About Adobe InDesign
Would you like to create an attractive departmental newsletter? Or design a professional-looking annual report? Adobe InDesign is a desktop publishing application that allows you to create everything from event flyers and stylized reports to magazines and e-books. We offer here both comprehensive learning tools and quick how-tos that you can easily follow.
How Do I Access InDesign?
Students, faculty, and staff who need to use Adobe InDesign may contact SMHS Technology Support Center at casshelp@gwu.edu about acquiring access.
Free Online InDesign Courses and Tutorials
The following websites offer access to online courses and tutorials designed to get you started with InDesign or, if you are already familiar with with the software, to master new skills. Many additional resources are available via online search.
- Linkedin Learning InDesign tutorialsLinkedIn Learning is offered free to all students, faculty, and staff at GW.
TO ACCESS LINKEDIN LEARNING:
-Click on the LinkedIn Learning InDesign tutorials link above to access the website.
-Sign in with your Colonial email and password.
-Choose Sign in with Single Sign-On.
-Once in the program, enter "InDesign 2022" in the search window up top to display available video courses and shorter tutorials.
-Each course or tutorial indicates whether it is targeted to beginner, intermediate, or advanced learners. - Learn InDesignAdobe offers InDesign video tutorials for beginners on individual topics, such as adding and formatting text.
- Welcome to the InDesign User GuideAdobe has published the InDesign User Guide online. It is organized by broad subjects such as setting up your page layout, incorporating images, and exporting your document to Acrobat. Use the Table of Contents to navigate easily through the guide.
- InDesign Tutorials YouTube channelAccess free video tutorials to learn how to do specific tasks in InDesign, such as access to Adobe fonts and using Adobe templates to create a document. Not affiliated with adobe.com.
- InDesign Secrets TutorialsContains free InDesign how-tos on a range of topics. Not affiliated with adobe.com.
Glossaries of InDesign Terms
Are some of the terms used in InDesign confusing to you? What are widows and orphans? What are character and paragraph styles?
The following links offer clear and simple definitions of common InDesign terms.
- The inDesign Toolbar GlossaryLearn how to use every tool in the InDesign toolbar.
- 31 Adobe InDesign Terms Defined31 definitions that may help you as you navigate InDesign.
Want to take a quick peek?
Learn what widow and orphans are.
Learn how you can use styles to format text quickly.
Tutorials on Individual Topics in InDesign
- Get Started with InDesignAdobe has created a series of short videos that are organized under the following categories:
-Get Started with InDesign
-Add Text
-Format Text
-Add and Transform Graphics
-Apply Color and Effects - InDesign Basics: ‘Threading’ TextIf a there is more text in a text frame than can display, use this tutorial to learn how to "thread" the hidden text to a new text frame.
- Crash Course: How to Format Text Part 1Learn how to set the font, size, and alignment of text in your InDesign document.
- Crash Course: How to Format Text Part 2Learn about leading, tracking, and kerning, and how to adjust them. Also learn how to create drop caps.
- Add and Transform GraphicsInDesign requires a different set of steps to incorporate images into your document than you take when using PowerPoint or Word. Instead of inserting or pasting an image into your document, you will instead use the "place" command. This video explains how to do it.
- InDesign Basics: Wrap Text around Shapes and ImagesLearn how to use the text wrap panel to adjust how text flows around objects in your document.
- Using styles to format text in InDesignThe American Graphics Institute outlines how to format text efficiently using paragraph and character styles.
- InDesign: Paragraph Styles vs. Character StylesLearn when it is appropriate to use paragraph and character styles.
- What are widows and orphans?InDesignSkills discuss how to avoid widows (single lines at the end of paragraphs that appear alone at the top of the next page or column) and orphans (beginning lines of paragraphs that appear alone at the bottom of the previous page or column).
- A quick guide to InDesign master pagesInDesignSkill offers an overview of how to use Master Pages in InDesign. These are non-printing pages to which you add elements, such as page numbers, that you want to repeat on all pages.
- 10 essential InDesign skillsInDesignSkills has published a pdf outlining the for ten basic skills such as placing images in a document and creating page numbers.
