# Adobe InDesign Bootcamp (Self-Paced)

Canonical URL: <https://training.sdfm.org/courses/adobe-indesign-bootcamp-self-paced>

## Overview

Master Adobe InDesign at your own pace to create professional layouts for print and digital publishing. Work on real-world projects like flyers, brochures, and multi-page documents while mastering typography, styles, and image placement.

## What you'll learn

- Design layouts combining text, color, and graphics
- Import and style text and images
- Apply and manage color in your designs
- Create short and long documents, including brochures, advertisements, magazines, and books
- Prepare files for final output, whether for print or PDF
- Create and edit paragraph and character styles for consistent text formatting
- Use master pages to control layouts in multi-page documents
- Work with anchored objects, tables, libraries, find/change tools, and more

## Curriculum

### Section 1

#### Business Card: Setting Up a File & Adding the Logo

- Setting Default Preferences
- Setting Up a File
- Importing & Sizing a Vector Graphic (the Logo)

#### Business Card: Adding Text

- Creating Text Frames
- Basic Text Styling
- Loading Adobe Fonts

#### Business Card: Colors

- Removing the Default Color Swatches
- Creating & Editing Color Swatches
- Swapping Out Graphics

#### Business Card: Adding a 2nd Page (the Back) with QR Code

- Creating the Back of the Business Card (a Second Page)
- Creating QR Codes
- Navigating Documents (Zooming and Panning)
- Copying Appearance With the Eyedropper Tool

#### Business Card: OpenType Settings

- Setting up a Document Bleed
- Placing Images
- Combining Text & Images
- White Type on a Black Background

### Section 2

#### Brochure: Creating 2-Page Spreads & Cropping Photos

- Setting Up Spreads (Facing Pages)
- Importing Pixel-Based Photos
- Cropping & Scaling Photos
- Checking Image Resolution to Ensure Good Print Quality

#### Brochure: Layers, Visual Effects, & Blending Modes

- Creating & Locking Layers
- Rotating Objects
- Drop Shadows
- Gradient Feather
- Blending Modes

#### Brochure: Fine-Tuning Type: Kerning/Tracking & More

- Paragraph Spacing
- Working in Picas (Instead of Inches)
- Metrics vs. Optical Kerning
- Kerning vs. Tracking
- Variable Fonts

#### Brochure: Working with Tabbed Text

- Setting Tab Marker Positions
- Adding & Styling Leader Characters

#### Preparing for Professional Printing: PDFs & Packaging Files

- Exporting PDFs for printing or emailing to clients
- Packaging InDesign Files

### Section 3

#### Restaurant Menu: Paragraph Styles

- Creating & Editing Paragraph Styles
- Using the Eyedropper to Apply Paragraph Styles
- Using Find/Change to Apply Paragraph Styles
- Paragraph Rules

#### Restaurant Menu: Character Styles & Nested Styles

- Creating & Editing Character Styles
- Using the Eyedropper to Apply Character Styles
- Using Nested Styles to Automatically Apply Character Styles
- Disabling Hyphenation

#### Restaurant Menu: Keep With Next & Spanning Columns

- Keep with Next Paragraph
- Spanning Columns

### Section 4

#### Restaurant Menu: Bulleted Lists

- Styling Bulleted Lists
- Forced Line Breaks

#### Magazine: Laying Out a Page & Threading Text Frames

- Creating a Magazine Page Layout with Text & Images
- Threading Text Frames

#### Magazine: Paragraph Styles & Baseline Grid

- Creating Paragraph Styles
- Setting Up the Baseline Grid
- Making Paragraph Styles Use the Baseline Grid

#### Magazine: Color Themes & Custom Shapes

- Removing the Default Color Swatches
- Using the Color Theme Tool to Create Swatches
- Using the Direction Selection Tool to Alter a Shape
- Using Pathfinder to Create a Custom Shaped Photo Frame

### Section 5

#### Magazine: Text Wrap

- Using Text Wrap
- Wrap Around Object Shape vs Jump Object
- Creating a Circle Photo with Text Wrap
- Using an Invisible Shape to Wrap Text

#### Magazine: Parent Pages

- Adding Page Numbers
- Creating a Layer for Parent Page Content
- Creating More Parent Pages

#### Magazine: Adding Pages & Controlling Page Order

- Adding a New Page at a Specific Location
- Allow Document Pages to Shuffle
 , - Adding a Spread Between Other Pages
- Applying a Parent Page to Multiple Pages at Once

#### Book: File Setup & Parent Pages

- Setting Up the Document
- Importing the Text
- Setting Up the Parent Page
- Adding Page Numbers
- Adding a Chapter Title to All Left Pages

### Section 6

#### Book: Paragraph & Character Styles

- Creating Paragraph Styles
- Apply Styles Quickly Using Keystrokes & Find/Change
- Drop Caps

#### Book: Hyphenation & Keep Options

- Turning Off Hyphenation
- Setting Custom Hyphenation & Keep Options
- Using Discretionary Hyphens to Control or Prevent Hyphenation

#### Book: Setting Up & Using a Baseline Grid

- Baseline Grid Settings & Making Paragraph Styles Use It

#### Book: Running Heads & Chapter Opener Pages

- Setting Up & Inserting a Running Header Text Variable
- Setting Roman Numeral Page Numbers for Frontmatter
- Adding a Section Start to Set the True Page 1
- Applying a Different Parent Page for Chapter Opener Pages
- Applying a [None] Parent Page

## Pricing

**Tuition:** $975