Sessions

10 Essential InDesign Efficiency Tips

Join us for a fast-paced, fun-filled, tip-a-palooza to boost your productivity! We’ll zip through a ton of handy tips and tricks that every InDesign user needs to know. Plus, you’ll get primed to soak up all the InDesign goodness the rest of the conference will bring.

Topics include:

  • If you’re not customizing InDesign, you’re missing out
  • Essential shortcuts
  • Hidden (or obscure) helpful features

Production Disasters and How to Fix (or Prevent) Them

Did you know your computer has a special sensor that can tell how close to a deadline you are? That’s why the worst problems come when you’re the most stressed already! OK, that’s not true, but it seems like it, right?

In this session, you’ll learn how to avoid as many problems as possible, prepare for when things inevitably go wrong, and quickly fix disasters so you can get the job done.

Accessible PDFs: Critical Next Steps

In Accessible InDesign Documents Part 1 and Part 2, we explored how to set up your file to export accessible PDFs. But there’s only so much InDesign can do! In this session, we’ll see the critical next steps you need to take in Acrobat.

Topics include:

  • The key items to check in every PDF
  • Accessibility vs. usability
  • Testing documents with a screen reader
  • How to use the Preflight panel to your advantage
  • Which testing tools you should be using

Accessible InDesign Documents, Part 2

In Part 1, we laid out the basics that you need to know to make accessible documents in InDesign.

Now, let’s take the next step and explore some of the most important rules for building accessible PDF files.

Topics include:

  • Working with accessible colors
  • Best practices for accessible tables
  • Accessible hyperlinks
  • Exporting to PDF
  • Checking for compliance

Accessible InDesign Documents, Part 1

Ensuring that the PDF files you export from InDesign are accessible to everyone is not only a good idea, it’s the right thing to do! In this session, you’ll learn what accessibility and “Section 508” means and how you can produce PDF documents that are accessible to all!

This tutorial is split into three separate sessions. This session takes you through the steps of adding basic accessibility features to your InDesign files.

Topics include:

  • How to build an InDesign document the right way from the start
  • Controlling content order
  • Using accessibility features in InDesign

PS + ID + AI: The Trifecta

We all have our favorite Adobe apps, but to really get the most out of them and maximize our efficiency, it’s crucial to understand how they work together!

Topics include:

  • How to properly set up Photoshop and Illustrator files for InDesign
  • Choosing between layers and artboards
  • CC Libraries: the secret back door conduit
  • Using cloud documents and setting up collaborations
  • When to link, copy, or embed artwork

Sponsored Breakfast Session: Why You Can’t Live Without an Online Proofing Platform

This session is sponsored by PageProof

The founders of PageProof have experienced the frustration that creatives and marketing teams face when gathering feedback and approvals on work. Their mission: to enable faster execution of brand-approved content by removing the hurdles of giving feedback and approvals. In today’s hybrid marketing world, whatever you create can be proofed with PageProof — artwork, photography, documents, presentations, design prototypes, video, podcasts, HTML emails, websites… even 3D. Simple online proofing for every piece of work you create. More importantly, so much time can be saved for the ever-busy designer with PageProof’s Adobe extension. We can’t wait to show you this time-saver!

“It’s amazing… they nailed the comment and approval process.”
—David Blatner, CEO, CreativePro Network

Watch this session below:

 

Building a Digital Mood Board to Get Your Team on the Same Page

Aligning a project vision with your team is critical to producing the most successful and elegant designs. A mood board is where the rational and the creative aspects of a project come together to focus you team’s efforts towards a common goal.

Join Kladi as she shows you how to create digital mood boards that will allow you to assemble, organize, and share your ideas quickly and clearly.

Topics include:

  • Creating a dedicated library to store, organize, and share assets
  • Building a clear and consistent layout using grids and parent pages
  • Placing and managing content with frame grids
  • Extracting assets from images and adding them to your library without leaving InDesign
  • Best practices for sharing documents

How to Build Single-Source InDesign Files for Print and EPUB Output

It is a ton of work to properly set up an InDesign document for professional print output. And to have to do that all over again just to get your EPUB file exported is just insanity.

Let me show you how to build your InDesign documents so that they are ready for both outputs.

Exporting PDF for Print and Digital Documents

Making a good-quality PDF is one of the most critical steps in the design and production process, and yet most designers don’t have a good grip of this sometimes tedious process. Whether you’re making a PDF for commercial press, desktop printer, or on-screen viewing, it is important that you make the right choices in the export process!

Topics include:

  • Understanding which export dialog box to use
  • Figuring out the PDF/X presets
  • Why the presets should only be a starting point (and which settings to change)
  • Using and creating a .joboptions file
  • Crop and bleed marks
  • Tips for setting up and exporting your pages panel for pages vs. spreads
  • Export a greyscale PDF from your color InDesign file
  • Control the JPG export size for social media posts
  • Use Preflight Profile to check image, color and font problems
  • Tips for creating an interactive PDF