InDesign CS4 Migration

DAY ONE

Key terms

• Differences in terminology between InDesign and QuarkXPress

Setting defaults and preferences

• Setting application preferences
• Setting document preferences
• Customising the toolbox
• Setting tool defaults
• Creating document defaults
• Customising shortcuts

Interface differences

• Using palettes, tools and menus
• Introducing the Control panel
• Saving the workspace
• Tips for managing panels
• The N-up view

Navigation and display

• Controlling display preferences
• Using the Navigator panel
• Multiple document previews
• Dynamic graphics preview
• Dynamic text preview
• Overprint preview
• Separations preview

Creating objects and building pages

• Creating a new document
• Picture and text boxes
• Linking text boxes
• Introducing layers
• Selecting frames and contents
• Smart guides and smart spacing
• Using the Pages panel
• Creating and editing Masters
• Overriding Master Objects
• Reapplying Master Objects

Text and typography

• Placing and flowing text
• Selecting and editing text
• Handling missing fonts
• Working with glyphs
• Drag and drop text

Formatting characters

• Character-level formatting
• Introducing Open Type fonts
• Using optical kerning
• Creating character styles
• Working with Style Groups

Formatting paragraphs

• Paragraph-level formatting
• Choosing a composer
• Introducing nested styles

Questions and answers

DAY TWO

Working with graphics

• Placing graphics
• Scaling objects vs contents
• Introducing the Links panel
• Manipulating graphics
• Understanding Fitting options
• PSD and PDF layer options

Combining text and graphics

• Wrapping text around graphics
• Introducing snippets
• Creating inline graphics
• Converting text to outlines
• Image import options
• Images with clipping paths
• Creating a new clipping path

Laying out pages accurately

• Using rulers, grids and guides
• Using the Info panel

Finessing text content

• Threading/unthreading frames
• Document baseline grids
• Frame-based baseline grids
• Using special characters

Introducing transparency

• Creating drop shadows
• Feathering edges
• The Flattener Preview panel

Introduction to tables

• Creating basic tables
• Modifying tables
• Importing tables

Editing copy

• Using the Story Editor
• Using Find/Change

Understanding colour

• Loading swatches
• Using stroke and fill options
• Sampling colours from images

Preflight, package, PDF and printing

• Exporting as a PDF
• Using Live PreFlight to check files
• Packaging files for handoff

Opening Quark documents

• Tips for opening QuarkXPress documents

Questions and answers