Table Of ContentAdobe®
InDesign® CS6
Digital
Classroom
Christopher Smith and the AGI Creative Team
Table of Contents
Starting Up
Lesson 1: InDesign CS6 Essential Skills
Lesson 2: Building Documents with Master Pages
Lesson 3: Working with Text and Type
Lesson 4: Working with Styles
Lesson 5: Working with Graphics
Lesson 6: Creating and Using Tables
Lesson 7: Using Color in Your Documents
Lesson 8: Using Effects
Lesson 9: Advanced Document Features
Lesson 10: Preflighting, Printing and Creating PDFs from InDesign
Lesson 11: Introduction to Digital Documents
Lesson 12: Creating Digital Books
Lesson 13: Adobe InDesign CS6 New Features
Starting up
About InDesign Digital Classroom
Adobe® InDesign® CS6 lets you create layouts for brochures, magazines, books, flyers,
marketing and sales sheets. InDesign was originally conceived for creating print and
PDF documents, but it is evolving into a tool for creating interactive and digital
documents as well. With the Adobe InDesign CS6 Digital Classroom you will discover
how to integrate InDesign CS6 with other Adobe Creative Suite products and how you
can create InDesign projects and export them for use on the nook, Kindle, or iPad or as
interactive projects that can be edited using Adobe® Flash®. The Adobe InDesign CS6
Digital Classroom helps you to understand all the essential capabilities of Adobe
InDesign and to get the most out of InDesign. The goal of the Adobe InDesign CS6
Digital Classroom is to get you up-and-running right away, creating documents for print
and digital environments. You can work through all the lessons in this book, or
complete only specific lessons. Each lesson includes detailed, step-by-step instructions,
along with lesson files, useful background information, and video tutorials.
You can download the lesson files for this book at
http://www.digitalclassroombooks.com/epub/indesigncs6
Adobe InDesign CS6 Digital Classroom is like having your own expert instructor
guiding you through each lesson while you work at your own pace. This book includes
13 self-paced lessons that let you discover essential skills, explore new ones, and pick
up tips that will save you time. You’ll be productive right away, with real-world
exercises and simple explanations. Each lesson includes step-by-step instructions,
lesson files, and video tutorials, all of which are available. The Adobe InDesign CS6
Digital Classroom lessons are developed by the same team of Adobe Certified Experts
who have created many of the official training titles for Adobe Systems, participated in
development of Adobe Certified Expert exams, and have more than a decade of
experience teaching InDesign so you can be confident that you will discover useful
skills quickly and easily.
Prerequisites
Before you start the Adobe InDesign CS6 Digital Classroom lessons, you should have a
working knowledge of your computer and its operating system. You should know how
to use the directory system of your computer so that you can navigate through folders.
You also need to understand how to locate, save, and open files, and you should also
know how to use your mouse to access menus and commands.
Make sure that you have installed Adobe InDesign CS6. The software is sold
separately, and not included with this book. You may use the free 30-day trial version of
Adobe InDesign CS6 available at the adobe.com web site, subject to the terms of its
license agreement.
System requirements
Before starting the lessons in the Adobe InDesign CS6 Digital Classroom, make sure
that your computer is equipped for running Adobe InDesign CS6, which you must
purchase separately. The minimum system requirements for your computer to
effectively use the software are listed on the following page.
System requirements for Adobe InDesign CS6
These are the minimum system requirements for using the InDesign CS6 software. Your
computer will need to meet these requirements to use the software and the lessons in
this book:
Windows
• Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 processor
• Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 3 or Windows 7
• 1GB of RAM (with 2GB or more recommended)
• 1.6GB of available hard-disk space for installation; although additional free space is
required during installation. The software cannot be installed on removable flash
storage devices
• 1024 × 768 display (1280 × 800 recommended) with 16-bit video card
• DVD-ROM drive
• Adobe® Flash® Player 10 software required to export SWF files
• InDesign CS6 requires activation. Broadband Internet connection and registration
are required for software activation
Mac OS
• Multicore Intel processor
• Mac OS X v10.6.8 or v10.7
• 1GB of RAM (with 2GB or more recommended)
• 2.6GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required
during installation. The software cannot be installed on removable flash storage
devices and cannot be installed on a hard drive volume that uses a case-sensitive file
system.
• 1024 × 768 display (1280 × 800 recommended) with 16-bit video card
• DVD-ROM drive
• Adobe Flash Player 10 software required to export SWF files
• InDesign CS6 requires activation. Broadband Internet connection and registration
are required for software activation
Menus and commands are identified throughout the book by using the greater-than
symbol (>). For example, the command to print a document appears as File > Print.
This indicates that you should click the File menu at the top of your screen and choose
Print from the resulting menu.
Starting Adobe InDesign CS6
As with most software, Adobe InDesign CS6 is launched by locating the application in
your Programs folder (Windows) or Applications folder (Mac OS). If you are not
familiar with starting the program, follow these steps to start the Adobe InDesign CS6
application:
Windows
1 Choose Start > All Programs > Adobe InDesign CS6.
2 Close the Welcome Screen when it appears. You are now ready to use Adobe
InDesign CS6.
Mac OS
1 Open the Applications folder, and then open the Adobe InDesign CS6 folder.
2 Double-click on the Adobe InDesign CS6 application icon.
3 Close the Welcome Screen when it appears. You are now ready to use Adobe
InDesign CS6.
Fonts used in this book
Adobe InDesign CS6 Digital Classroom includes lessons that refer to fonts that were
installed with your copy of Adobe InDesign CS6. If you did not install the fonts, or
have removed them from your computer, you may substitute different fonts for the
exercises or reinstall the software to access the fonts.
If you receive a Missing Font warning, replace the font with one available on your
computer and proceed with the lesson.
Resetting the InDesign workspace and preferences
To make certain that your panels and working environment are consistent, you should
reset your workspace at the start of each lesson. To reset your workspace, choose
Window > Workspace > Typography. The selected workspace determines which menu
items display, which panels display, and which options display within the panels. If
menu items that are identified in the book are not displaying, choose Show All Menu
Items from the menu in which you are working to locate them, or choose Window >
Workspace > Advanced to show all panel options.
You can reset the settings for InDesign at the start of each lesson to make certain you
match the instructions used in this book. To reset the InDesign preferences, start Adobe
InDesign, and immediately press Shift+Alt+Ctrl (Windows) or
Shift+Option+Command+Control (Mac OS). In the dialog box that appears, press OK
to reset the preferences.
Downloading lesson files
The InDesign CS6 Digital Classroom includes lesson files that accompany the exercises
for each of the lessons. You can download the lesson files at:
www.digitalclassroombooks.com/epub/indesigncs6
Follow the instructions on the web page to register your book and download the lesson
files.
For each lesson in the book, the files are referenced by the name of each file. The exact
location of each file on your computer is not used, as you may have placed the files in a
unique location on your hard drive. We suggest placing the lesson files in the My
Documents folder (Windows) or at the top level of your hard drive (Mac OS).
Downloading and copying the lesson files to your hard drive:
1 Use your web browser, navigate to
www.digitalclassroombooks.com/epub/indesigncs6. Follow the instructions on the
web page to download the lesson files to your computer.
2 On your computer desktop, navigate to the location where you downloaded the files
and right-click (Windows) the .zip file you downloaded, then choose Extract All or
double-click on the .zip file (Mac OS).
Working with the video tutorials
The www.digitalclassroombooks.com/epub/indesigncs6 site provides Adobe InDesign
CS6 Digital Classroom book readers with video tutorials that enhance the content of
this book. The videos are suitable for viewing on your desktop or notebook computer,
and they are compatible with most portable devices such as the iPad. Some digital
reading devices are not optimized for playing video, and you may have a better
experience watching the online video using a notebook, desktop, or tablet computer for
viewing the video tutorials. An internet connection is necessary for viewing the
supplemental video files.
The videos enhance your learning as key concepts and instructions are discussed by the
book’s authors. The video tutorials supplement the book’s contents, and do not replace
the book. They are not intended to cover every item discussed in the book, but will help
you gain a better or more clear understanding of topics discussed in many lessons of the
book.
Additional resources
The Digital Classroom series goes beyond the training books. You can continue your
learning online, with training videos, at seminars and conferences, and in-person
training events.
Training from the Authors
The authors are available for professional development training workshops for schools
and companies. They also teach classes at American Graphics Institute including
training classes and online workshops. Visit agitraining.com for more information about
Digital Classroom author-led training classes or workshops.
Book series
Expand your knowledge of creative software applications with the Digital Classroom
training series. Books are available for most creative software applications as well as
web design and development tools and technologies. Learn more at
DigitalClassroom.com.
Seminars and conferences
The authors of the Digital Classroom seminar series frequently conduct in-person
seminars and speak at conferences, including the annual CRE8 Conference. Learn more
at agitraining.com and CRE8summit.com.
Resources for educators
Visit DigitalClassroomBooks.com to request access to resources for educators,
including an instructors’ guide for incorporating this Digital Classroom book into your
curriculum.
Lesson 1: InDesign CS6 Essential Skills
What you’ll learn in this lesson:
• Understanding the InDesign CS6 Workspace
• Working with panels and tools
• Navigating through InDesign documents
• Importing text and images
• Using styles to quickly format text and objects
This lesson gets you started with InDesign CS6, covering essential skills
necessary for working efficiently with InDesign documents. It provides a high-
level overview of key concepts associated with creating layouts using
InDesign. You’ll work with an existing document to understand how to
navigate, place graphics, and add formatting to text, creating a finished
newsletter that can be printed or distributed as a digital document.
Starting up
Before you begin, make sure that your tools and panels are consistent by resetting your
preferences. (For more information, see “Resetting the InDesign workspace and
preferences” in the Starting up section of this book.)
In this lesson, you will work with several files from the id01lessons folder. Make sure
that you have copied the id01lessons folder onto your hard drive from the Digital
Classroom Books website. You can download the files from
http://www.DigitalClassroomBooks.com/epub/indesigncs6. For more information, see
“Downloading lesson files” in the Starting up section of this book. If you are
completely new to InDesign and don’t have much computer experience, it may be
easier to follow the lesson if the id01lessons folder is placed on the desktop of your
computer. This lesson provides an overview of InDesign concepts. After completing
this lesson, you’ll then examine individual capabilities and features in more details in
each of the remaining lessons. It may be helpful to view this lesson as a broad survey,
