InDesign for Planners - An Introduction

Total course duration: 1 hour 37 minutes (Includes 15 videos)
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Adobe InDesign is widely recognized among design professionals as the premier document layout software, with a number of valuable applications for urban planning.  This course gives you a step-by-step introduction to the basic tools of InDesign CS6. Your instructor, Mike Ernst, is an urban planner and designer whose work has focused on participatory planning, community outreach and innovative urban design through creative and engaging visual communication.  This course is approved for 1 AICP CM credit for 2013 (Event #e.22583).

Chapters

  • 1. Introduction: Why Learn InDesign?

    See why InDesign is an invaluable tool to learn for a planner interested in graphic communication, and get a quick overview of the differences between Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.

    4:28m
  • 2. InDesign Workspace Overview

    Get an overview of the layout of InDesign's workspace, including menus, panels, and toolbars.  Learn how to rearrange your panels, switch between workspaces, and hide and show rulers.

    8:04m
  • 3. Setting Up New Documents

    Learn how to set up new documents in InDesign using the New Document and Document Setup dialogues.  

    7:31m
  • 4. Page Settings

    Lean about more aspects of document setup, including how to set your margins, create columns and make use of document bleed and slug.

    5:18m
  • 5. Frames and Links: Part 1

    Placing linked files is what InDesign was built for.  Learn how to create frames and link images, text and other file types within those frames.

    11:19m
  • 6. Frames and Links: Part 2

    We'll continue our discussion of using frames and links, covering how to center, fit, scale and crop linked content, using a variety of tools built in to InDesign.

    7:05m
  • 7. Display and Performance

    InDesign comes with a number of different options for displaying your linked content.  Learn when to use these different options, depending on whether you need to make InDesign run faster, see high quality versions of your layout, or present your final product in full-screen mode.

    4:52m
  • 8. Grids and Guides

    Learn how setting up grids and guides can improve the designs you create in InDesign.  See why Smart Guides are so handy, and find out how they can improve your workflow.

    5:52m
  • 9. Master Pages

    Creating master pages allow you to create templates for your spreads and edit multiple pages at once.  See how working with master pages should fit in with your design process.

    6:35m
  • 10. Keyboard Shortcuts

    Keyboard shortcuts are great for getting things done fast! Get introduced to the essentials, including how they work differently on Macs and PCs.

    6:42m
  • 11. Working with Color

    Working with color is an essential part of InDesign.  Learn about the Eyedropper tool, the Color Panel, Fills and Strokes, and the difference between RGB and CMYK colors.

    8:11m
  • 12. Working With Layers

    Learn how layers work, get introduced to the Layers Panel, and see how using layers can improve your layout workflow.

    4:39m
  • 13. Flyer Design Wrap-Up

    In this video, we'll add the final touches to wrap up the design of the flyer presented throughout this series.

    7:57m
  • 14. Postcard Design

    Learn how to modify the final version of our flyer to be used as a postcard that matches the flyer's look and feel.

    9:54m
  • 15. Proofs and Final Document Production

    See how to produce high-quality, print-ready PDFs in InDesign, and how to add bleed and crop marks when needed.

    5:18m