Tag Archive for: indesign

Document Accessibility Starts with InDesign

/in

Accessibility is a design responsibility that starts the moment a document is created. For anyone working in InDesign, early decisions directly affect how usable that content will be for everyone who reads it.

In this session, Chad Chelius explains why accessible documents begin in InDesign—not in Acrobat, not in downstream fixes, and not after problems surface. You’ll gain a clear understanding of how structure, organization, and intent in your InDesign files form the foundation for accessibility. Chad emphasizes mindset as much as mechanics, framing accessibility as a core professional skill, not a niche specialty.

This session is for all InDesign users. Whether accessibility is new to you or already part of your workflow, you’ll leave with a clearer sense of why it matters, where it begins, and how better InDesign practices lead to better outcomes.

Key takeaways:

  • Recognize how document structure and organization affect accessibility outcomes
  • See accessibility as a core design responsibility, not a niche skill
  • Identify early design decisions that have the biggest accessibility impact
  • Build a stronger foundation for accessible PDFs and digital documents

Automation Tips in InDesign: Work Smarter, Not Harder

/in

InDesign is built to handle repetition, consistency, and flexibility to change—when you know how to let it do the work. In this session, Laurie Ruhlin shares practical ways to use InDesign’s automation-friendly features to speed up common tasks.

You’ll see how familiar tools can be used more strategically, along with a few less-obvious workflows that make everyday documents easier to build, update, and maintain. The focus stays on real design work: faster fixes, smarter setups, and small shifts that add up to major time savings across projects.

You will learn how to:

  • Use Table of Contents in flexible, nontraditional ways that go beyond chapters and page numbers
  • Set up smart document defaults that speed every project from the first page
  • Use Data Merge the “normal” way—and the clever way
  • Add scripts to your workflow, they aren’t as scary as you think!
  • Identify small workflow shifts that save time, improve consistency, and scale across projects

Sneak Peek:
Set Up Your InDesign Documents Like a Pro

Creative Cloud Tips and Tricks to Boost Productivity

/in

This session is packed with time-saving shortcuts and lesser-known features across Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. You’ll learn practical techniques that experienced Adobe users often overlook, including smarter style setups, hidden panels, and efficient cross-app workflows.

You’ll also see how Creative Cloud Libraries can become a central hub for assets, styles, and consistency across projects—saving time and reducing rework. Every tip is designed to make your day-to-day work faster, smoother, and more intentional.

Key takeaways:

  • Learn essential keyboard shortcuts and hidden tricks that save time every day.
  • Choose the right app for the task
  • Reduce repetitive setup work across projects and documents
  • Become a true Creative Cloud “power user” with techniques most other designers don’t know

Easy Text Clean Up with GREP in Find/Change

/in

If text cleanup is a regular part of your InDesign work, and you spend much of your day handling long documents, inconsistent copy, or late-stage edits, this session is for you. When text-heavy projects pile up, manual fixes slow everything down and increase the risk of errors.

In this session, Erica Gamet focuses on a pattern-based approach to text cleanup inside InDesign, helping you work with greater control and consistency as documents grow more complex. The emphasis is on efficiency, accuracy, and repeatable workflows that hold up under real production pressure.

You will learn how to:

  • Recognize when pattern-based text cleanup is the right approach for complex documents
  • Clean up inconsistencies introduced by imported Word or Google Docs content
  • Tackle repetitive formatting problems that appear across long or multi-section layouts
  • Handle text corrections that need to be applied consistently across an entire document

Illustrator for InDesign Users: You’ve Got This

/in

You love InDesign: It makes sense. It behaves! But Illustrator? That’s usually a “hold your breath and click carefully” situation. In this session, Tony Harmer helps InDesign power-users feel far more at home inside Illustrator.

You’ll learn how to navigate Illustrator with confidence, spot the features that save time, and stop treating it like a mysterious side quest you only enter under duress.

You will learn how to:

  • Recognize when Illustrator is the better tool before things get messy in InDesign
  • Navigate Illustrator using concepts that already make sense to you
  • Prepare and clean up vector artwork so it behaves predictably in layouts
  • Export individual vector assets quickly and efficiently for real-world use
  • Shift your mindset from “I’ll get through this,” to “I get to do this!”

Embracing a Punk Rock Attitude for Modern Design

/in

You can design stronger, clearer work by questioning assumptions and designing with intent. In this session, Michael Mondragon shares a mindset-driven approach to modern design rooted in clarity, purpose, and judgment.

Using a “punk rock” attitude as a metaphor—not a visual style!—Michael challenges autopilot thinking, over-templated solutions, and trend-chasing. The focus is on making deliberate design decisions that serve the message, not the tool, template, or shortcut.

This session helps designers push back on defaults, trust their creative instincts, and create work that communicates more clearly, confidently, and memorably in today’s fast, AI-assisted design landscape.

You will learn to:

  • Make intentional typography choices and find the right fonts
  • Make non-destructive image enhancements in Photoshop
  • Create textures from your own images
  • Style and modify letter forms in Illustrator
  • Bring it all together in InDesign

Workflows for InDesign and Adobe Express

/in

Adobe Express isn’t a replacement for InDesign, but it can be a powerful extension of your workflow. In this session, Bart Van de Wiele shows when Adobe Express makes sense for social, internal communications, and marketing handoffs—and when it doesn’t. You’ll see real examples of how Express fits into professional design workflows, especially when stakeholders need access to branded layouts without opening InDesign.

Bart walks through how to move designs between InDesign and Express in both directions, covering steps, limitations, and best practices. Learn how to translate brand styles, fonts, and layouts between apps, and how to set up, manage, and use on-brand templates that others can safely edit. See what translates cleanly, what requires adjustment, and how to prepare files so templates stay consistent and usable. This session focuses on practical workflows, realistic expectations, and smart setup choices that help InDesign users collaborate confidently with teams who don’t design for a living.

You will learn:

  • Translate brand styles, fonts, and layouts between InDesign and Express
  • Set up, manage, and use on-brand templates
  • Move designs from Express back into InDesign when needed
  • Set realistic expectations around current limitations and workarounds
  • Build repeatable workflows that support collaboration without sacrificing quality

Creative Cloud Mix Tape

/in

Kick off CreativePro Week with a high-energy, music-themed morning keynote. Chris riffs on the idea of creative cross-training by mixing InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Canva (and more!) in ways you wouldn’t expect. Think fast-paced demos, playful surprises, and a healthy dose of rock-and-roll attitude.

Each segment spins a new challenge and a new app, intentionally breaking “rules” about what each tool is supposed to be used for. The result is part performance, and part creative jam session, reminding you that experimentation is often where the most interesting ideas start.

Come for the entertainment. Stay for the shift in mindset. Leave with fresh inspiration to remix your own Creative Cloud workflows—no matter which apps you use every day.

Mix tape mystery tracks:

  • Turn it up: live spins, creative curveballs, and a rock-and-roll remix mindset from the first beat
  • Apps in the mix: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Canva, and more!
  • Creative moves on deck: photo editing, web graphics, video effects, 3D modeling, and motion experiments
  • Rule-bending workflows: familiar apps pushed into unfamiliar territory

Adobe Sponsored Breakfast Session: Breakfast with the Builders

/in

This session is sponsored by Adobe.

Kickstart your week with the Adobe team in a lively town hall environment and meet the minds behind your favorite creative tools, see the latest breakthroughs in action, meet the Adobe team members, preview new Illustrator and InDesign features, and learn about opportunities for connecting with the team throughout CreativePro Week.

Creative Wow!

/in

Come see and/or share amazing software demos from around the world! CreativeWow is an informal and fun lunchtime event where designers and developers can connect and find ways to make magic.*

Designers: Do you enjoy finding ways to become more efficient and productive? Do you like seeing amazing technology? Bring your lunch and see what cool things the devs have been up to!

Developers: Do you have a software challenge that you’ve been working on in your spare time? Or some feature, tool, or service that you’ve developed that is just so cool you have to share it? Come show it at the CreativeWow! event. The rules are simple: You have 5 minutes to fire up and demo your stuff in front of an audience of your peers. To sign up, contact David.

*Author and futurist Arthur C. Clark once wrote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”