Learning InDesign

[Gomer]

A rare good news story here: My paper is finally upgrading computers.

To be fair, they had to. Last time I posted on this board was three years ago when I lamented the fact I was still using Quark 4. The system setup necessary for Quark 4 is so old now I can’t open many websites on my work computer.

We are moving to InDesign CC in two weeks, likely not getting much training so I’ve started looking back at CS3 (which I used for a few months back in 2008) and watching some basic tutorials.

Any tips or tricks the design masters here could send my way? What new features in CC might be able to save me time and do my job better?

Appreciate any help. Thanks.

 

[Severian]

YouTube is probably the best, free resource.

 

[Gomer]

Thanks, been using that.

 

[MNgremlin]

I remember when we hired a guy in part because he had InDesign experience and we were looking at switching over from Quark to InDesign. That was 4 years ago. We still have Quark. I'm the only person remaining from that era of the sports department.

I know this isn't useful information but I just thought it was a story someone might enjoy.

 

[Gomer]

I remember when we hired a guy in part because he had InDesign experience and we were looking at switching over from Quark to InDesign. That was 4 years ago. We still have Quark. I'm the only person remaining from that era of the sports department.

I know this isn't useful information but I just thought it was a story someone might enjoy.

We thought we were going to switch 10 years ago. We were redesigning our layout and I learned InDesign CS3 so I could do the redesign on both InDesign and Quark.

Good news there is I still have the templates I created on InDesign and most aspects of that redesign have remained in place, so I hope that will make our transition easier.

 

[trifectarich]

I'm getting a new laptop (Apple) in the next few weeks. Can I take the InDesign on my current machine and install it on my new one?

If so, what are the chances that someone with next to no tech aptitude (me) can do this successfully?

 

[jr/shotglass]

I'm getting a new laptop (Apple) in the next few weeks. Can I take the InDesign on my current machine and install it on my new one?

If so, what are the chances that someone with next to no tech aptitude (me) can do this successfully?

If you're migrating from a PC to an Apple, you'll likely need new software. If you have an Adobe license, it should be easily downloadable on their site.

 

[Slacker]

YouTube is probably the best, free resource.

Adobe has its own free tutorials, too. Go here for InDesign: InDesign tutorials | Learn how to use InDesign CC

 

[RedCanuck]

It's not that much different, once you get into it. I believe there's a way to set up InDesign to mimic Quark key commands as well.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

I don't remember what year it was we switched from Quark to InDesign, but the transition was painful. A lot of the things Quark did easily had to be done in InDesign manually and the fonts were all different, which meant a year or so of converting everything until we got a full year's cycle in. Once we got the hang of it, it was a breeze.

 

[GoogieHowser]

Honestly... they're very much the same. InDesign works more intuitively with other Adobe software and with some filing systems though. It's just learning the keyboard shortcuts was the only thing for me.

 

[fossywriter8]

We'll supposed to switch from Quark to InDesign soon.
My fear is it will come right when we're either starting or in the middle of our spring sports tab.
I think it should be done in the summer when our amount of local sports and school coverage drops.
We have a combination of Apples and PCs for computers and I'm worried about formatting and font issues.
Luckily I'm just a part-timer, but I've had to suffer through years of hearing others complain about the pinwheel/beachball of death as it spins on their screen when trying to layout pages on deadline.

 

[MNgremlin]

We'll supposed to switch from Quark to InDesign soon.
My fear is it will come right when we're either starting or in the middle of our spring sports tab.
I think it should be done in the summer when our amount of local sports and school coverage drops.
We have a combination of Apples and PCs for computers and I'm worried about formatting and font issues.
Luckily I'm just a part-timer, but I've had to suffer through years of hearing others complain about the pinwheel/beachball of death as it spins on their screen when trying to layout pages on deadline.

Started making the switch at our shop over Christmas (still at same shop as post #4 in this thread), but we at the sports desk have held out as long as we can. Everyone else is using InDesign, but I think we're going to wait until the break between winter and spring sports to finally make the switch. We wanted to at least get through this month, when we have to publish two 20-page basketball tabs a week apart.

 

[JRoyal]

Holy ****. People still use Quark?

 

[Chiext]

Just remember that after coding one key you must repeat the sequence on all other keys you have for the car immediately after each other so they all get synced to the EWS module.

 

[jr/shotglass]

These days, I'm opening up InDesign roughly four times annually to do our department newsletter. Takes me about a half-hour to become comfortable with it again.

 

[Slacker]

These days, I'm opening up InDesign roughly four times annually to do our department newsletter. Takes me about a half-hour to become comfortable with it again.

Same here. It sucks not being on InDesign for the paycheck anymore.