Adobe InDesign CS6 Level 2: Advanced

Adobe InDesign CS6 Level 2: Advanced

• The InDesign CS6 Interface Customization
• Work with new panels in CS6
• Create custom keyboard shortcuts and save a keyboard shortcut set
• Save a custom workspace
• Use Tool Hints

Adobe Bridge CS6 and InDesign

• View, sort, search and manage files within Adobe Bridge CS6
• Use the new Mini Bridge to drag & drop instead of File/Place
• Create Favorites and quickly access commonly used folders in the Bridge

Pages & Document Info

• Add and move pages: use the pages palette
• Create and manipulate master pages and spreads
• Target pages vs. Select pages
• Rotate Spreads
• Create documents with different page sizes
• Save and use templates
• Use the NEW Alternate Layouts in the Pages panel
• Use the NEW Liquid Layout feature to easily resize a document

Text, Columns & Typography

• Place and link text using the new Primary Text Frame
• Use the new Auto Size and Flexible width options for text frames
• Advanced Character Typography - No Break, Underline Options, Optical Margin Alignment
• Shortcuts for character and paragraph typography
• Advanced Paragraph Typography - Rules, tabs, hanging bullets – custom uses for all
• Automatic numbering and bullets
• Customize Hyphenation and Justification
• Use the Span and Split columns
• Paste text with unformatted paste command
• Place MS Word text files with or without formatting
• Use the Glyphs panel to create a custom set of characters to insert into text
• Find and Change – Find & replace text, custom text strings, object formats and more, using GREP
• Persistent text frame fitting options

Advanced Graphics

• Place graphics from Photoshop and Illustrator
• Use Object Layer Options to control visible layers of Photoshop and Illustrator files
• Libraries - Create, add items, name and find library items easily
• Use the Gap tool to modify graphic and text layouts quickly
• Use the Auto Fit button to easily resize graphics
• Use the target selection to move around graphics within a frame
• Apply a clipping path to an object with and without having a path in Photoshop
• Apply text wrap around graphics and placed logos
• Place multiple graphics or text files at one time. Use Gridify - cycle thru loaded files before placing.
• Set the default graphic frame to size a graphic automatically when placed

Effects

• Use the effects panel to apply effects to text, fills and strokes separately to objects
• Work with Drop shadow, feather, corner effects, outer glow, inner glow etc
• Round the corners of a frame

Long Documents & Master Pages

• Create Book Files. Add documents, synchronize styles between files, repaginate documents
• Create a Table of Contents
• Create, modify, apply, and use “based on” Masters
• Release objects and remove overrides from the Master
• Set section markers and learn advanced page numbering tips
• Use Text Variables to automate repetitive text

Character and Paragraph Styles

• Create and apply paragraph and character styles. Shortcuts!
• Use Quick Apply for all styles and menu commands
• Reapply paragraph and character styles to replace local changes and/or character styles
• Redefine a style from selected text which has been locally changed
• Create Nested Styles - character styles within a paragraph style; repeat styles
• Advanced uses of Character styles and Paragraph styles
• Use Find and Change to apply character styles
• Use Next style to apply formatting to multiple paragraphs instantly
• Place MS Word text files and link the Word styles directly to InDesign Styles
• Create Style Groups

Object Styles & Anchored Objects

• Save formatting for an entire text or object frame
• Include paragraph styles in an object style
• Anchored objects – Inline, custom and floating anchored graphics

Layers

• Create new, reorder and delete InDesign layers
• Move objects from one layer to another
• Show, hide, print and lock layers
• Advanced layer usage and rules for using layers with objects on masters

Tables

• Understand the difference between tabs and tables
• Place text and convert it to a table
• Modify line weights and colors
• Modify cell, row and column fills
• Merge cells, split cells, shortcuts on working with cells and tables
• Create a header and footer row to repeat on a table which spans multiple pages
• Alternate fills and strokes automatically
• Place graphics within a table
• Create Table and Cell styles to make repetitive table formatting easy, and to link table data back to Excel

Printing and Workflow

• Separations - how it affects transparency
• Use the links palette to link and embed graphics
• Understand the Preflight options
• Save an InDesign file as a .pdf
• Export to InDesign Markup language (.idml) and .jpg
• Use the Separations, Flattener and Overprint preview palettes to check your printing settings
• Ink Manager

Interactivity

• Make objects on a page move when the file is saved as a PDF
• Create page transitions.
• Create a button to advance to the next page.
• Save an InDesign file as an interactive PDF file.