Fortunately, there are plenty of other training materials available through the InDesign online help or through the tutorial links we listed earlier. Adobe has updated InDesign to match their other Creative Cloud apps to offer built-in learning options on the startup screen, although the available videos are fairly limited at the moment. Working with InDesign will be familiar to anyone who has worked with an Adobe program in the past, although it’s also fairly easy to learn the basics no matter what your current skill level is. The ‘Digital Publishing’ workspace, complete with interactivity options on the right If you want to re-arrange everything, all the panels can be undocked and placed wherever you want, docked or not. The ‘Book’ workspace, focused on global stylesĮach of these workspaces can be used as starting points for customization, so if you find something lacking you can always add it in whenever you need. I tend to start with the Essentials workspace and customize it to match my requirements, although most of the work I do with InDesign is on comparatively short documents. As print and interactive documents often have different layout requirements, there are workspaces dedicated to each, as well as those more suited to typographic manipulations or to copy editing. The default ‘Essentials’ workspaceĪt the core of the interface layout are workspaces, which allow you to switch rapidly between interfaces designed for a variety of tasks. It also follows the standard Adobe program layout of a main workspace surrounded by a toolbox on the left, tool options across the top, and more specific customization and navigation options along the left.

It follows the recent Adobe trend of using a dark gray background that helps your work to stand out from the interface, although you can customize this too if you’d like. User InterfaceĪs with all of Adobe’s Creative Cloud applications, InDesign has a well-designed interface that is almost entirely customizable. For a more in-depth explanation of specific features, check out Adobe’s InDesign Help section. Instead, we’ll look at how it’s designed, how well it works as a page layout editor for print and digital projects, and what you can do with your projects once they’re finished. Note: Adobe InDesign is a large program, and we don’t have the time or the space to go over every single feature it offers. They have had no editorial control or review of the content. My training as a graphic designer also included explorations of user interface design, which helps me sort the best graphic design programs from the overwhelming number of competing options out there in the world today.ĭisclaimer: I am a Creative Cloud subscriber, but Adobe has provided me with no compensation or consideration for the writing of this review. I’m trained as a graphic designer, and I’ve been working with InDesign for over a decade on a range of products from product catalogs to brochures to photo books. Hi, my name is Thomas Boldt, and I’ve been working in the graphic arts for well over a decade.

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