InDesign training: Is online effective?

[GuyCrittenden]

As a former magazine editor, I'm familiar with InCopy, as I marked up versions of layouts created by our art department in the past. Now I'm a freelance communications consultant and feel called to learn InDesign and create brochures, magazines and other items for clients. It's been on my "to do" list for a while and now I have a client who could use my help with a new project.

I've bookmarked online training options suggested in this community, including Adobe tutorials etc. But I wonder if it's not a better idea to simply pony up the money (around $1,000) and simply pay a local company I know of in the closest city to me, for two solid days of one-on-one training they offer. I can afford the price, though I don't care to spend that needlessly. While I could learn online, I have a feeling that sitting with an expert and being guided in how to make brochures and magazines etc might be the most effective. I need to be truly effective at this, and can't afford to stumble due to not knowing certain little tricks.

So, what are people's thoughts? Is the online training out there really effective? I know it's a lot cheaper, or can be. How long did it take you to learn this program and become effective in using it? Did you learn online or from a person in a classroom setting? Trying to scope my best option here. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[Derek Cross]

You won't learn these skills in a couple of days, whatever the quality (and cost) of the course. But it can be done, but be prepared to take your time.  You need to learn Photoshop as well as InDesign. To learn I suggest you use a combination of online video courses (e.g.Linkedin Learning; BringYourOwnLaptop); Books (e.g. InDesign Classroom in a Book and Photoshop Classroom in a Book) and maybe a local college may have classes. And use these friendly Forums for advice about particular isssues.

You might be able to produce some artwork for local charities and non-profits free-of-charge, which will give you some practice in using the applications, once you've learnt them a bit.

[GuyCrittenden]

Thanks for your advice. I'm saving the names of the online programs and books for future reference. Excellent!

[GuyCrittenden]

Also, can you elaborate a bit on why I must learn Photoshop to be effective with InDesign? I'm not averse to learning it. Just curious.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Using ID, one could live without using Acrobat or Illustrator since ID can do may of those functions on its own (although I wouldn't suggest it). One needs to use Photohsop since ID cannot edit photos on its own. Unless your images are coming in pre-adjusted, you'll probably have to jump to PS.

[GuyCrittenden]

Roger that!

[BobLevine]

I've been using InDesign for 20 years and I still learn new things. There's no way to tell you what will work better for you as far as learning the application goes and there's no substitute for making mistakes and learning from them.

I offer online Q&A sessions which are perfect for people that have read books or gone through tutorials and still have a few nagging issues that haven't been address. Send me a private message if you're interested.

[GuyCrittenden]

Thanks Bob! I will PM you and add you as a resource to contact once I've completed basic training and have questions.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

There are generally two types of online training: canned recordings and custom, live instruction. (I'm partial to the latter.) For live training, I would start looking at an Adobe Certifed Instructor but also check out their background to make sure it covers the areas you are interested in. 

Here is a list of ACIs, which I pre-filtered to the USA (you can change it if needed):

https://learning.adobe.com/partner-finder.html#p=1?products=InDesign&partnerType=Certified%20Instruc...

[Derek Cross]

That's a useful list of InDesign trainers with some outstanding names included. I see Bob Levine is not on the list and he is one of the most knowledgeable InDesign users, as one can see from his posts on this forum. So definitely consider Bob (IMO).

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

I certainly don't disagree that Bob is one of the most knowledgable users, but unless he was offering his private consultation for free, I don't think this is the forum(s) to be promoting private business. I tried to keep it generic with the best Adobe-sanctioned list I could find. 

[BobLevine]

I'm not going to get into individual names but as someone who took, and passed, more than my share of certification exams, I'll only say that I finally found them so worthless that I stopped taking them after CS6.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

This might be best continued on the ACP forum.

[BobLevine]

No, I was not offering anything for free, hence the offer to discuss it offline.

Regular contributors here promote themselves all the time and there's no issue with it when it conforms to the topic.

I'll bow out of this, now, but I stand by my statement about the exams and I am not even close to being alone.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

I agree with your statement about the ACE exams--those, by themselves, do not make for an effective instructor. 

[GuyCrittenden]

Thanks for this. There is only one certified instructor in Ontario where I live. I've bookmarked that person's website and may or may not pursue anything with them. Thanks again and cheers!

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Keep in mind that virtually everyone on that list does live, hands-on, online training now-a-days. Adjust for time zones isn't too bad in North America, so you could look almost anywhere in the US. (I often do classes for the Eastern time zone although I'm in the Pacific time zone, as I'm sure the others do too.)

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

As others have said, it takes a lot more than just a 2-day or semester-long course in InDesign to learn what you need for a career in graphic arts.

When I headed up the graphic design curriculum of a local university's summer institute for publishing, we had students for 16 hours  per week (four 4-hour classes per week) for 8 weeks (128 hours of instruction). They all started as novices and were ready for full-time jobs at the end of the program.

Topics included:

• Hands-on instruction in InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator (just the mechanics of using these programs).
• Graphic design theory for publications, PR, and advertising.
• Preparing graphics and files for print and digital.
• Conceptionalizing ideas, developing a design, critiquing the concept, and executing the final product.
• Working with editors and clients.

Comparison: if you took a 2-day workshop in MS Word, would you be a qualified journalist or editor? One thing most editors do is naively think that design and production is all mechanical; Just learn what buttons to click and voila! Instant design!

I highly recommend taking a semester-long course at your local community college where  you have the chance to get critiques and suggestions from other students and the instructor, as well as some of the tangential ideas that go beyond the mechanics of using InDesign. If you like what you're doing, you can continue with the college's advanced course next semester.

I teach live online classes in specific topics for publishing. I would never recommend learning InDesign and the basics of graphic/publishing through any kind of online learning. You'll miss a lot!

[GuyCrittenden]

Thanks for this information and perspective. I agree with your comment in general, except that I'm a veteran magazine editor with 30 years experience. I've won numerous awards for my work and though am mostly a content provider, I've art directed magazine layouts throughout all this time, and back in the 1990s used to actually do the layout for the magazines I edited on the software that was prevalent at the time. I then art directed magazines that others produced using InDesign whree I'd mark up the PDFs. So, I don't feel I need all the aspects of a college program in design and all that. I really do need to learn the mechanical aspects of InDesign. But it sounds like even a two-day one-on-one training will only get me started with the basics and I'll have to continue learning with more online training and working from books and videos myself.

[Barb Binder]

Hi Guy:

I really do need to learn the mechanical aspects of InDesign. But it sounds like even a two-day one-on-one training will only get me started with the basics and I'll have to continue learning with more online training and working from books and videos myself.

I'm one of the ACIs on David's list—and a career InDesign trainer—and I totally agree with this statement.

My suggestion is to attend a 2-day training class with one of us on this thread (an online interactive class or an in-person class), or with your local ACI, or with someone else you find elsewhere who is knowledgable and expereienced, but yes, that will just be the beginning. Once you have a solid foundation, continuing to learn on your own becomes so much easier. As previously mentioned, many of us offer hourly consulting options for a fee, but you can always ask your questions here as well. We are happy to help.

~Barb Binder