Inspiring

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InDesign learning - where to go next?

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
July 3, 2021
7 replies
1458 views

Dear all,

I have just finished studying the Adobe InDesign CC Classroom in a Book and would like to know where to go to learn more.

Specifically, I am looking to learn more about the Book funcionality, how to create complex Table of Contents & multi-level numbered lists, but anything will be taken into consideration.

It can be anything from video to book, though I prefer the latter and it does not have to be free.

I tried to go here https://boblevinedesign.com/creative-professional-books/#InDesign_Books as suggested in another post, but the expanded panels open to a white area that never loads.

Thank you!

How to

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Correct answer jane-e

Hi @Inélsòre

You have a lot a great answers already!

Adobe MAX was / is free and online for 2020 and 2021 (due to Covid). It is usually a paid event and usually in California in the fall. There's a link on this page to watch the 2020 sessions for free.

https://www.adobe.com/max.html

Creative Pro Network has an annual conference. Next year it will be in May in Washington D.C.

https://creativeproweek.com/savethedate2022/

Joining CPN also gives you a subscription to InDesign Secrets Magazine which includes downloads to all the back issues, some of which are dedicated to long documents.

https://creativepro.com/

LinkedIn Learning is a great resource for online training (one month free trial, then paid). Look for tutorials from:

Anne-Marie Concepción
David Blatner
Nigel French (typography)
Mike Rankin has a long documents course, as I recall

@nigelfrench has sessions at MAX, Creative Pro Week, and on LinkedIn Learning. Typography is a separate topic but crucial to a good InDesign document. His book is available here:

https://www.amazon.com/InDesign-Type-Professional-Typography-Adobe-dp-0134846710/dp/0134846710/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Be sure to get the fourth edition.

~ Jane

jane-e

Correct answer

Community Expert

Hi @Inélsòre

You have a lot a great answers already!

Adobe MAX was / is free and online for 2020 and 2021 (due to Covid). It is usually a paid event and usually in California in the fall. There's a link on this page to watch the 2020 sessions for free.

https://www.adobe.com/max.html

Creative Pro Network has an annual conference. Next year it will be in May in Washington D.C.

https://creativeproweek.com/savethedate2022/

Joining CPN also gives you a subscription to InDesign Secrets Magazine which includes downloads to all the back issues, some of which are dedicated to long documents.

https://creativepro.com/

LinkedIn Learning is a great resource for online training (one month free trial, then paid). Look for tutorials from:

Anne-Marie Concepción
David Blatner
Nigel French (typography)
Mike Rankin has a long documents course, as I recall

@nigelfrench has sessions at MAX, Creative Pro Week, and on LinkedIn Learning. Typography is a separate topic but crucial to a good InDesign document. His book is available here:

https://www.amazon.com/InDesign-Type-Professional-Typography-Adobe-dp-0134846710/dp/0134846710/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Be sure to get the fourth edition.

~ Jane

I

InélsòreAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks!
I have this from Adobe Press (digital copy).
I feel I'm setup for a good summer of learning!

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

I would certainly watch videos first. After that, if you fell you need more, I would consider live, custom training with a Adobe certified instructor usually with Zoom or Teams. If you get to that point, "interview" the instructor to make sure they specialize in long documentation.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

jane-e

Community Expert

Adding to this good idea, you might want to hire an Adobe Certified Instructor to help you set up your template for the chapters. Since you have just learned InDesign, you will make beginner mistakes. Having someone look over and modify your chapter template will save hours, days, and weeks of frustration and cleanup.

~ Jane

Derek Cross

Community Expert

A new InDesign tutorial from one of the InDesign greats:

Advanced InDesign: Productivity Techniques

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/advanced-indesign-productivity-techniques

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Hi @Inélsòre:

I have a post on my student-centered blog about how to design multi-level lists in InDesign and another one on incorporating those numbers into a TOC (both free):

https://www.rockymountaintraining.com/adobe-indesign-numbering-headings/

https://www.rockymountaintraining.com/adobe-indesign-include-paragraph-numbers-table-contents/

The last InDesign CIB title that had a chapter on long document publishing was the 2013 Adobe InDesign CC (ISBN: 0-321–92697-8). If you liked the CIB approach, you can probably track that title down online or in a library. It covers most of what you are looking for and nothing has changed since it was released in 2013.

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

I

InélsòreAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks Barb,

indeed the CiB series is hard to follow. I used the 2019 version and didn't purchase the new ones again as the content was the same. I will try to find older ones!
Thank you also for the links! Great stuff!

J E L

Community Expert

@Inélsòre Since you mentioned you wanted to learn the Book functionality, something to consider about designing books is deciding if you want to create a new Book or a Document to begin with. The Book feature "assembles" individual InDesign Documents into a structure that makes up the entire book. It's great when you're working on a project with lots of images, sections, and chapters or when you need to send smaller sections back and forth between other designers or contributors. However, entire books are also set up in a single Document. There are pros and cons for using each method so do some research and testing so you can make the right decision for each project.

Another good thing to learn is how to import the manuscript text properly. You really don't want to be editing text in InDesign so be sure the text is as final as can be and proofread prior to importing. A lot of books are written and edited in Microsoft Word, which works great for importing to InDesign. Front and back matter content should be included in the Word document so you don't have to chase that up later. It's important to understand how footnotes, endnotes, hyperlinks, cross-references, tables, graphics, and other elements will be imported. Sometimes you don't want to import the TOC because you have to build one in InDesign anyway since the page numbering will be different. Of course, there are always changes in layout once the text takes shape on the pages but the fewer the better. Some authors try to "design" their book in Word before they hand it off without understanding how Word styles work. They apply styles "on the fly" so to speak. Learning how to set Word styles before importing text to InDesign using advanced mapping settings goes a long way in proper book layout and design. Enjoy!

I

InélsòreAuthor

Inspiring

Wow Jain, thank you!

This book was peculiar & written during the layout process, so totally unconventional.
Sibelius was used for music notation, Illustrator for colouring, Word for equations, InDesign for building everything together.
I learnt of the existence of the Book functionality too late to convert the project so it's all in one document (260 pages, 750 images/links!). ToC still to be done as the author would like one with images representing chapters!

As this is an educational, open source, free book, I'm going to share this here when it's done, at least for feedback! It was a very ambitious first project, but it made me grow immensely (plus gave me an increased hunger for more learning!)

JonathanArias

Legend

LinkedIn training is the one place I go for everything. Print design , publish online, ePub, interactive.pdf. What is it that you want to do with Indesign?

you can start here:
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/indesign-2020-essential-training

Cheers

jonayhan.

I

InélsòreAuthor

Inspiring

I have started to learn InDesign one year ago when I got commissioned the building of a book on music theory which implied my main skill — music notation — and something new, layout publishing.
I would love to get up to speed with book publishing, or magazines, basically anything that is published, printed and has a considerable number of pages. In short, not brochures 🙂

I'll check that course on LinkedIn, thank you!