The best way to learn InDesign (or any program) is to play with it for days and weeks and months… But most people don’t have time to play—they need to get their work done today. Here’s a list of some of the best available resources to turn to when you need an answer quickly.
Books
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By Olav Martin Kvern, David Blatner, and Bob Bringhurst
You’ll find everything you need here to successfully master InDesign’s advanced page-layout tools; manage color; build XML templates; and run your own custom InDesign scripts. You’ll also find complete coverage of all of InDesign’s new features. This is The Book on InDesign. If you are still using older versions of InDesign, here are links for
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Check out our collection of great InDesignSecrets eBooks (in PDF format), including The InDesignSecrets Guide to Graphic Effects, InDesignSecrets Top 40 Tips, The InDesignSecrets Guide to the New Features in InDesign CS5, and The InDesignSecrets Guide to the InDesign CS5 ACE Exam
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by Sandee Cohen
Need a good book to get up to speed quickly in InDesign? Sandee Cohen’s InDesign Visual QuickStart Guide is the way to go. Think of it this way: You’re definitely going to want the Visual QuickStart Guide for the first two months you use InDesign.
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by Michael “the indesigner” Murphy
Ignore the “CS4″ in the title — this book is relevant for any InDesign version. If you want to get more efficient with InDesign, you need to use styles, and this book shows you how!
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by Jim Maivald and Cathy Palmer
If you want to get up to speed with XML and InDesign, you are really, really going to need some training, and this is one of the best resources around. Note that Jim also recorded this as a video title at lynda.com
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by Grant Gamble
Want to go deep into InDesign, XML, and Javascript? This self-published book is a terrific tome that will help you get up and running, and then take you far!
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By David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepción (2005, Blatner Books in association with Peachpit Press)
Page-layout guru David Blatner and veteran trainer Anne-Marie “HerGeekness” Concepción have scoured the online forums, interviewed Adobe engineers, and gathered together answers to over 200 of the most-commonly asked questions. Written in a sassy, fun-to-read style, this book tackles every major InDesign problem with a lay-it-on-the-line solution. Adobe InDesign CS/CS2 Breakthroughs is for anyone who has been using InDesign long enough to realize that the solution to their problems isn’t always as obvious as one would expect!
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By Pariah S. Burke 2010, Sybex
Written in an easy-to-read, straightforward style, Mastering InDesign is a full-color, heavily-illustrated book that covers the InDesign features you need to know about with a focus on workflow efficiency. Pariah’s humor and training skills definitely come through!
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by Nigel French
You want better-looking type, right? Everyone who likes type and typography and wants to make their text look great should check out this book. Nigel also has several great titles in the lynda.com library.
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by Dorothy Hoskins (Kindle Edition only)
Here’s another great book about using XML with InDesign by someone who knows XML inside and out. This is currently a kindle-only edition from O’Reilly books (but you can read it using the Kindle software on your desktop web browser or iPad).
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Moving to InDesign: Use What You Know About QuarkXPress and PageMaker to Get Up to Speed in InDesign Fast!
by David Blatner, Steve Werner, and Christopher Smith
Okay, so this book is a bit old, but if you’re still using PageMaker or QuarkXPress 4 or 5, then you’re probably a bit outdated, too. This book will help you make the transition from those programs to InDesign! (The first edition of this book was called “InDesign for QuarkXPress Users.”)
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by Liz Castro
If you want to learn how to make EPUB files, you almost certainly want to get a copy of this book! Chock full of tidbits about EPUB and InDesign, Liz makes it easy!
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Videos
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Several of us here at InDesignSecrets have recorded video titles at lynda.com, including David Blatner, Anne-Marie Concepcion, Mike Rankin, and James Fritz. Sign up for a free one-week trial at lynda.com with this link: http://www.lynda.com/trial/indesignsecrets
If you like it, a monthly or yearly subscription is an inexpensive to keep up with your skills and watch over 40,000 movies! It’s an all-you-can-watch extravaganza!
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by David Blatner
Designed for new and experienced InDesign users, as well as those who are migrating from other layout applications, InDesign Essential Training covers all the bases. From exploring each of its tools in depth to teaching layout principles and techniques, instructor David Blatner covers everything needed to use InDesign productively. He demystifies InDesign’s powerful features, including converting QuarkXPress files, formatting characters and paragraphs, setting up style sheets for better productivity, and much more. Exercise files accompany the tutorial.
Want David’s Essential Training course, but don’t want to stream it from the Online Training Library? (Some people have restricted bandwidth, so a DVD is easier.) This DVD covers everything you need to get up and running with InDesign!
Here are several other titles that you may also be interested in buying on DVD:
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Other Resources
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InDesign Magazine is the first bimonthly PDF periodical devoted entirely to Adobe InDesign and to the growing community of InDesign professionals. With editorial direction by page-layout guru and author David Blatner and creativepro.com editor in chief Terri Stone, InDesign Magazine brings you the in-depth features, reviews, and tutorials you need to master Adobe InDesign.
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