InDesign in easy steps, 3rd edition

Robert Shufflebotham

• Publisher: In Easy Steps Limited
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781840789362
• eBook ISBN: 9781840789515
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Digital Media
• Index: Computer Science

Written by an expert on Adobe software training for some of the largest and most prestigious magazine, book and newspaper publishers in the world, InDesign in easy steps, 3rd edition is ideal for anyone wanting to get started with InDesign basics and become a competent and confident InDesign user. You'll master the fundamentals and then progress to exploit the full creative potential of this powerful tool. In easy steps, you'll learn:

• The InDesign environment and creating pages.
• Entering, editing and formatting text.
• Adding images and graphic frames.
• Arranging objects, layers and groups.
• Working with color creatively.
• Using tables and tabs to present data clearly.
• Printing and exporting for e-publishing.

Packed with clever tips throughout, you'll soon be creating professional documents, stunning brochures, creative publications, and more!

For Windows and Mac users.

1

The Working Environment

This chapter takes a look at the working environment and gets you started using Adobe InDesign. It covers setting up a new document and introduces tool and panel conventions, along with other useful techniques that will help make you accurate and productive as you start to use the software.

The Home Screen

New Document Dialog Box

Document Setup

The Working Environment

The Tool Panel

Opening Documents

Zooming and Scrolling

Workspaces and Panels

The Control Panel

Ruler Guides

Saving Documents

The Home Screen

The author

Robert Shufflebotham draws on over 28 years’ experience of working in top-flight publishing, design and marketing environments. He is a qualified teacher.

He has trained and written books on InDesign since version 1. During this time he has developed a unique understanding of what it takes to get the best out of InDesign from the start.

Benefit from his considerable and varied experience distilled in the pages of this book as he guides you through the essential functionality that puts you on course to successfully master the software.

Learning InDesign

This book offers a unique approach to learning InDesign. Its prime purpose is to focus on the fundamental principles and core processes, common to all versions, that you need to know as you start using InDesign in order to become a confident, proficient and productive user. Master these fundamentals and you can progress to exploit the full creative potential of a software application that is undoubtedly one of the most powerful, creative tools available.

Because of this clear focus and an approach that breaks down the software into easily digested learning sequences, you can use this book to comfortably learn to use all recent versions of the software.

Importantly, InDesign in easy steps does not seek to cover every single function in InDesign. Such attempts can lead to information overload for a new user – all too often it’s not quite clear what is essential and what is of marginal use, and as a result, the new user cannot develop a clear, logical learning strategy for understanding and then mastering the new software.

New Document Dialog Box

Selecting an Intent

When you create a new document, one of the first choices you need to make is to select your Intent.

Select an Intent according to your primary final output requirements: is your InDesign document going to be printed or is it going to be used online or displayed on a smartphone?

If you select Print, the default color mode is set to CMYK (see here for information on color modes). The measurement system will typically be inches in the US, or millimeters/centimeters in Europe and the UK. The Blank Document Presets are standard print-size templates designed for printing.

Select Web or Mobile to see standard Blank Document screen sizes in pixels, with RGB set as the default color mode. Notice in the Preset Details panel on the right that the Units setting changes automatically to Pixels if you select Web or Mobile.

The Ctrl key (Windows) and the Command key (sometimes referred to as the “Apple” key on Mac keyboards), and the Alt key (Windows) and the Option

...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• 1 The Working Environment
• 2 Building Pages
• 3 Text Basics
• 4 Character Settings
• 5 Paragraph Settings
• 6 Images and Graphic Frames
• 7 Arranging Objects
• 8 Working with Color
• 9 Managing and Editing Text
• 10 The Pages Panel and Master Pages
• 11 Paragraph and Character Styles
• 12 Tables and Tabs
• 13 Printing and Exporting
• 14 Transformations and Transparency
• 15 Paths and the Pen Tool
• Back Cover