Instant Indesign: Designing Templates for Fast and Efficient Page Layout

By Gabriel Powell

Instant InDesign is the first comprehensive guide to Adobe InDesign that focuses exclusively on the art of template design and production. You'll learn everything you need to know-from key design... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0321495713
• ISBN13: 9780321495716
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Adobe Pr
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Reference

This book is an excellent reference for creating InDesign Templates. There is a perfect mix of background knowledge and how-to. I highly recommend it as it has greatly improved my workflow, escpecially with long documents.

INSTANTLY INDISPENSABLE

Anyone who needs to create templates for InDesign documents should memorize this book. Gabriel Powell explains why and how a well-made template can be an absolutely essential production tool for the creation of a publication. Instant InDesign is an exhaustive guide to the art and engineering involved in the process of developing a template. It covers everything from the overall approach one should take, through the minute details that can exert a large effect for good or ill. By following Mr. Powell's instructions, the reader can produce templates that will increase the quality and consistency of publications, facilitate production through the automation of many functions, be free of impediments to efficient production, and make it easier to share production tasks among members of a team. In addition, the book serves as an excellent tutorial for the use and mastery of InDesign CS3. The language is a model of clarity; the tone is serious; and the book is both fascinating and enjoyable to read. In the substantial introductory section, the book provides a well-drawn theory of the ways in which templates function in relation to design. It addresses topics such as how to decide if a project requires a highly defined structure or one that allows for more variation. Powell points out the factors that distinguish the kinds of projects that benefit from templates from those for which templates are unnecessary. He gives an overview of the features of InDesign that should be utilized in the construction of a template and explains how to use them wisely. The importance of pre-planning is emphasized in all things, and especially in relation to certain advanced features of InDesign that can reduce hours of work to a few clicks. He tells how to begin the whole enterprise of creating a template, and describes exactly the sequence of steps in which the work should proceed in order to avoid any wasted effort and unnecessary backtracking. The final section of the introduction lets the reader try on some training wheels by showing how to evaluate and revise an existing template using the predesigned templates that come with the program. The chances are, however, that if the user wishes to upgrade a pre-existing template of any complexity, he is probably far better off starting from scratch--unless that template was originally created using the precepts set forth in this book. One is quite likely to spend more time analyzing it and tracking down the bugs than it would take to begin anew and do it right. One quick indicator of whether or not an existing template is worth revising: the creator did (or did not) furnish a comprehensive style guide for the users, a step which Powell describes at length later in the book. After having read this book, one may wish to reconceive a publication anyway, in order to take advantage of the many possibilities that InDesign CS3 offers. The second section of the book teaches the workings of InDesign with particular emphasis on ho

Extensive and thorough

Instant InDesign is a testament to thoughtful planning and consistency. It is a comprehensive guide to simplify your day. If you do something repetitive inside Adobe InDesign, this book will help you work faster and more efficiently.

A must-have book

A few years ago I started producing a monthly newsletter for a nonprofit while getting my feet wet with Adobe InDesign. Although I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do, and refined certain elements over time, this was a very inefficient way to produce the newsletter and took much more time than I anticipated. So much so that at times I wanted to back out of the project. If I had a copy of Instant InDesign back then and followed its guidance to the letter, it would have saved me a tremendous amount of time. And because I was receiving a flat-fee, my per-hour compensation would have increased greatly by virtue of how much quicker I could have completed the task. This well-organized book takes the reader through the step-by-step process of creating templates. This is a great way to learn InDesign and reinforce earlier training. With this method, you can see how all the elements--style sheets, grids, object styles, etc.--fit into the whole process of creating a publication. With standard instruction books, the various elements of InDesign seem disjointed, so it's tempting to skip or gloss over some of them. Yes, it can be tedious to create a template, but the payoff is well worth it and a good return on your time investment. While the book makes mention of InDesign CS3, the underlying concepts apply to all versions of InDesign. Bonus chapters and tutorials from the publisher's website make this book even more compelling. The bonus files are in CS3 format, so you can't open them with earlier versions of InDesign. However, if you can get someone with CS3 to convert the files to the INX format, you can open them in earlier versions such as InDesign CS2. Considering the overall value of the book, this is a minor inconvenience. In short, this is easily one of the top three books on InDesign that I've seen. If you want to save time, boost productivity and produce more professional publications, this book is for you.

Incredible

Just received this book and I can't believe how well-structured this is. There is a lot to say for how information is presented and this looks and feels like a professional trainer put this together. Wait! The author IS a professional trainer! The examples and text are clear and what's so cool is that he actually used InDesign CS3 to create this. So - buy this book and don't forget to retrieve the goodies by registering the purchase on the publisher's web site.