Adobe InDesign: PRO TIPS

1. Class Introduction: Hello, and welcome to in design pro tips. If you're already familiar with Adobe in design and ready to take your skills to the next level, this class is for you. Adobe in design is packed with powerful features, and sometimes all it takes are a few pro tips to unlock its full potential. Whether you're designing magazines, brochures or digital layouts, this class will help you work smarter and create more polished professional designs. Throughout this class, you'll have access to a growing library of bite sized videos, each focused on a specific feature or task. Now, I've designed these lessons to be quick and actionable so you can easily fit them into your schedule and start using them in your project right away. Now, some of you may have already seen my in design ultimate guide here on Skillshare, so this class is a continuation of that. This class is perfect for anyone who's comfortable with the basics in in design and looking for new ways to improve their designs. Cover a variety of essential tips, tricks and techniques that will help you save time, stay organized, and create layouts that stand out. By the end of this class, you will have a toolbox of pro tips that will help you work faster and with greater precision, give you the confidence to take on more complex projects. If you're ready to unlock your full creative potential in in design, let's dive in and start exploring some game changing tips that will elevate your design work. Ready to unlock some new skills, then let's get into it. 2. Before You Begin: So before we begin, there is one thing I would highly recommend you do to get fully prepared to start this class. Before starting this class, I would recommend you download the class PDF. This is an interactive document that has been carefully put together to help you get the most out of this class. This PDF showcases each and every pro tip that you can watch. This is going to be a good reference to fully engage in the class to see the full scope of what you can learn. This will make it really easy for you to save to your desktop and jump back at any time. So before we begin, be sure to download the class PDF and you can get the link from the description. Once you have downloaded the PDF, we are now ready to kick off the class. So see you in the first video. 3. Generate An Image In InDesign With Text To Image Generative AI: Did you know that you can now generate images directly into in design and even use reference images to enhance your results? Want to learn how, then check out this pro tip. With a document open, the first thing you will need is to have the text to image panel open. Come up to window, scroll down and click on text to image. Now, in this example, I want to generate an image of a bowl of tomato salsa for this recipe over on the right. So with my image frame selected and the panel open, first type into the text prompt for what you would like. In this instance, I'll type in a bowl filled with tomato salsa, set on a wooden table surface. Around the outside is garlic, limes, coriander, and cherry tomatoes. Once you have your description, click Generate. Upon click, images will be generated inside the panel and one will appear in your frame. Now, if you're not happy with your initial result, you can keep generating by hitting the Generate button or tweak your prompts to refine your search and generate more. Each time you will generate more examples in the panel. With more results and your frame selected, you can click through your results in your panel to see more in your frame. Easy. So when you generate an image in in design, you will see a new link in the Links panel. You can right click and reveal the image in Finder, where you can either leave it there or copy and paste it somewhere else on your computer. This is now an image file you can work with. So that's the simplest way to generate an image. This time, if we click the Advanced button, a menu will open where you will have a lot more options to generate an image. Here you can set the custom aspect ratio, set a content type, and customize your image. So this time, I'll type in the same prompt. I'll choose an aspect ratio, and this is where it gets more interesting. For example, for Content Type, I'll click on art. I'll click on Style effect. And here we have a huge range of styles we can click. In this instance, I'll come down and click on Origami and click Generate, and the results will be far more stylized. Back into advanced in the Styles option, you can click more than one to mix it up a little. This time, I'll go with pop art and layered paper. Click Generate and up will come some further styled examples. So keep in mind, you can play around with these to get more specific stars. Now, one last example, and this is where it gets really cool. Back into Advanced, I'll use the same prompt as before. I'll click on photo with no Style. And this time, I'll use an image as a reference. I'll click on reference image. I'll click Upload and upload a reference image of a bowl of Salsa. Click Generate, and the results should be more specific to the reference image. Awesome. So when generating images in in design, remember to use the prompts, the stars, and a reference image to get a closer desired result. After a little while, you should get the result you want. With my chosen image, I can look in the Links panel, reveal in finder, and move it to a different folder on my computer to better organize my project. Perfect. 4. Place An Image Into Multiple Frames In Adobe InDesign: In Adobe in design, it's really easy to place an image into multiple frames. This can create a really dynamic image effect in your composition. Want to learn how, then check out this pro tip. With a document open, the first thing you will need are the frames you want to paste your image into. For this example, I want to create a grid of circles to place an image into. So first, come up to layout, then down to margins and columns. Upon click, set the gutter space. This will set the distance between the grid of frames. In this instance, I'll set this to two mills, click Okay, and now we can create a grid of frames. Do this, I can come up to the tools menu and select the Ellipse tool. I'll drag from the top left down and press right 12 times and up 12 times. This will quickly create a grid of frames. Then click and drag while holding Shift to drag a grid to scale like so. Upon release, I will now have a grid of circle frames. Nice. So right now, these are all separate frames which can be clicked and moved around independently. But in this instance, I want to keep them in a grid. To place an image into multiple frames, you'll first need to combine the frames together. To do this, we can first select all the frames we wish to combine. With them all selected, we will need to activate the pathfinder panel. If you cannot see your Pathfinder panel, come up to window and scroll down to Pathfinder. With all the frame selected, if we click on Add, we will then combine the shapes together. Now, with the block of frames selected, if we press Command plus D on Mac or Control plus D on PC, we can place an image. Upon placing, we will now see the image fill the combined frames. Nice. So keep in mind, first, you will need your empty frames set up. They can be any frames you make in in design, and then use the Pathfinder panel to combine them. Remember, once you combine your frames, you can still edit them with the direct selection tool and click to move your shapes around. Upon placing, we will now see the image fill the combined frames. And if we use the direct selection tool, we can click on the image and scale up or down and reposition to fit perfectly within the combined frames. Perfect. 5. Expand An Image with AI Generative Expand In InDesign: Did you know that in Adobe in design, if you have an image that is too small, you can use Adobe's AI features to expand your image. Now, this is amazing to help improve the quality of your layouts and help you save a lot of time. Want to learn how, then check out this pro tip. With a document open, the first thing you will need to do is have the text to image panel open. Come up to window, scroll down and click on texter Image. Next, you will need to place the image you wish to work with into your document. With an image frame selected, press Command D on Mac or Control D on PC to place an image. For best results, be sure to use a JPEG or a PNG image. With the image placed inside the frame, you will then need to set the desired space around the image which you want to expand to. Here, I'll select my image with a direct selection tool and scale it down like so inside the frame. With the frame selected, come into the text to image panel. From the top, drop down, select generative expand. Then below in the description, type in your prompt. Here I'll just type in expand image. Click Generate and then in design will process the image and expand the image to fill the frame. Over in the text to image panel, you will also have some options which you can click through. Easy. Now, one thing to keep in mind is that if you come into the Links panel, you will now see a new link that has been generated. If you right click and Reveal in Finder, you will now see where the image is located on your computer, where you can either leave it where it is or copy and paste it somewhere else on your computer. Excellent. 6. Highlight Text Effect In InDesign : In Adobe in design, you can add this cool highlight effect to your text. This can be cool for adding highlights and dynamic styling effects. Want to learn how, then check out this pro tip. First, draw out a text frame. Either click on the text frame in the tools panel or press T, click and drag to draw a text frame and type in some text. Change your font and size to something that works with some text in a frame, come up to the control panel and hit the Unline text icon. With the text still selected, come down to the character panel, click the top right menu and click on Unline Options. Upon click, a menu will appear. Now, this is where the magic happens. Here, you can toggle a few things to create the highlight effect, hit preview, choose a contrasting color for the type highlight. Then push up the weight. As you do this, you will see how the background highlight will cover your text. As well as pushing up the weight, you will also have to tweak the offset to properly align the highlight effect with the text. You can either do this symmetrically or add more above or below. Once happy, click Okay, and now as you type, you will add to your highlighted text block. Excellent. Now here are two examples. On the left, the highlight is right up against the start and end of the type, and on the right, there is a little space before and after the text. The downside to highlighted text in in design is, as of making this video, it's difficult to extend the underline before or after your text without using the space bar. If you want to get an example like this one on the right, you'll have to add a manual space before and after your text line. If you come up to type, scroll down to show hidden characters. On the left, the type is normal. But on the right, you can see I have added a space before and at the end to create this effect. So here is the exact same text sample, but on the right, I have added a space before and after. One last thing to keep in mind, with your text selected, if you come over and create a paragraph style with a block of type, you could now select and apply the highlighted effect super easy. 7. Responsive Text Frames In InDesign: Did you know that in Adobe in design, you can create responsive text frames. So as you type, the frame will respond in size. Now, this can be cool for creating labels and saving time, having to edit your text frames. Want to learn how, then check out this pro tip. First, draw out a text frame. Either click on the text frame in the tools panel or press T, click and drag to draw a text frame and type in some text. Change your font and size to something that works for you. Next, I'll come up to my preferences, and on units and increments. For this example, I'll set this to millimeters. With some text in a frame, right click on the frame and click on TextFrame options. On the left, we will see options general through to footnotes. The first option general will allow you to change a number of settings. The first setting you can focus on is the inset spacing. This will add a small margin inside the frame. Click to activate the preview option. Type in a value. In this instance, I'll type in 7 miles. Press tab to move to the next value. Now, if you have the link icon turned on, this will apply seven mils to all the values, and in the type frame, you will now see an inset space applied. Next, click on the Auto size option on the left. Click on the drop down for auto sizing, and here you can choose from a number of options. In this instance, I'll choose height and width. Upon clicking this, you may notice that the text inside the frame collapses. The square in the middle, click the middle left point. Next, come and click the minimum height and no line breaks constraint options. Keep the minimum height set to zero, and with the no line brakes ticked, we will now see that the frame in the dock is now filled nicely. Now, if you double click into the frame and change the text, you will see this will be responsive. Next, you can apply some stars to this frame. With the selection tool, click the frame, come over to the stroke options, set a stroke and a fill color, and that will apply some simple effects to your frame. With the frame selected, press and hold alt and click and drag down to quickly duplicate the text frame. Apply some new effects, and now you've got two type frames on top that are responsive. Excellent. 8. Create a Colour Swatch Palette from An Image In Adobe InDesign: Did you know that in Adobe in design, you can generate color palettes really fast with just a few clicks. This can be awesome for generating color inspiration quickly in your process. Want to learn how, then check out this pro tip. With a document open, first place in an image, you want to generate a color swatch. With your image in your document, you will then need to select the color theme tool. You can access this by placing your mouse cursor over the eyedropper tool in the tools menu. Click and hold, and from here, you can select the color theme tool. With a color theme tool active, simply click on your image, and upon click, you will see a small menu bar appear with five color samples from your image. Next to the samples, you can click on a small arrow. If you click this, you will expand the menu to reveal more color theme options, colorful through to deep. First, select which palette you would like, and now you can do one of two things. To the right are two buttons. Add to Swatches panel and add to CC library. By clicking Add to Swatch, you will now see a new folder with your selected colors. Awesome. Now, you may notice that the colors may initially be set to CMYK or RGB. If you want to change these, you can simply double click on your color, change the color mode from CMYK to RGB or vice versa. So as well as saving to the Swatches panel, you can also save directly to your CC library. By clicking the other button, just like adding your colors to your swatches, you can also add to your CC library of choice. Once you have your colors, you can use them in your document. Perfect. 9. Add Sections To Your Documents In InDesign: In Adobe in design, a really helpful way to keep your document organized is to use section markers. Now, this can be great for adding repetitive section markers to multi section publications like books, magazines, and reports, which can help you minimize potential mistakes and help maintain clarity, consistency, and automated updates across your layouts. Want to learn how to use them, then check out this pro tip. First, create your document. In this instance, I'll set the pages to ten, and I'll turn on facing pages. Click Okay. With the document open, double click on your first parent page and place in a text frame. In this instance, I'll place a text frame in the bottom left corner of the left page. Click into the text frame, come up to type down to insert special character across to markers, and click on Section Marker. Upon click, you will now see section contained in the frame. Next, set the text to a font size and alignment that works for you. If you want a section marker on each page, click and drag the text frame while holding Alt plus Shift across to the bottom right corner. Double click back onto a page in the pages panel, and for now, you will see nothing. Next, choose where you want the section to start. Here I'll start my section on page two. Right click on the page and click on numbering and section Options. In the menu, click into the section marker field and type in your section title. In this instance, I'll type in Project section one. Click Okay, and now you will see Project Section one in the bottom left and right of your pages, and in the pages panel a triangle over your page. This triangle represents where the section starts. To add another section, come to the next page. In this instance, I'll start a new section on page six. Right, click on the page, click on numbering and section options. In the menu, click into the section marker field and type in your new section title. In this instance, I'll type in Project Section two. Click Okay, and now you will see Project Section two in the bottom left and right of your pages after page six. And in the pages panel, a triangle symbol over page six. Last time on page eight, I'll right click on the page, click on numbering and section options. In the menu, click into the section marker field and type in your new section title. In this instance, I'll type in Project Section three. Click Okay, and now you will see Project Section three in the bottom left and right of your pages after page eight. In the pages panel, a triangle symbol over page eight. Now I have a document including three sections in the bottom left and right of each page. Excellent. 10. Add Simple Interactivity To a PDF In InDesign: Did you know that in Adobe in design, you can add interactivity to offer a range of benefits, including enhanced user engagement through clickable links, buttons, and forms. Now, this can provide easy navigation with features like bookmarks and hyperlinks, improving the overall user experience. Want to learn how, then check out this pro tip. So with the document open, the first thing you will want to do is create a trigger for the interactive element. When I'm working with interactivity and Idsign, I'll typically create a separate layer. I'll call this Links and place any button triggers on this layer. Once you have a navigation system in your document on the links layer, first draw a trigger frame. You can do this by creating a simple frame on top to define the clickable area. With the clickable frame in place, come up to window and scroll down and activate your hyperlinks panel. With this open, you can click on the top right menu and click New Hyperlink. Upon click, a menu will appear. From here, you can determine what kind of interaction you would like to apply to the frame when clicked. By clicking the drop down, you can choose a range of actions. In this instance, I'll choose page. Here you can type in a number, and below you can set a range of settings from Zoom through to highlight effect. Once you click Okay, you will now see a hyperlink listed in the panel. Next, I'll create another frame. With it selected, click on the top right menu on the Hyperlinks panel, create a new hyperlink, and this time, I'll choose URL. In here, you will be able to customize the same settings, but this time, add a website address. By using this technique, soon you will begin to build up links in your hyperlink panel. When you have established links in your document, you will then want to export it out to be used properly. By pressing Command plus E on Mac or Control plus E on PC, you will open the Export menu. To enable your interactive features to work, you will first need to click on the format option and select Adobe PDF interactive. Click Save and you will be presented with a new menu. Here you can set a range of options from general to security. Depending on your document type, you will also want to apply the appropriate viewing options. Once you have applied all your settings, click Export, in design will do its thing, and your PDF should then open in Acrobat Reader. If done successfully, you will now be able to click on your clickable areas, jump to specific pages, and click to open URLs. Excellent. 11. Create A Seamless Image Grid Fast In InDesign: Did you know that in Adobe in design, you can create seamless grids in a matter of seconds. This can save you so much time if you are looking to create a grid of images for your composition. Want to learn how, then check out this pro tip. With your document open, first come up to layout, click on margins and columns. In the column section, set the gutter to zero and click Okay. Next, grab the frame tool or press F on the keyboard. With the frame tool active, click and drag to the size you want to fill, and then press right and up on the keyboard. As you do this, you will add to your frame grid. Do this until you have as many frames as you like. Upon release, you will now have individual frames set seamlessly together. Next, I'll press Command plus D on Mac or Control plus D on PC, navigate to a folder full of images, select all, click Place, and now I can click into each frame to drop in an image. With all the images inside, with them all selected, I'll right click, come down to fit in and click fill frame proportionally. And just like that, I have a seamless grid of images. Now, if you want to place some space between each frame in your seamless grid, with them all selected, drag the frames in slightly while holding Shift, then click and drag back out. But this time, press and hold space bar as you do this. Drag to the space, release, and you will now add space between your frames. With them all selected, I'll right click, come down to fit in and click fill frame proportionally. And that will readjust your images inside the new frame sizes to fit perfectly. 12. Place An Image Into a Custom Vector Shape In InDesign: In Adobe in design, when working with images, you're not only limited to the shapes you can build in in design. One trick is to paste in custom shapes from Illustrator and then use them as frames to place in images. Want to learn how, then check out this pro tip. So here I have a black and white silhouette image as a flat JPEG in Photoshop. And in in design, I'm using this shape as a frame to contain an image. To do this is simple. First, in Adobe Illustrator, I'll open my silhouette image. I'll come up to the Control panel and click Image Trace. Once traced, click Expand. Then with the Magic One Tool, click to select all the white and delete until you're left with just the black silhouette vector. Now, if you have a complex vector shape like this here where some of the parts are not attached, you will first need to select all the vector shapes, come to the Pathfinder panel, click on the top right menu and click on make compound shape. This will guarantee that it will be one complete vector shape when we come to paste it into in design. Once you have a vector image shape in Illustrator, it's easy to get this into in design. First, copy your custom vector shape in Illustrator, then into in design, paste. Upon pasting, in design will recognize the vector shape and the frame outlines. Next in the toolbar, set the fill and stroke to transparent. And with the new custom frame selected, simply press Command plus D on Mac or Control plus D on PC, navigate to your image, open, and your image will be placed into your custom vector shape. And now you can use the direct selection tool to scale and position your image inside your frame. Excellent. 13. Place specific Photoshop Layers Into InDesign: Did you know that you can place multiple different images into in design just using one Photoshop file? This is done by importing specific layers from one document. Want to learn how, then check out this pro tip. So here I am in Photoshop, and here I have a simple Photoshop document with multiple layers. Inter in Design with a document open, press Command plus D on Mac or Control plus D on PC and navigate to a PSD file with multiple layers. Once you have navigated to your file, before clicking Open, be sure you have the show Import options checked. This is really important. When you click Open, before the image drops into your document, you will see the layers tab. From here, you can toggle on and off the layers to choose a specific layer. In this instance, I'll go with the Clouds layer. Click Okay, and that will appear in my document. With one image placed in a document, press Command plus D on Mac or Control plus D on PC, navigate back to the same PSD file with the showimport options checked, click Okay, and here you can choose another layer. This time, I'll choose balloon two and make sure the clouds layer is unselected. Click Okay and drag to place down the image. Now I have two images in my document from one Photoshop file. Here I can keep placing images and use the very same document to create a simple composition from the same Photoshop document. In in design, you can have multiple image frames with the same image asset, but they look different because we have activated a different layer in each. Nice. So remember, using layer options, you can import multiple layers from one document into in design. This is also true with Illustrator files. If you use an Illustrator document with multiple artboards, you can choose which artboard you want to bring in. Easy. 14. Place Space Between Your Text In Index's & Menus In InDesign: In Adobe in design, you can create a simple index in seconds by adding consistent space between your text. In Indesign, this is referred to as a write indent tab. Want to learn how to use them, then check out this pro tip. So with a document open, once you have a text frame, you're going to need two parts of text. The first part is on the left, and the second part is on the right. In this case, it's a burger name on the left and the price on the right. First, make sure you're in normal mode. If not, press W to toggle between normal and preview mode. For this, I recommend you come up to type. Come down and make sure you can see your hidden characters. With it active, you will be able to see all the hidden characters. Now, hidden characters in Adobe and design are non printing symbols that represent formatting elements in your text, such as spaces, paragraph breaks, tabs, and line breaks. These characters are essential for understanding the structure and flow of your text, but are invisible by default when working in a document. So right now, we can see there is a paragraph break at the end of each line, and in between the burger name and the price, we can see a dot which represents a space. Once you have your text ready, place your mouse cursor where you want to place a gap. I'll select the space here between the words. Come up to type, down to insert special character, down to other, and click on Indent tab. Upon click, you will now place space between your text, and you will see text on the left and the next piece of text on the right. Once you insert a right indent, you will now see this symbol which represents the right indent. Now it's just a case of selecting the right indent you just placed in, press Command plus C on Mac or Control plus C on PC to copy, place your mouse cursor into the next place. Here I'll select the space between and paste. Keep in mind, you can also use the keyboard shortcut Shift plus tab. Do this as many times as you like, and soon you will have an index or menu. Nice. Now, the great thing about this is, if you press Escape to deselect the text, you can increase or decrease the width of your text frame, and the space between will respond. Excellent. 15. Set An Image To Greyscale - Black & White In InDesign: Did you know that you can set an image to grayscale really easily in Adobe in design without editing the original? Now, this one is a great timesaver. Want to learn how, then check out this pro tip. With a document open, first place in an image with your image inside in design, select the image, press Command plus C on Mac or Control plus C on PC to copy. Then press Command plus Shift plus V on Mac or Control plus Shift plus B on PC to paste in place. This will simply duplicate the frame to the exact size on top, regardless of the shape. Press A to activate the direct selection tool, click into the top frame to select the image and press Delete to remove the image. Then fill the frame to black, come up to your effect panel, click on the drop down for the blending mode and set this to color. This will now create an effect that will set your image to black and white. Now, if the image looks like it has a warm tint, be sure to come up to edit down to transparency blending space, set this to RGB, and the image result will look more true to black and white. Excellent. 16. Class Conclusion: So this brings us to the end of adobe in design pro tips. I hope you found these pro tips helpful and that you're feeling more confident with your in design skills. By now, you've learned some valuable techniques and hidden features that will help you streamline your workflow and enhance the quality of your layouts. Remember, these pro tips aren't just about making things faster. They're about making your design process more efficient and professional. You continue to apply these tips to your projects, you'll be able to create even more polished and impactful designs. And remember, this class is just the beginning. As new tips and techniques are added, you'll have a growing library of tools to help you master in design. So don't forget to check back for more updates and continue refining your skills. Thanks again for taking the time to invest in your design journey. So until next time, unleash your creativity, and I'll see you in the next class.