Suggestions on InDesign "design" forums?

Okay, thank you to everyone for the many answers. And to be clear, her questions are primarily design, best practices questions.

I'm a little confused - and I apologize. Did I misunderstand Steven Werner when he said these questions weren't appropriate for this forum? Questions should be limited to questions specifically about Adobe products. Makes sense to me and I certainly don't want to direct her here only to have her get sent somewhere else.

Randy Hagan : Thanks for the book suggestions. I passed them onto her and we discussed getting them.

Also thanks for the suggestions of local groups. I don't know if there's anything in the community, but there may be something on campus that she can use. Adobe has a rather large presence on our campus.

BarbBinder : There were two I believe and maybe more. Designing Magazine Layouts by Nigel French and another one that I can't find quickly (sorry at work and have my own summer class to teach shortly) by the same author. If I recall, she said it was common principle or theme in the videos. I do know she had a calcuator and was trying to figure the ratio(?) or spacing for her guildes and the baseline grid - so her text would easily line up with the other elements on the page.

This is the gist of what she was trying to do: understanding the relationship between layout guides and the baseline grid. But it's not the only question she's had in this course. As a faculty member myself, I'm kind of frustrated with absenteeism of her teacher but I guess it's an online course.

Actually, I just read jane-e post and I think that was the other video she was looking at.

Anyway, thanks to every for the help. I'll try to look at this again before I leave for the day. I am passing this information onto her.

I'm glad you're endorsing the guidance of a real person (e.g. a teacher or a professional designer). Many online resources are not very good at telling the story behind many features and methods. It's the why that's often lacking from all these how-to videos and articles. And that's a pity because most people are so much better in picking up a workflow when they understand the reasons for it, in stead of just accepting a certain instruction.

Books are often more inclined to spend more time and attention to valuable backgrounds and reasoning. I always love to refer to any design book(s) of David Dabner. They're almost tool-agnostic and give perfect insight in the basics of design of print media and even design in general. Just Google "dabner design​" and pick a few. Money well spent !

She can always ask here!

This video on lynda.com from Nigel French will help: Designing with Grids in InDesign

The grid size should match the leading in the body text.

~ Jane

Best practice is a work as apprentice for free with some "guru" (some print-shop or newspaper near to the house). Here the summer - best time for this.

Hi Ross:

LinkedIn Learning (they took over Lynda.com) is in the process of adding Q&A tabs to their classes. See Q&A feature.

She can also ask her questions here on the forums, and note that many of the LinkedIn Learning instructors volunteer here on the forums so she may hear right from the source.

Out of curiosity, which video was she watching that mentioned coordinating the baseline grid to the layout guides?

~Barb

Have you tried looking for a local Adobe or InDesign user group?

Adobe User Group directory

I'd recommend going to her friendly neighborhood community paper, and if they'll let her, auditing an issue from start of production (editorial and advertising) through deadline. It may not be the perfect workflow model (if there is such a thing), but it will be a practical and effective one. Deadlines get made, and issues go out the door. As she gets further through her class, she'll be able to judge for herself whether the workflow is efficient — and how she could improve on where it's not so.

And FWIW, I'd suggest if she learns how to spec a leading grid and faithfully execute it, and learns how size/scale InDesign elements across multi-columns in a properly set up column grid, she'll have a solid understanding of how to place and arrange layout pieces North, South, East and West. InDesign's tools are nice, but with a solid understanding of the process, not entirely necessary.

For my InDesign classes, I recommend three books for review:

Effective Newspaper Design, by Edmund Arnold. This tome sets rules and standards, not only for newspapers, but most any visual design project in print and digital media. It offers a solid set of rules for designers to live by.

The Art of Advertising, by George Lois. It's probably the best book I've ever found about how to break all those rules.

And the hardest book to find (unfortunately),

The Adobe Print Publishing Guide, Third Edition. This offers how to apply all the lessons from the first two books into (ancient) Adobe applications. It's hard to find, but still available used in used bookstores online. And Boy — does Adobe need to produce a Fourth Edition!

Again, InDesign tool features are nice, and a lot easier to teach students than design and production workflow. As a contract computer trainer generally teaching one- and two-day classes, I'm guilty of it myself. That's a job better served in an internship than a classroom environment. Lynda.com courses touch on some design skills, but short of spending a fortune on Art School and slaving over design briefs, these three books offer the fastest practicum I've found.

Hope this helps,

Randy

Adobe's forums are pretty much restricted to answering questions about their products.

Here are a couple other forums outside the Adobe world where InDesign would be discussed. (Note: I don't participate in these so she'll have to check them out for usefulness.)

https://www.graphicdesignforum.com/

https://www.howdesign.com/design-forum-join-the-graphic-design-community/