InDesign Secrets Store

Welcome! You can help support InDesignSecrets.com by purchasing one or more of these fabulous pieces of merch!

In Our eSellerate Store

eBook: The InDesignSecrets Guide to Graphic Effects

The InDesign Secrets Guide to Graphic FX eBook (PDF, 150 pp, $9.95) will thrill you with all the ways you can make InDesign do things your mama never told you about. In this 150-page PDF, InDesign guru Mike Rankin takes you through dozens of ways to spice up your type and artwork using familiar InDesign tools found in versions CS3 and later.

Chapters include drawing realistic drips, creating 3D and woodcarving effects, building repeating patterns, making shiny objects (like buttons), creating punch-throughs, stickers, and rips; making banners and ribbons, putting images on a stroke, and creating cool image frames such as Polaroid and matte frames. You’ve never seen InDesign pushed to these limits before!

Note: Step-by-steps are great, but sometimes it helps to start at the end and work backwards. If you’d like access to the actual InDesign artwork that Mike shows as the “final” effect in each chapter, check out this eBook’s companion download, “Guide to GraphicFX_Samples.zip.” It’s a collection of each effect saved as an individual IDML and INX file, suitable for opening and fiddling with in InDesign CS3, CS4, or CS5. (The book and companion sample files are also available as a bundle purchase, which costs less than buying them separately.)

Click the eBook cover above, or click here to see all our products at our eSellerate store.

eBook:
InDesignSecrets Top 40 Tips

InDesignSecrets Top 40 Tips eBook (PDF, 104 pp, $9.95) Are you new to InDesignSecrets.com, or just want to read what the editors consider the “best of the best” articles ever written on the InDesignSecrets.com blog? Then you’ll love the InDesignSecrets Top 40 Tips eBook!

Flip through the 100+ pages and you’ll find must-read after must-read post, complete with original screenshots, including “Multi-level Automatic Numbering,” “Why are there Parentheses in My Text Sizes?” “Deep Clean with INX & IDML,” “More Free and Commercial Scripts,” and other reader favorites. Links to the original posts are included with every story. Many of the articles also reprint the two or three most useful comments that readers posted to the story on the blog. Read this PDF and you’ll be completely caught up with the most important and useful InDesign information that we’ve published since 2005!

  • Only $9.95 for each copy of the full e-book (104 pp); download it immediately after purchase.

Click the eBook cover above, or click here to see all our products at our eSellerate store.

eBook: The InDesignSecrets Guide to What’s New in InDesign CS5

by Pariah S. Burke, Anne-Marie Concepcion, and David Blatner

The InDesign Secrets Guide to What’s New in InDesign CS5 eBook (PDF, 106 pp, $9.95) is your secret weapon in discovering how to use and best apply CS5’s new features to the projects you’re working on today.

Dozens of new features are logically organized into 7 chapters: What’s New: with Text & Typography (span/split columns, document fonts, balance columns, more); What’s New: with Pages (mixed page sizes, more); What’s New: with Documents (track changes, presentation mode, CS Review, more); What’s New: with Objects (autofit, gridify, Gap tool, Layers panel, more); What’s New: with Images (content grabber, Mini Bridge, live captions, more); What’s New: with Interactive PDFs & EPUBS (Preview panel, EPUB export, more); and What’s New: with Animation (animating, object states, multimedia import, more).

Click the eBook cover above, or click here to see all our eBooks at our eSellerate store.

The InDesignSecrets Guide to the InDesign CS5 ACE Exam

The InDesign Secrets Guide to the InDesign CS5 ACE Exam eBook (PDF, 155 pp, $9.95) is the most thorough resource available for anyone interested in becoming an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in InDesign. More than a simple study guide, it offers you a comprehensive plan for preparing for and passing the exam.

The Guide breaks down every one of the dozens InDesign CS5 testing objectives (as published by Adobe) and shows exactly what you need to practice and study. Objectives are illustrated with screenshots from InDesign and are hyperlinked to the relevant information in InDesign’s online help, so you can get immediate answers to your questions.

Each chapter ends with sample test questions (and their answers) to help you gauge your progress as you go. Additional chapters detail the testing process, self-assessment, personalized study plans, study tips, test-taking strategies, and re-certification objectives. With The InDesign Secrets Guide to the InDesign CS5 ACE Exam you can accelerate and focus your preparation so you walk into the testing center with confidence, and walk out an ACE.

  • Download a free Sample Chapter (13 pp, a 800 Kb PDF) to see how Mike breaks down the test objectives (in this case, graphics) into clear, concise, and generously illustrated explanations. The Sample Chapter also includes the full Table of Contents.
  • Only $9.95 for each copy of the full e-book (155 pp); download it immediately after purchase.

Click the eBook cover above, or click here to see all our eBooks at our eSellerate store.

InDesign Keyboard Shortcuts Posters
for CS2, CS3, CS4, and CS5

Blue: CS2 poster
Magenta: CS3 poster
Gold: CS4 poster
(click to buy)		 Green: CS5 poster
(click to buy)

Designed by David and Anne-Marie, these 18″ by 26″ full-color posters list all of InDesign keyboard shortcuts in an easy-to-read, logical manner; and includes many more than you find on the menus! One side lists Mac OS X shortcuts, the other side lists Windows shortcuts. Makes a great gift for yourself and your InDesign-using friends!

  • Go to the Poster Details page to learn more about the poster and see detailed screen shots of both sides.
  • $15.00 plus shipping/handling, big discount for orders of 2 or more posters to same shipping address
  • 30% Discount off your order if you enter the discount coupon NEWCS5 in the shopping cart before December 31, 2010.

Click the poster links above, or click here to visit the poster page at eSellerate. (If it bounces you back here, just click one more time. Weird bug in some browsers.)

InDesign CS3 or CS4 Essential Training Videos

As we’ve mentioned in our podcasts and on the blog, our very own David Blatner has created “essentials” InDesign training courses with Lynda.com. The InDesign CS3 title has a total of 9 hours of video lessons, and the InDesign CS4 title has 11 hours. They cover all the basics: creating documents, managing master pages, building styles, specifying and applying colors and gradients… virtually everything you need to know to be truly “InDesign Literate.”

Each topic is covered in its own movie around 5 minutes long, so you don’t need to watch the whole thing! Just view the topics you’re interested in.

While this title is available as part of Lynda.com’s Online Training Library (with a subscription), there are several benefits from buying the CD-ROM version:

  • No internet connection required – faster access to movies
  • Includes tutorial files so you can work along with the instructor
  • Higher quality movies and sound
  • You can take the CD with you when you travel or work without internet connection

Please note that for the time being, we can only sell this disc within North America. Please contact us at info [at] indesignsecrets.com if you want to buy it outside of North America.

Click here to visit our eSellerate video page.

In Our CafePress Store

NEW: Sphinx pangram t-shirts!

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More styles and sizes from $11.99 and up at our CafePress.com store!

Proclaim your InDesign guru-ness with the t-shirt that will make your fellow InDesign freaks do a double-take! “Where have I seen that phrase …” they’ll be thinking, as you strut on by.

“Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow” is a pangram (a sentence that uses every letter at least once) that’s enjoyable just in and of itself, and bound to spark a conversation with anyone curious about the phrase, every time you wear it.

But the fact that it’s the pangram used in InDesign and InCopy’s preferences (to preview fonts for the Story Editor) is what makes this really special to the graphic design geeknoscenti.

We’ve got lots of t-shirt styles in many different colors and sizes for both men and women, the two pictured above are just a sample. Get on over to the “Apparel” department in our CafePress.com store to see the whole line-up and order one for yourself and that special InDesign someone.

InDesignSecrets.com coffee mug and barbecue apron

CafePressMug CafePress Apron
InDesignSecrets.com Mug
When you drink from this beautiful white InDesignSecrets mug you’ll be the envy of your coworkers!		 InDesignSecrets BBQ Apron
Protect yourself from the messy realities of cooking (and InDesign) with this classy InDesign Secrets apron.