know how to work with placed spreadsheet tables. You will learn to work effectively with InDesign by studying these advanced topics:
- Working with styles for typography, including tracking and kerning
- The typesetting engine and metrics vs. optical kerning
- Creating drop caps, rules, tabs, dot leaders and hanging indents
- How and why to setup the spelling checker and the auto-corrector
- Developing paragraph, character and object styles and using Auto Styles
- Nesting character styles within paragraph styles
- Loading styles from one document to another
- Placing, managing and editing linked graphics
- AI-powered Layout Adjustment
- AI-generated scripting using ChatGPT
- Setting up color management for your PS to ID to PDF publishing workflow
- Working with alpha channel masks, newer, versus clipping paths, older
- Workflow tips for placing graphics into InDesign from Adobe Bridge
- Using Adobe Bridge for organizing and placing graphics
- Using the CC Library and Library panel for placing and sharing frequently-used content
- Creating tables from spreadsheets; formatting cells and text
- Placing graphics within the cells of a table
- Developing cell styles and table styles
- Working with the live Preflight panel to prevent mistakes
- Exporting documents to PDF for commercial printing
- Additional resources
- What's new in InDesign 2025 including AI
- Your questions are always welcome
Prerequisites:
Suggested Follow Ups:
- Adobe InDesign III
- Authoring Section 508 Compliant Documents
- Adobe InDesign for Long Documents
- Adobe InDesign EPUBs
- Adobe InDesign Professional Design Techniques
- Adobe InCopy for Workgroups
- Adobe Acrobat Pro
- Adobe Illustrator I and II
- Adobe Photoshop I and II
- Typography and Font Management
- Reserve today! Click for our Onsite Custom Training Request form.
Adobe InDesign level III (tools for interactivity)
2 days. This advanced InDesign 2025 class focuses on preparing your publication for final output, both commercial printing and for web/device/screen use. Color management ensures the color stays accurate throughout the workflow. Interactive multimedia features of PDFs and EPUB files will be demonstrated for content designed for online publishing. Tips concerning use of transparency will be examined. Troubleshooting and preparing your files for commercial printing is critical to meeting both deadline and budget.
- Setting up color management for your publishing workflow
- What intent and color model should you work in?
- Transparency features including feathering, opacity, drop shadows, etc.
- Working with the transparency flattener and its preview panel
- Applying transparency settings to text
- Converting and designing a document for web/device/screen use
- Building JavaScript action buttons for interactive PDFs and EPUBs
- Adding bookmarks, hyperlinks, and page transitions
- Creating animations and controlling their timing
- Creating multistate objects and buttons to activate them
- Placing videos into InDesign
- Exporting to EPUB3 and interactive PDF
- Using advanced frame nesting techniques
- Drawing with the Bézier Pen tool and additional practice examples
- How to preflight, package, and PDF for the commercial printer
- Your questions are always welcome
Prerequisites:
Suggested Follow Ups:
- Adobe InDesign for Long Documents
- Authoring Section 508 Compliant Documents
- Adobe InDesign EPUBs
- Adobe InDesign Professional Design Techniques
- Adobe InCopy for Workgroups
- Adobe Acrobat Pro
- Adobe Illustrator I and II
- Adobe Photoshop I and II
- Typography and Font Management
- Color Management for Digital Publishing
- Reserve today! Click for our Onsite Custom Training Request form.
Adobe InDesign level IV (automation and GREP)
2 days. Deep-Dive Master series. Learn to speed up productivity in your workflow by getting to know over 30 presets opportunities within InDesign 2025. Experiment with GREP for finding and changing text. Try out JavaScripts for driving InDesign to do more work in less time. Setup a Data Merge project for joining your design with personalized data from an external spreadsheet file.
- Automating repetitive tasks with 30 presets
- Preserving your presets from loss when InDesign defaults are reset
- Using GREP queries in the Find/Change dialog box
- Conditional GREP styles and Line Styles within a paragraph style
- Working with Colors, Glyphs and Objects in the Find/Change dialog box
- Introduction to JavaScripts that automate tasks in InDesign
- How to find, download, install, organize, and use JavaScripts
- Setting up a Data Merge for joining database info from a spreadsheet file
- Shortcuts and productivity thinking
- Additional resources that accelerate your learning and experience
- Your questions are always welcome
Prerequisites:
Suggested Follow Ups:
- Adobe InDesign for Long Documents
- Adobe InDesign EPUBs
- Authoring Section 508 Compliant Documents
- Adobe InDesign Professional Design Techniques
- Adobe InCopy for Workgroups
- Adobe Acrobat Pro
- Adobe Illustrator I and II
- Adobe Photoshop I and II
- Adobe Creative Cloud Bootcamp
- Color Management for Digital Publishing
- Typography and Font Management
- Reserve today! Click for our Onsite Custom Training Request form.
Authoring Section 508 Compliant Documents in InDesign
1 day: Creating accessible PDFs in InDesign involves integrating features into the final publication, that include a correct document structure, alternative text for images and non-text elements, accurate tagging for headings and lists, a logical reading order, and ensuring compatibility with assistive technologies such as screen readers. InDesign offers a range of tools and functionalities to streamline the creation of accessible PDFs effectively.
Topics will include:
- Adobe InDesign workflow adjustments to comply with accessibility standards
- Formatting considerations when creating layout
- Organizing content for PDF export in Articles panel
- Working with threaded frames and anchored objects
- Working with Story Editor
- Paragraph styles
- PDF export mapping
- Working with lists, tables, footnotes, and hyperlinks
- Adding alternate text to images and charts, utilizing metadata
- Setting up Object Styles Export options related to accessibility
- Creating TOC and bookmarks automatically
- Tagging objects as artifacts
- Adding document title, subject, author, keywords
- Setting a document language
- Preserving accessibility features when exporting to PDF
- Overview of PDF accessibility tags and tools in Adobe Acrobat Pro
- Testing PDF using Acrobat Pro accessibility checker
- Defining a process for remediation in Acrobat Pro
Prerequisites:
Suggested Follow Ups:
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe Creative Cloud Bootcamp
- Adobe InDesign for Long Documents
- Adobe InCopy for Workgroups
- Adobe Photoshop
- Color Management for Digital Publishing
Reserve today! Click for our Onsite Custom Training Request form.
