Written by the Usherwood Adventures publisher/designer/author James D. Kramer with the complete InDesign novice in mind, this book is intended to help you get started creating professional documents in InDesign; focusing the skills you need to get up and running quickly, without getting bogged down in a lengthy explanations that makes your eyes glaze over.
The package you will download contains a PDF of the book, as well the source files referenced in the exercises. Although written specifically at this time for InDesign CS5, all the exercises should be also compatible with InDesign versions CS3 through CS6 (much should also remain compatible for the Creative Cloud version of InDesign). Watch this product page frequently for updated exercises.
So, if you're trying to self-publish using InDesign, and you're at a loss as to how to get started, this book will be a great first step for you.
Table of Contents
Lesson 1: Interface Overview
The Quickstart screen and Creating a New Document
The Control bar
Customizing your Workspace(s)
Customizing Menus and Panels
Saving your Workspace(s)
Exercise 1: Starting a new project template
Lesson 2: Working with Text Styles
The Paragraph Styles Dialog
The Character Styles Dialog
Exercise 2: Creating and editing text styles
Lesson 3: Working with Tables
The Table Styles Dialog
The Cell Styles Dialog
Exercise 3: Creating Table and Cell styles
Other creative uses for Table Styles
Lesson 4: Working with Objects
Formatting Objects
The Object Styles Dialog
Importable Graphics
Exercise 4: Creating and editing object styles
Lesson 5: Working with Master Pages
Creating and Organizing Master Pages
Basing Master pages on other Master pages
Exercise 5: Creating and editing master pages
Lesson 6: Working with Editorial Controls
Working with the Story Editor
Working with Search and Replace Routines
Dynamic Spell Checker
Exercise 6: Creating search and replace routines
If you find any errors or omissions contained within this document, I would appreciate hearing from you to rectify the situation. I would like to hear from you regarding any functionality not yet covered in this living instructional document, which I will gladly add as I continue to develop the curriculum contained within. I can be contacted directly at jim.kramer@jdkds.com.
Read more of my principles of good production and design on my blog at http://www.jdkds.com/blog/.
Happy templating!
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