I need to learn Indesign (help!)

Okay, anyone know any free tutorials/have any advice to help me get started with IDcs3? the tutorial i thought i had is actually not working, and it turns out that im struggling with all of this :(

plus, im being impatient because im desperate for my standard of quality to stay higher than my student unions - which has suddenly 'upped' its quality... Arrgh!
-stresses-
 
Long Live InDesign and all who sail in her. I managed to get the paper I work for to switch to it over the last 18months :D Leaving me as the resident 'expert' as it were, good times.

Layers Magazine has some video tutorials Free Adobe InDesign Tutorials | Layers Magazine

Otherwise I learnt by trial and error, but my HNC tutor used to "teach" the class with the Classroom in Book series, they seemed ok albeit a bit basic (I got to miss to tutorial lessons).

Trial and Error is the best way to be honest. 2 tips baseline grid and paragraph/character styles. Most of the people I work with haven't bothered to learn InDesign properly and are still highlighting huge wadges of text to change styles, when the work would be done 10x quicker and better with proper styling.

But just making 'fake' publications, trying to copy magazine articles you like the look of etc. is the best starting point.
 
cheers for the replys and links everyone :)

ive basically been doing trial and error... plus there are some basics that are just confusing me making the trial and error thing difficult (ive started playing with illustrator few months back, and have almost worked out all the sheer basics, but learning 2 programs at once does this to you i suppose)

I'll check out Layers Magazine too.
 
You have the perk of a fair amount of the tools/menus etc. being very similar if not the same though :)

Good luck!
 
There are various tutorials online, I tend to turn to Lynda.com for all of my learning as it is quick and usually covers the topic I'm after. It is a paying service but can't fault it. Also practice practice, I find most of my learning is in the working environment when you have to apply those skills to a project.

If you have started learning illustrator I would probably recommend finishing learning that as I will say to this day if there is one program that you should know inside and out it is that. InDesign will then flow off the back of that with a firm knowledge of Illustrator.

Good luck :D
 
okay. I will concentrate on illustrator then...


(over the past week i have had to open my eyes a bit, and realise that Indesign cannot be a priority at the moment no matter how proud I am re: standards & the students union at my uni.)
 
charles said:
I'm a Quark fan personally though!

I went right off it after a long session with Indesign.

I'll second lynda.com, awesome site, soooooooo many tutorials on soooooooo many subjects! Who would have thought you need 22 hours of tutorials on powerpoint?
 
Hmmm I've often considered Lynda.com, but never spoken to anyone who has used it. Might check it out, I could really do with some more indepth illustrator lessons.
 
Hi

Some of the previous advice is the best - trial and error.

When I first converted from Quirk, I spent some free time converting current Quirk jobs to Indesign.
I would export a pdf from QX and place each page pdf into IND on a locked layer, then basically 'trace' over it with indesign elements. Any text can be copied from the pdf and formatted in IND.

This gives you a real project and a goal to reach, sometimes it's best to learn 'on the job', rather than open a blank document and draw a few coloured boxes and say "not much better"

The Adobe site (via the help menu) is a great resource for tips and descriptions of what things do.
Podcasts are also great as they allow you to be shown what is going on. layers tv is great and also the indesigner (a little more advanced, but if you know what can be done then that will only inspire you along the way:

http://www.theindesigner.com/podcasts/podcasts.xml (itunes link)

Don't try to try to use Indesign like you used Quirk, they are worlds apart.

Remember, If you are self-taught, you won't know things that you have not taught yourself yet!

Ask people, including posting on this forum, people are always glad to help, (it makes them feel good)

Good luck using IND
 
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