Adobe InDesign CS3 Training Courses

About this course

InDesign is now the undisputed leader in print-based digital publishing due to its elegant interface, excellent typographical control, and relatively low price tag. This course will equip you with the skills required to master this powerful, yet accessible program, while introducing many of the industry's best practices along the way. We will also discuss preparation for both print and screen delivery, as well as exporting successfully to PDF. If you’ve been using MS Word or Publisher to produce newsletters, reports or other business, marketing or communications materials then it’s time to move on. InDesign is the tool of choice for everything print from postcards to posters to annual reports to magazines to encyclopaedias! This course will provide you with a solid grounding no matter what your work environment or publishing needs. InDesign is has also taken over much of the traditional market for Illustrator and Corel Draw. Whereas Illustrator was once used to typeset posters and display ads in magazines or newspapers, InDesign's superior text handling has seen its use increase even in short, creative documents as as covers, ads and package design.

Assumed knowledge

Beginners are welcome to attend this course as we will assume little in terms of prior knowledge but you should be comfortable working with Mac or Windows computers and have a reasonably high aptitude for digital media. The course runs at a fair pace and much ground is covered in a short period of time. Note that if you've been using the product for a while, consider our InDesign Masterclass for a coverage of the product's more advanced features.

Working with Layers

• Understanding layers
• Working with layers
• Forcing stacking order with layers
• Arranging object on layers

Working with Tables

• InDesign tables
• Setting table options
• Cell options
• Merging and splitting cells
• Adding and deleting rows and columns
• Importing tables
• Table styles

Advanced Image Handling

• Taking images further
• Image linking
• Applying Image effects
• Using Object Styles
• Object Layer Options
• Working with clipping paths
• Inline and anchored images
• Tips for working with images

Using Graphic Tools

• InDesign v. Illustrator
• Creating paths with the pen tool
• Pencil, smooth and erase tools
• Square, circle and polygon tools
• Placing text or images in a path
• Align and Pathfinder panels

Libraries and Templates

• Working with Libraries
• Working with Templates
• InDesign Interchange format

Tables of Contents and Book controls

• Working with long documents
• Tables of contents
• Using bookmarks
• Book panel

Preparing for Print

• Linking
• Preflighting
• Packaging
• Printing

Publishing to PDF

• Creating Perfect PDFs
• Export v. Print
• Export options
• Offset v Digital

Here's what you get on a Fearless course

Course Materials

We typically supply detailed course notes or a reference text or in some cases both. Either way, we try to provide sufficient supporting material so that you can return to your work place with sufficient confidence to permit further learning.

Catering

We like to look after our customers with:

• Quality catering from local cafes
• Fresh fruit
• Filter coffee and good biscuits
• Table sweets
• Chilled water

We also accommodate special dietary requirements such as vegetarian, gluten intolerance etc.

Support

There's nothing worse than leaving a course and feeling left on your own. We like to ensure our customers have all the support and backup they need including:

• 90 days unlimited support by phone, email or instant messaging
• On-going support through our Fearless Flyer program (for an extra fee)
• A free re-sit of this course on any scheduled date in the future

You also get

• A certificate of completion
• A CD-ROM with worked examples (for most courses)

Please select your location from the list below. A PDF brochure with the course description, price and other details will appear in your browser. Alternatively, right-click on the desired link and choose "Save file (or target) as..." and save the file to your local system. Adobe (Acrobat) reader is required.

View PDF Brochure for

• Canberra
• Hobart
• Melbourne
• Sydney

About this course

If you've completed our 2 day InDesign course or if you've been using the application for a while then you'll this one-day workshop will help clarify areas of difficulty such as pre-press challenges, colour management, exporting, interactive elements, mail merge facilities, scripting and more.

The course is designed to assist both new-comers and those with more experience who have been confounded by inconsistent colour, poor print quality and unpredictable results. It is also for those seeking a greater understanding of typography, colour, PDF and the graphic arts workflow in a commercial environment.

What you will learn

InDesign is complex program and there is much to learn. Our two-day course is a great introduction to the application but stops short of a detailed understanding of InDesign's powerful production tools and interactive features. This course picks up where the other finishes, providing more in-depth knowledge of key production areas such as pre-flighting and and separations, as well as a practical overview of the program's interactive features such as data merge, hyperlinked tables of contents, bookmarks, embedded movie files and document security.

The course will begin with a revision of document export and printing features (including the relative merits of each) before moving on to specific areas which often cause problems such as using the Output Preview features, creating consistent colour, understanding colour management techniques, transparency flattening, the ink manager and the PDF workflow.

We'll also look at advanced use of swatches (such as mixed ink groups), creating tables of contents, importing and editing tables and tabular data, placing movies and creating control buttons, clipping paths, the find/replace dialogue and much more.

Like all of our masterclasses, the course has a structure and outline but additional topics may be covered and others omitted at the discretion of the tutor and the class. Time will also be made to address any specific problems you may be having but please understand that not all problems can be solved in the classroom environment where time is limited and the needs of others are to be considered.

Pre-press Controls

• Output preview controls
• Separations Preview
• Ink Limit controls
• Transparency flattening
• Colour settings
• Color Management Policies
• Trapping
• Using the Ink Manager

Press-Ready PDF

• Printing to Adobe PDF
• Understanding PostScript
• Compression and resolution
• Creating printer marks
• Colour management policies

Variable Data Features

• Understanding variables
• Defining text variables
• Converting variables to text
• Automation and merging
• Creating a merged document

Working with XML

• Understanding XML
• Showing structure
• Showing tag markers
• Creating tagged frames
• Importing XML data

Here's what you get on a Fearless course

Course Materials

We typically supply detailed course notes or a reference text or in some cases both. Either way, we try to provide sufficient supporting material so that you can return to your work place with sufficient confidence to permit further learning.

Catering

We like to look after our customers with:

• Quality catering from local cafes
• Fresh fruit
• Filter coffee and good biscuits
• Table sweets
• Chilled water

We also accommodate special dietary requirements such as vegetarian, gluten intolerance etc.

Support

There's nothing worse than leaving a course and feeling left on your own. We like to ensure our customers have all the support and backup they need including:

• 90 days unlimited support by phone, email or instant messaging
• On-going support through our Fearless Flyer program (for an extra fee)
• A free re-sit of this course on any scheduled date in the future

You also get

• A certificate of completion
• A CD-ROM with worked examples (for most courses)

Please select your location from the list below. A PDF brochure with the course description, price and other details will appear in your browser. Alternatively, right-click on the desired link and choose "Save file (or target) as..." and save the file to your local system. Adobe (Acrobat) reader is required.

View PDF Brochure for

• Canberra
• Hobart
• Melbourne
• Sydney

About this course

This course is a comprehensive introduction to Adobe InDesign CS3 for those migrating from Quark XPress. The course will take students through most of the essential aspects of the program but the emphasis will be on those aspects that differ from Quark and features not present in Quark that you will find useful in InDesign. Both programs have a lot in common and many aspects of Quark will seem familiar: use of frames, setting text box properties, character and paragraph formatting, navigating and zooming for example. But in other ways, InDesign has more in common with Illustrator than Quark and these need to be made clear to students to avoid frustrations and failed jobs. Note that Quark has adapted to the changing landscape in recent versions with many features echoed in both programs and each borrowing from the other. We'll attempt to clarify these changes and keep you on-track to understand InDesign's approach.

Tables

• Tools for creating a table
• Creating a table from text
• Importing styled tables
• Linking tables across pages
• Table and cell styles

Outputting to PDF and Print

• Print preview
• Overprint preview
• Better workflow through JDF
• Preflight check
• Packaging
• Exporting a PDF
• Printing features not in QuarkXPress

Opening QuarkXPress Documents

• Different versions
• Layers and links
• Other ways to get QuarkXPress content into InDesign
• Converting QuarkXPress documents

Cross-Media Publishing

• Converting an InDesign layout into a web page
• Exporting content to web
• How does InDesign interact with metadata?

Workflow Collaboration

• Using InDesign and InCopy together
• Snippet files
• Placing an InDesign document into another layout

XML Workflows

• Tags panel
• Document type definition files
• Flexible Publishing with XML
• Scripting

InDesign Productivity Tips

• Temporarily accessing selection tools
• Quick switch to the Type tool
• Quick zoom/scroll
• Copy text formatting attributes
• Insert special characters
• Nudging
• Duplicate an object
• Paste in place
• Other useful shortcuts...

Here's what you get on a Fearless course

Course Materials

We typically supply detailed course notes or a reference text or in some cases both. Either way, we try to provide sufficient supporting material so that you can return to your work place with sufficient confidence to permit further learning.

Catering

We like to look after our customers with:

• Quality catering from local cafes
• Fresh fruit
• Filter coffee and good biscuits
• Table sweets
• Chilled water

We also accommodate special dietary requirements such as vegetarian, gluten intolerance etc.

Support

There's nothing worse than leaving a course and feeling left on your own. We like to ensure our customers have all the support and backup they need including:

• 90 days unlimited support by phone, email or instant messaging
• On-going support through our Fearless Flyer program (for an extra fee)
• A free re-sit of this course on any scheduled date in the future

You also get

• A certificate of completion
• A CD-ROM with worked examples (for most courses)

Please select your location from the list below. A PDF brochure with the course description, price and other details will appear in your browser. Alternatively, right-click on the desired link and choose "Save file (or target) as..." and save the file to your local system. Adobe (Acrobat) reader is required.

View PDF Brochure for

• Canberra
• Hobart
• Melbourne
• Sydney

About this course

This course is for those looking to use InDesign to create screen-based PDF documents and Acrobat forms. InDesign is usually thought of as a print-ready application but it is also extremely powerful as a multimedia authoring tool with all the power and accuracy required of paper documents. The options for screen authoring are quite limited but InDesign offers PDF security, bookmarks, navigation and rich media options that are not available in the Office products.

What you will learn

The course will pick up where our two-day InDesign essentials course leaves off covering a ranage of important, and newer features such as advanced styles, advanced image handling, colour swatches and automation. But rather than look at pre-press and printing issues (as covered in our Print Masterclass) we'll concentrate on those issues that effect the design and deployment of screen based documents. Relevant topics include screen resolution, navigation systems, rich media (video and audio) formats, movie controls, advanced use of master pages, automation and more.

Creating Screen-Based Documents

• Understanding PDF
• Screen resolution and dimensions
• Hyperlinking for PDF
• PDF bookmarks
• Linked Tables of Contents
• Applying PDF security

Creating Acrobat Forms

• Understanding Acrobat forms
• Designing forms
• Anticipating fields and buttons
• Exporting to PDF

Variable Data Features

• Understanding variables
• Defining text variables
• Converting variables to text
• Automation and merging
• Creating a merged document

Working with XML

• Understanding XML
• Showing structure
• Showing tag markers
• Creating tagged frames
• Importing XML data

Here's what you get on a Fearless course

Course Materials

We typically supply detailed course notes or a reference text or in some cases both. Either way, we try to provide sufficient supporting material so that you can return to your work place with sufficient confidence to permit further learning.

Catering

We like to look after our customers with:

• Quality catering from local cafes
• Fresh fruit
• Filter coffee and good biscuits
• Table sweets
• Chilled water

We also accommodate special dietary requirements such as vegetarian, gluten intolerance etc.

Support

There's nothing worse than leaving a course and feeling left on your own. We like to ensure our customers have all the support and backup they need including:

• 90 days unlimited support by phone, email or instant messaging
• On-going support through our Fearless Flyer program (for an extra fee)
• A free re-sit of this course on any scheduled date in the future

You also get

• A certificate of completion
• A CD-ROM with worked examples (for most courses)

Please select your location from the list below. A PDF brochure with the course description, price and other details will appear in your browser. Alternatively, right-click on the desired link and choose "Save file (or target) as..." and save the file to your local system. Adobe (Acrobat) reader is required.

View PDF Brochure for

• Canberra
• Hobart
• Melbourne
• Sydney