Adobe InDesign CS5 Intro

Class length: 2 days
Hours: 10:00 am - 5:30 pm
Cost: $900

InDesign CS5 Intro

Course Description:

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Adobe® InDesign CS5 software lets you focus on your layout, with the flexibility to publish your pages to a wide range of media. Whether you’re creating print or digital documents, you can save time with online services that integrate with and are directly accessible from InDesign, as well as other substantial productivity enhancements. Whether you need to reposition an image within a frame or change the radius of a rounded corner, InDesign CS5 helps you work more efficiently.

A robust set of new tools let designers create interactive documents that capture readers’ attention both online and offline. Now you can include complex interactivity, animation, FLV video (a popular online video format), and MP3 audio files within InDesign documents. InDesign CS5 makes it easier to export documents in SWF format, hand off layouts to Adobe Flash® Professional CS5 software, and produce EPUB documents for use with popular eBook readers and devices. InDesign CS5 has everything you need to lay out memorable and engaging pages in print or digital format.

Our two day course will provide you with Level 1 InDesign skills.


Course Outline:


Lesson 1: InDesign Basics

  • Using and organizing Panels
  • Working with the Tabbed interface
  • Working with Guides and non-printing elements
  • Changing the Unit of Measurement
  • Changing View size and navigating a document
  • Tool Panel overview
  • Saving Documents
  • Recovering from mistakes

Lesson 2: Setting up a new document

  • Understanding the New Document options
  • Working with frames and content
  • Placing text and graphics
  • Documents and Templates
  • Saving files for use with CS3

Lesson 3: Working with text

  • Selecting and editing text
  • InDesign different Text flow methods
  • Applying Character-level formatting
  • Applying Paragraph-level formatting
  • Dealing with missing fonts
  • Using the Story Editor
  • Working with special characters

Lesson 4: Working with graphics

  • Placing graphics - “Old School”
  • Placing graphics from Bridge
  • Scaling graphics
  • Understanding Frame Fitting Options
  • Creating a Text Wrap
  • Using images with Clipping Paths

Lesson 5: Working with color

  • Various ways to create colors
  • Understanding Fill, Stroke and Stroke weight
  • Loading swatches
  • Using Kuler

Lesson 6: Recommended Further training

  • Introduction to Photoshop
  • Introduction to Illustrator

Lesson 7: Using Paragraph and Character Styles

  • Paragraph and Character Styles - what’s the difference?
  • Creating, applying, and editing Styles
  • Loading Styles from another document
  • An overview of Nested Styles

Lesson 8: Working with Master Pages

  • Why use Master Pages?
  • Creating, editing, and applying Master pages
  • Auto-numbering pages
  • Basing one Master on another
  • Overriding Master page objects

Lesson 9: Working with Grids and Guides

  • Understanding Baseline Grids
  • Aligning text to grids
  • Grid strategies
  • Create Guides Using the Align panel
  • Working with Smart Guides

Lesson 10: Working Efficiently

  • Using Layers
  • Using the Info Panel
  • Using Find/Change
  • Setting Preferences
  • Creating custom Keyboard Shortcuts

Lesson 11: Working with Effects

  • Using Opacity and Blend Modes
  • Creating drop shadows & Gradient Feathers
  • Preventing Transparency-related printing problems

Lesson 12: Working with Object Styles

  • Creating, editing and applying Object Styles
  • Combining Object and Paragraph Styles

Lesson 13: Exporting and printing

  • Using Live PreFlight
  • Exporting as a PDF
  • Packaging files for hand-off