Learn the newest version of Adobe's premiere page design software—InDesign CC— with this complete package

Written by a team of expert instructors, this complete book-and-DVD package teaches even the most inexperienced beginner how to design eye-popping layouts for brochures, magazines, e-books, and flyers. Step-by-step instructions in the full-color book are enhanced by video tutorials on the companion DVD. Thirteen self-paced lessons let you learn Adobe InDesign CC (Creative Cloud) at your own speed; it's like having your own personal tutor teaching you the hottest new version of this leading page layout software.

• Includes 13 self-paced lessons that take you from InDesign basics through intermediate-level skills, allowing you to learn at your own speed

• Explores the new features and capabilities of InDesign CC, the leading Adobe page design software

• Features members of the AGI Creative Team who walk you through the latest version of Adobe InDesign

• Contains step-by-step instructions in the full-color book and video tutorials on the DVD, which work together to provide a clear understanding of the topic

InDesign CC Digital Classroom is the ideal book-and-DVD training package to get you up to speed on InDesign so you can create designs that dazzle.

Note: DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of the e-book file, but are available for download after purchase.

Christopher Smith is President of American Graphics Institute and the author of more than 10 InDesign books. He has been hired by Adobe to deliver InDesign training to their clients around the world. He is a member of the AGI Creative Team, which develops and delivers training programs for creative, marketing, and communications professionals through the American Graphics Institute.

Starting up

Prerequisites 1

System requirements 2

Starting Adobe InDesign CC 3

Resetting the InDesign workspace and preferences 4

Loading lesson files 4

Working with the video tutorials 5

Setting up the video tutorials for viewing 6

Viewing the video tutorials with the Adobe Flash Player 6

Additional resources 7

Lesson 1: InDesign CC Essential Skills

Starting up 9

InDesign tools 10

The InDesign workspace 11

The document window 11

Using guides 13

Viewing modes 14

Working with panels 15

The Tools panel 15

Managing panels 17

Saving your workspace 19

Working with the Control panel 20

Navigating through an InDesign document 21

Using the Pages panel 21

Changing the magnification of your document 22

Working with type 24

Entering and formatting type 24

Placing and formatting type 26

Flowing type 27

Using styles 28

Applying paragraph styles 29

Applying character styles 30

Apply styles across a story using Find/Change 30

Applying object styles 32

Working with graphics 34

Placing graphics 34

Positioning graphics within a frame 36

Applying text wrap 39

Understanding layers 40

Applying effects 42

Resources for additional help 43

DigitalClassroomBooks.com 43

In-product help 44

Online help 44

Forums 44

Conferences, seminars, and training 44

Self study 45

Review 45

Lesson 2: Working Smarter with Master Pages

Starting up 47

Planning your document 48

Creating custom page sizes 48

Creating a new custom-sized document 48

Creating and formatting master pages 51

Formatting master pages 53

Adding automatic page numbers 53

Using text variables 56

Basing master pages on other master pages 60

Overriding master page items 61

Adding layout pages 66

Placing formatted text 71

Creating the classified page 73

Adding images and text to the master frames 75

Applying master pages to multiple pages 77

Self study 78

Review 78

Lesson 3: Working with and Formatting Text

Starting up 79

Adding text to your document 80

Creating a text frame 80

Changing character attributes 82

Changing font and type styles using the new font search feature 82

Setting a font favorite 84

Adjusting size 84

Adjusting Leading 84

Adjusting character spacing: kerning and tracking 85

Using a baseline shift 86

Changing paragraph attributes 87

Horizontally aligning text 87

Changing the spacing before and after paragraphs 87

Using tabs 88

Adding rules above or below paragraphs 91

Changing text color 93

Creating drop caps 95

Finding and changing text 95

Finding and changing text and text attributes 95

Finding and changing text using GREP 98

Checking and correcting spelling 100

Checking spelling 101

Adding words to the dictionary 102

Checking spelling as you type 103

Automatically correcting spelling 104

Editing text using the Story Editor 106

Using Track Changes 107

Drag-and-drop text editing 109

Special characters and glyphs 111

Using the Glyphs panel and glyph sets 114

Text frame options 115

Adjusting text inset 115

Vertically aligning text 116

Importing text 117

Flowing text manually 117

Threading text between frames 119

Using semi-autoflow to link several text frames 120

Changing the number of columns in a text frame 122

Baseline grid 124

Viewing and changing the baseline grid 125

Adding story jumps 126

Using styles to format text 128

Creating a headline and applying a style 128

Importing styles from other documents 130

Redefining styles 130

Placing text on a path 132

Importing text from Microsoft Word 135

Missing fonts 138

Finding and fixing missing fonts 138

Self study 140

Review 140

Lesson 4: Using Styles to Save Time

Starting up 141

Style types 142

Paragraph styles 143

Defining paragraph styles 143

Applying paragraph styles 145

Character styles 146

Defining character styles 146

Applying character styles 148

Using nested styles 148

Updating styles 150

Loading styles from another InDesign document 151

Quick Apply 153

Organizing styles into groups 156

Object styles 157

Creating object styles 157

Applying an object style 159

Changing an object style 159

Finishing up 161

GREP Styles 161

Self study 164

Review 164

Lesson 5: Designing with Graphics

Starting up 165

Understanding how InDesign handles graphics 166

Locating missing images 166

Working with the Links panel and the Link badge 167

Customizing the Links panel 171

Adding graphics to your layout 172

Fitting an image within an existing frame 176

Auto Fitting 179

Using Adobe Bridge to import graphics 180

Placing multiple graphics using Mini Bridge 182

Using object styles for images 185

Wrapping text around images 189

Wrapping text around the bounding box 189

Using graphics with clipping paths and alpha channels 190

Removing an image background using InDesign 193

Using anchored objects 196

Advanced importing 200

Importing layered Photoshop files 200

Importing InDesign layouts as graphics 202

Adding a QR Code to a layout 203

Self study 205

Review 205

Lesson 6: Organizing Information Using Tables

Starting up 207

Creating a table 209

Creating new tables 209

Copying and pasting table information 210

Converting text to a table and a table to text 213

Importing a table 214

Editing tables and table options 216

Changing row height 217

Editing the border 218

Formatting rows and columns 220

Using fills 222

Formatting cells and text 225

Resetting the cell styles within a table 225

Text alignment and inset within a cell 227

Formatting text within a cell and saving paragraph styles 228

Formatting text in tables by column 233

Working with tables in Story Editor 235

Merging cells 236

Defining a header cell 236

Setting column and row dimensions 241

Setting a fixed row height 241

Setting column width 243

Using graphics in tables 244

Placing graphics in cells 245

Cell styles and table styles 249

Cell styles 250

Applying cell styles 252

Creating table styles 254

Applying table styles 255

Self study 258

Review 258

Lesson 7: Designing with Color

Starting up 259

Applying colors to frames and text 260

Applying color to text 261

Applying color to frames 262

Applying Live Corner Effects 263

Creating and saving a new swatch 265

Applying strokes to text 267

Creating a tint reduction 270

Making a dashed stroke 272

Creating and saving gradients 275

Linear gradients 275

Saving a gradient 277

Adjusting fill opacity 279

Radial gradient 279

Adjusting the direction of a radial gradient 281

One-click edits 283

Using the Eyedropper tool to copy frame attributes 283

Applying colors to multiple objects 284

Updating and editing colors 285

Using and saving spot colors 287

Colorizing a grayscale image 288

Self study 289

Review 290

Lesson 8: Getting Creative with Effects

Starting up 291

Creative effects 292

Applying opacity to objects 293

Apply effects to stroke or fill only 295

Drop shadow 296

Adjusting effects for objects 299

Bevel and Emboss 301

Object styles with effects 302

Using Find/Change to apply object styles 304

Basic Feather 305

The Gradient Feather tool 308

Converting text to a path 309

Applying blending modes to objects 312

The Screen blending mode 313

The Multiply blending mode 314

Working with imported files that use transparency 316

Applying an alpha channel selection 318

Applying a path selection 321

Self study 323

Review 323

Lesson 9: Working Efficiently with Advanced Document Features

Starting up 325

Adding text variables 326

Creating a book from multiple files 329

Defining pagination and document order 330

Synchronizing attributes across a book file 333

Creating Captions 338

Creating a Table of Contents 341

Building an index 346

Adding topics 346

Adding cross-references 349

Generating the index 350

Creating PDFs and printing from the Book panel 351

Creating PDFs 351

Printing 352

Self study 353

Review 353

Lesson 10: Preparing Files for Output from InDesign

Starting up 355

Packaging 356

Preflight checks 359

Packaging your document 362

Creating an Adobe PDF 366

Separation preview 370

Printing a proof 373

Self study 376

Review 377

Lesson 11: Getting Started with Digital Documents

Starting up 379

InDesign as your Digital Publication Hub 380

Interactive design considerations 380

Importing multimedia content 381

Adding a Hyperlink 385

Creating a Multi-State object 385

Creating buttons to control multimedia content 387

Adding buttons to control a multi-state object 390

Creating page transitions 393

Creating animations 395

Previewing your document 397

Exporting your document 398

Creating an interactive PDF 398

Creating a SWF file 400

New layout features 402

Auto-Size text frames 403

Flexible width text frames 404

Layout adjustments 406

Liquid layout 406

Alternate layouts 408

Linked content 411

The Content tools 413

Creating PDF forms 415

Adding a combo box 417

Creating a Submit button 419

Creating the PDF form 420

Self study 422

Review 422

Lesson 12: Creating an ePub in InDesign

Starting up 423

Preparing your InDesign document for ePub conversion 425

Using styles 425

Controlling Object Export Settings 428

Adding interactive links 430

Adding hyperlinks 431

Creating an interactive Table of Contents 431

Adding document metadata 433

Creating an ePub 434

Specifying Object Export Order 434

Using anchored objects to control object placement 436

Controlling object properties using Object Styles 437

Specifying the cover 439

ePub export settings 440

ePub viewers 445

Distributing ePub files 448

Self study 448

Review 448

Lesson 13: Adobe InDesign CC New Features

Starting up 449

About the new features in InDesign CC 450

Updated user interface 450

64-bit support 451

Improved Font menu 452

Font favorites 453

Native QR code generation 454

The New Document dialog box 455

ePub enhancements 456

Object Style additions 456

Emit CSS 457

Index support 457

Table of contents 458

Improved CSS naming 458