Sessions

InDesign Animation and Interactivity

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If you’re curious how InDesign can create engaging interactive documents, this is the session for you! InDesign has a rich toolset for adding buttons and animation. But to use these features well, sometimes you need to think outside the box. In this session, we’ll take a look at the “trickery” involved in producing a series of interactive effects, using some obvious and not-so-obvious techniques. If you’ve tried InDesign’s interactive features and found them frustrating, join this session and look again.

We’ll cover techniques for creating:

  • Pop-ups – we’ll make a map with icons to click for more info, four different ways, using animation, buttons, and lines
  • Animated bar charts to make data presentation “cool”
  • A hamburger menu for page navigation, both an animated menu and simple next and previous page buttons.

InDesign Paragraph and Character Styles from Start to Finish

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Every InDesign user knows that styles are essential for efficiently formatting text. They allow us to quickly format content and easily make changes later on. Using styles is also a requirement if you want to take advantage of InDesign’s powerful automation features.

In this session, you’ll learn how to use styles the right way! Topics include:

  • The fastest way to create and redefine styles
  • Thinking creatively with styles
  • Leveraging Nested Styles to apply text formatting automatically

Building Interactive Magazines, Web Ads, and Digital Pages with InDesign

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Are you interested in creating rich, interactive documents? It’s likely that your print design skills are more useful than you realize. This session will present an overview of your options, from interactive PDF to HTML, fixed-layout EPUB, Publish Online, and more!

We’ll explore:

  • What can and cannot be done with interactive PDFs
  • The strengths and weaknesses of Fixed-Layout EPUB and Publish Online
  • Free and commercial scripts for creating interactive HTML output
  • Delivering rich media presentations to sales teams
  • Reusing content from print projects

Three Minutes Max: InDesign

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Yes, it’s time — once again! — for that fun-filled, action-packed, highly-educational, and mind-blowing session: Three Minutes Max! Each of our instructors will have no more than three minutes to share their favorite InDesign tip… and then you get to vote for a winner.

In past years, some of the best tips have been held for this session… so you don’t want to miss it!

Why You Can’t Live Without Adobe Bridge

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Adobe Bridge may be the unsung hero in your Adobe Creative Cloud suite, waiting for its chance to save you time by cutting through the clutter of files and applications. Most people think Adobe Bridge is just for photographers, but no! If you use InDesign, Illustrator, or Photoshop, you owe it to yourself to learn how this digital asset manager can make your life so much easier.

Topics include:

  • Integrate Creative Cloud applications into a streamlined workflow
  • Use Bridge shortcuts to process many files rapidly
  • Hunt and gather project files and folders more quickly
  • Using Bridge to inspect InDesign documents
  • How anyone can use Bridge for free
  • Metadata: your key to smooth workflows

Turning Data into Design

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Data Merge is InDesign’s built-in, go-to tool for creating direct mail campaigns, business cards, sequential stationery, and many other “data publishing” documents. Using techniques already present in InDesign, it is possible to take a regular “stencil” to another level and provide a truly unique experience for each recipient.

Topics include:

  • Best practices for preparing Data Merge projects
  • Harnessing InDesign’s features to make projects more dynamic
  • Building marketing or project flyers, charts, and even org charts!

Creating Impact: Editorial Design to Influence Change

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Discover how freelance graphic designer Kieron Lewis uses InDesign to create a range of publications that push the boundaries of stereotypes about race and design. As Kieron shares his experiences working on publications that are designed to inspire and empower the African community and its diaspora, you’ll learn how he uses the power of collaboration to create impactful editorial design.

Join Kieron in this session to explore:

  • The impact that collaboration can have on your career
  • The importance of designing for the community
  • How editorial design can connect us

Advanced Lists and Numbering in InDesign: Easy as 1, 2, 3a

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You’ve found the buttons to apply bullets and/or numbering to your lists in InDesign. But after they’re applied, you may be frustrated trying to control the position, style, color and start number of your list.

In this quick, to-the-point session, we’ll add custom bullets, make a character style to apply a color, and control the bullet distance from the text and the frame. Then, we’ll number paragraphs, control what the number looks like, and we’ll make awesome paragraph styles to apply a number “1” to the first paragraph then “2, 3, etc.” to the rest of the list in a couple clicks.

Topics include:

  • Tricks and essential tips for applying bullets and numbering to all your lists
  • Understand the new feature “Space Between Paragraphs using Same Style”
  • Create a character style to color a bullet or change a font
  • Number your figures or graphics with consecutively numbered captions

Essential InDesign Scripts

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If you’re not using scripts with InDesign, you are not being nearly as efficient as you could be. And scripts are really easy to use! In fact, a bunch of useful scripts even ship with InDesign—you just need to know where to find them.

Join us in this fast-paced session to learn:

  • Where to find must-have scripts
  • The fastest and easiest way to install a script and run it
  • Free scripts for managing your layouts, building calendars, and
  • Amazing scripts you need for graphics and images
  • Inserting special characters
  • Splitting and merging frames

Object Styles: The Secret Power Tool

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Object styles tell a text frame, graphic frame, or path how to look and behave—stroke & fill, effects, size, position, etc. They can also format the content inside those frames—both text and pictures. Object styles can save you an enormous amount of time applying formatting—especially when you or the client makes a change. If you’re not using object styles now, you will after this session!

We’ll create an object style for a simple photo frame, then step it up to create an organizational chart, complete with paragraph styles and box sizes, making the frames easy to create and modify. We’ll explore cool size and positioning tricks, as well as how to apply effects and text wrap with our saved object styles.

Topics include:

  • Making and applying object styles
  • Why to use an object style for parent (master) page header graphics
  • Applying effects and text wrap
  • Making rollover buttons easily with object styles
  • Resizing a photo inside a frame
  • Applying text frame attributes and multiple paragraph styles with one click
  • Using object styles to position anchored frames
  • Cool tricks & shortcuts for creating and applying object styles