How experts work to get the job done quickly?

[mohde]

I have been working on InDesign for ten years and I have a good knowledge of it, but I want to get my work done quickly and my work is focused on making books. I want to know how the InDesign experts work to get their work done quickly.

[BobLevine]

That is way too general to even begin to answer. If you have questions, ask them.

[Test Screen Name]

Yes, a bit of background. Examples:

- are your books all text, some illustration, or picture-led?

- do you type the words? If not, in what form do you receive them?

- are all your books made to meet particular production rules?

- what do you spend too much time on?

[Laubender]

- are you already automating some parts of your workflow?

- with scripts?

- with special plug-ins?

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[JonathanArias]

are you mapping style from word to indesign?

[Colin Flashman]

I'd start by going to the likes of Linked-In Learning, Skillshare or watching Youtube tutorials on long document setup, or tutorials from known ID experts. One in mind: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/indesign-creating-long-documents

It should also be noted that there is a difference between getting work done quickly and work done effectively. For example, there are plenty of bad habits that can develop by using work shortcuts that might get jobs out the door, but at the cost of the file being easy to manipulate later. The inverse is true too - such as a business card that is over-engineered with more layers and styles than are appropriate if the file is created once and never looked at again.

One tutorial that never gets old for me is Michael Ninness' "make better" key advice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-0a2Vb2CqE

[Barb Binder]

My suggestion is to learn styles at a high-level: paragraph, character, object, cell and table styles and GREP styles. Also figure out out to manage the parent/child relationships in master pages, linked graphics and styles. Work with Style Override Highlighter enabled, so that you can quickly find (and fix) overrides. If you haven't mastered syncing in your book window, that should also be on your list. 

Then make a list of areas where you think you could be more expeditious and explore those features, too. 

Once you know what you need to focus on, buy a book, watch LinkedIn Learning videos, or schedule a few hours online with a trainer—there are a few on this thread.

~Barb

[Scott Citron]

First of all, please understand that there's no magic bullet to working quickly and efficiently. Doing so, like most anything, requires hours of hard work and dedication. As Barb Binder suggests, understanding the use of styles is a key ingredient. Without styles, you'll forever waste time applying changes manually that could otherwise be done with just a few clicks. One of the best resources for understanding styles is a Lynda.com/LinkedIn Learning title by Adobe's Michael Murphy. Michael also published a book by Adobe Press that I highly recommend reading carefully. 

Of course, styles are just one element of InDesign. Depending on what you're doing with the software, there are many other areas that warrant study (tables, long documents, XML, ePubs, etc.). I've been using InDesign now for over 20 years. I'm an Adobe Certified Expert and Instructor. But do I know everything there is know about InDesign? 

I wish!

[Creamer Training]

Some of these items have been mentioned, but to encapsulate: 

• Learn all the ins & outs of Master pages, running heads, and chapter/page numbering.
• Learn to use the Book file completely and make it work to your benefit.
• Learn how to use all the major features of Paragraph and Character styles.
  • Including mapping Word styles to InDesign styles
• If using tables, learn to use Table and Cell styles.
  • Including linking to Excel files if necessary.
• If using graphics, learn how to anchor graphics in the text flow efficiently and Object styles if necessary.
• Learn to the the Table of Contents styles for Contents, lists of Figures, and lists of Tables.
• If necessary, learn to use the Index function (and it's limitations).
• Learn about x-refs and hyperlinks.
• Learn the power of the Find/Change, especially GREP.

If something is taking too long or seems too tedious, there is probaby a better method, including third-party plugins or scripts.

[Jongware]

^^ Yes to all except for mapping Word styles (we have our own streamlined process), Table/Cell styles (we have our own streamlined process), and Indexes (we ... well, we have our own streamlined process for that too).

Our clients are too diverse in their Word prowess and so we cannot ask all them to strictly use (all correct) Word styles. But it requires only minimal preprocessing from the client's or our side to clean a text up. Two or three scripts later, typically taking around 15 minutes, we have the text in InDesign in the new formatting. For tables, it's the same thing: we apply formatting to a placeholder table and then a script goes through all tables and applies the same formatting.

If a different style needs to be applied, all of the most commonly used have a unique shortcut (which are standardized across all of our book templates), and for others I prefer Quick Apply.

Master pages are applied manually but make heavy use of Text Variables. I am personally particularly fond of using them to automatically move side tabs down per chapter; my own interpretation of https://indesignsecrets.com/moving-side-tabs-using-only-one-master-page-and-chartwell-bars.php

Positioning figures and tables is IMO done best with all figures and tables in another document, so you can go through the text from front to back once, with the figures/tables only a single keystroke away (Next Document; actual keystroke may depend on your platform). Applying the corrct Object Style is done with, of course, a shortcut key combo.

For larger books we use Books; multiple chapters are automatically generated from a single template document and joined together in the correct order.

All of the above is highly targeted to our own unique workflow for our own standard clients; other types of work, other workflows, and even other personal preferences in the order of things to do, require their unique own set of tools/templates/scripts/shortcut keys. With our workflow, the designers in our office can send out two or three books per day per person – and that's without breaking out in a sweat.

"Working quickly" as a goal is … questionable. If I have to train a new employee, I make them stick to the correct procedure. A single overlooked mistake in the very beginning may lead to all italics disappearing, or all special characters in font X, or tables and figures inserted from the wrong chapter. Working carefully and consistent is way more important.