Free InDesign Templates
January 29th, 2007Where can you find over twenty folders full of professionally-designed publication templates created in InDesign?
On your hard drive, if you have InDesign CS2 (the only version that comes with templates).
The easiest way to find them and preview them is from within InDesign. You’ll need to re-open the InDesign Welcome screen (which you stopped from automatically appearing long ago) by choosing Welcome Screen from the Help menu, and when the splash screen appears click the New from Template button.
What happens next is a bit of surprise; Adobe Bridge starts up and shows you the contents of your InDesign Templates folder. Didn’t know you had a templates folder, did you? It was installed automatically with InDesign.
The InDesign Templates folder contains a bunch of Collections (saved Bridge searches) and further down, 21 subfolders with names like Menus, Presentations, Newsletters, and Forms. Double-click one of the folders or one of the Collections, and Bridge shows you thumbnails of the templates it contains.
If you change the view to Filmstrip (from the View menu in Bridge) you can investigate each template page by page without having to actually open them. In the screen shot above I’m looking at page 1 of a 2-page newsletter template in Bridge. The “Business Sets” folder I’m browsing contains six sets of branded business collateral for a total of 48 templates! Double-clicking a template opens an untitled copy of it in InDesign.
Even if you’re not the type to use a template, they’re great for investigating how a savvy InDesign user might put together a piece. The files contain interesting uses of custom colors and blends, and all make intelligent use of layers, guides, paragraph and character styles. Linked images are embedded, but you can use the Unembed command in the Links palette menu if you want to open them up in Photoshop or Illustrator.
Yes, the templates are really helpful.
I found them a few months ago since they are not installed in the program folder.
Great suggestion to look at the templates for examples of how InDesign can be used - I hadn’t thought of that before, and will definitely suggest that in an InDesign seminar I’m teaching in Feb. Thanks!
Yup, Roanoke, and don’t forget you can use the custom settings in the templates as source material for actual projects.
In your working project, choose Load Swatches from the Swatches palette menu, or Load All Styles from the Paragraph Styles palette menu, and in the resulting dialog box double-click the template that has the assets you want to import.
If you didn’t save template as a new InDesign doc it’s a little hard to find the template folder on your hard drive. So, while in Bridge it’s a good idea to save the templates folder as a Favorite. That way you can click the Adobe Dialog button in the Open/Save dialog box and the Templates folder should be one of the favorites on the left.
If you need to find the folder manually, on the Mac it’s at [hard drive] > Library > Application Support > Adobe > Templates > InDesign. I know there’s an equivalent path in Windows.
Windows path is:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Templates\InDesign
How does one change Bridge’s background color to Black??
You can change Bridge’s background color via a black/white slider in Preferences > General, right at the top. The black background looks sharp, doesn’t it.
Couldn’t find them. Could not open “Welcome Menu” through Help. Was not a choice. I searched my entire computer for indt files and can’t find a one. Help?
Theresa, what version of InDesign are you running (2.0? CS1? CS2?) and what platform are you on?
I used CS2 for my post but didn’t check if the same feature was available for earlier versions. It’s the only reason I can think of why you wouldn’t see the Welcome screen not appearing under the Help menu.
Can’t find it in CS 3.0.1
The welcome screen is not an option in the HELP menu
Oscar and Theresa, I found a computer over here with CS1 installed, and you’re right, templates aren’t available with that version (neither is the Welcome Screen). Sorry about that … I’ll edit my post to add that it’s a CS2-only feature. Thanks for calling it to my attention!
At the opening screen of CS2, when I try to open “new from template,” the template folders appear. For example, I can see the “Brochures” folder. I click on it and an “untitled” folder appears. Then when I try to click on something, the message “no items to display with current filter” comes up. In preferances I set the indt to associate with Indesign 4 or my CS2 version. What am I doing wrong? Thanks for your advice and help. MCS
Milton, that alert (”no items to display with current filter”) leads me to believe that you’ve set Bridge to only show you certain thumbnails (”3 or more stars” e.g.) and hide others. If this is the case, you should be seeing the word “Filtered” appear at the top of the Bridge window, to the right, next to the New Folder button.
To fix it, click on the little triangle to the right of the word Filtered and choose Show All Items from the dropdown menu. Now you should be able to see all the templates thumbnails, and the word Filtered changes to Unfiltered.
is the template included in the trail version too for CS2?
Thanks it’s gonna be a great timesaver!
i’m looking to create a menu and selected one from the template folder. how do i change the standard colors to swatches of my choice?
So the templates DON’T come with the latest (CS3)?
Yes, InDesign CS3 comes with templates, too. (Though perhaps not with the trial version.)
Ashley: You should be able to change the colors in your template in the Swatches panel. Just double-click on a color to change it.
There are also other free templates on the Web. For example, check out these: http://www.stocklayouts.com/
Templates were first included with CS Pagemaker Edition. The welcome screen is more comprehensive in CS3, but yes the templates are there (it’s the folder button at the bottom of the Create New list) and launches into Bridge just as in CS2.
Hi guys,
I’m having a bit of trouble opening the templates in CS2. When I click on the “new from template” button on the welcome screen nothing happens. Furthermore, when I try to access the templates directly from C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Templates\InDesign the files appear to be empty. Can someone tell me what I’m doing wrong? Many thanks.
Joe, did you purchase only InDesign or the entire Suite (IL and PS too)?
Maybe they only come with the Suite; I’m not sure.
i don’t found these template in indesign CS2 !!
can you send to me the Folder contain all Templates to Add to my program
with best regards
Art, can you choose File > Browse? That should also open Bridge, and you should be able to find them there.
Unfortunately the Browse command or icon doesn’t get you there … They drop you somewhere in your Home/MyDocs folder, and the templates are “further up” where all users can access them.
In Windows XP the ID CS3 template folder is in My Computer > Local Disk (C:) > Program Files > Common Files > Adobe > Templates > InDesign.
On Mac OS X (10.4) they’re in Mac HD > Library > App Support > Adobe > Templates > InDesign.
I don’t recall if we ever got it settled whether or not the free ID templates come with the standalone product or only with the Suite.
Thanks! Very useful.
Hi, I have InDesign CS3 and cant find the newsletter templates everyone has been talking about earlier. Can someone give me the window path? Thanks so much!
I found it difficult to locate these templates until I was told that installation puts them exactly where no-ones going to look for them. Try this for the template folder: My Computer > Local Disk (C:) > Program Files > Common Files > Adobe > Templates > InDesign.
Why don’t Adobe make sure they install in the Adobe directory rather than the Common Files folder!!
i want indesign templates and designs