A Full Day of InDesign Coolness

Free Parking • Free Breakfast • Chance to win Creative Cloud for a Year

8 am–8:45 am - Registration (hot breakfast provided)

MORNING

Session 1

8:45 am–10:15 am - Styles in InDesign: Efficiency and Consistency

Jonathan will explore the vital, important, and fun world of Styles in InDesign. Focusing on Paragraph, Character and Object styles, you’ll learn how to streamline your workflow to make producing documents and templates quick, easy, flawless and perfect. You’ll also learn to use nested styles as well as marry paragraph styles with object styles to elevate your design aesthetic and greatly reduce your production time!

Session 2

10:30 am–12 pm - Build a Better Foundation

Erica will show how to work with Layers, Library items, CC Libraries, and how to structure Master Pages for a smoother workflow. She will also demo using Alternate Layouts, even if you work in a print-only environment.

12 pm–1 pm - Lunch (on your own)

AFTERNOON

Session 3

1 pm–2:30 pm - Tricks of InDesign Power Users

From automation to workflow, from presets to output, Jonathan and Erica will show off their workflow habits and how they use InDesign to its full potential.

Session 4

2:45 pm–3:45 pm - InSide the Designers’ Studio

In this session, Jonathan and Erica will get conversational. They’ll tell some tales, answer your questions, and discuss how InDesign fits into their creative workflow. Come ready with your burning InDesign questions and get ready to pick their brains!

4 pm–4:30 pm - Networking Time

Meeting Notes

By Alvin Takamori

On May 19th, at the Quality Inn near LAX, the Los Angeles InDesign User Group presented, "A Full Day of InDesign Coolness." It was an opportunity to glean knowledge from two very "cool" people, Erica Gamet and Jonathan Levit. If that wasn't enough incentive for you to attend, it also included a full breakfast, eggs, sausage, waffles and more.

With our hunger satisfied, we began the quest to satiate our thirst for all things about InDesign. Jonathan began the morning filling our cups with information regarding the correct ways to use Paragraph, Character and Object Styles. Methods that create a more efficient work flow. It takes a little planning and an awareness of any patterns that repeat in a layout or in the design process, but a little preparation can make things easier in the long run.

Jonathan showed us how powerful connecting Paragraph Styles to Object Styles was to improve the consistency and the speed of generating layouts in InDesign. He also pointed out the power of the Based On feature in Styles. Just be cautious because sweeping changes can be dangerous. Jonathan also demonstrated how to create a Table of Contents.

Next Erica explained how she uses Layers, Master Pages, Library Items and CC Libraries. The proper use of all these features can create a solid foundation to make working in InDesign easier.

After a lunch break, Erica and Jonathan went back and forth explaining different features of InDesign that they use to expedite their workflow. Erica talked about some of the things she does to setup a file for printing. Setting up the Master Pages. using Layers, going through the Pages Menu, Numbering and Sections and Libraries were all part of the process.

Jonathan explained how to use Nested Styles to automate more complex layouts like a catalog with identity numbers, names, and page numbers in a list. Then Erica touched on the use of GREP. If there are any repetitive patterns in text using GREP automates finding and applying features to those patterns. For instance, search for the various ways people write phone numbers and automatically reformat them, so they all look alike.

Next Jonathan explained how he takes text from a Word document that was sent from an external source and, "Cleans it up." He removes extra spaces and returns and creates Character and Paragraph Styles free of overrides.

Returning to GREP, Erica showed us how she uses it to remove orphans and widows. She also made the point that even if you don't like to write scripts, you can still use GREP. Often, you can find scripts for free that are already written.

Jonathan then discussed combining Object and Paragraph Styles to arrange text under a photo. He also demonstrated how he arrange images in a grid layout and adjusts the arrangement and spacing.

There was also an introduction to using alternate layouts. Whether designs are printed or posted on the internet, they often need to be rearranged to fit different output sizes. You can make a choice to link the different layouts so that an edit in one will automatically make the same edit on the other versions. Liquid Layouts can setup rules on how the design looks based on different widths and heights. Liquid Page Rules are object based and adjust the scale and position of elements in the design.

If you want to know more about this and any of the other methods that Erica (learn@ericagamet.com) and Jonathan (jlevit@blendspacedesign.com) use, you send them an email.

Door Prize Winner

Adobe Creative Cloud. 12 month subscription—Danielle Parisi

About the Presenters

Erica Gamet

Erica Gamet has been involved in the graphics industry for nearly 30 years. She is a speaker, writer, and trainer, focusing on Adobe InDesign and Illustrator, Apple Keynote and iBooks Author, and other print- and production-related topics. She is a regular contributor to InDesign Magazine and CreativePro.com, has been a speaker at the InDesign Conference, PePcon, ebookcraft in Canada, and Making Design in Norway; and she offers online tutorials on CreativeLive.com and through her own YouTube channel.

Jonathan Levit

With over 25 years of experience in the graphics, print and digital publishing world, and as an Adobe Certified Instructor and Expert in InDesign Jonathan Levit provides template development and creation, training, and consulting services. Integrating real world experience, he has improved the workflow, production, and creative departments for a variety of clients including the top magazines, advertising agencies, newspapers, and in-house creative and marketing departments in the world. Some of Jonathan’s clients include Warner Brothers, Ogilvy & Mather, Boeing, Time Warner, Los Angeles Times, Disney and UCLA. Learn more about Jonathan at Levity Training.

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