Use the CS3 Video Workshop to Learn InDesign CS3
On the day that Adobe started shipping InDesign CS3 (and the other CS3 applications), it also made available the CS3 Video Workshop. This is a new way to learn about Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications through the use of free Flash videos which you can play in your web browser.
Adobe called on a number of power users and trainers to record the videos last winter, and many of the ones for InDesign CS3 were recorded by our own David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepción! You can get to the Video Workshop from the Adobe Design Center.
Video_Start
When you start the Video Workshop, you choose from the different CS3 products in the Design and Web editions. You can see the details about each of the videos—including title, presenter, level (beginner or intermediate/advanced), topics, and length. Each video covers a single subject and typically runs about 3 to 5 minutes, some are longer.
Video Workshop_Controls
By default, the display shows topic, length and products covered (some like those for Bridge are appropriate for all the CS3 products). However, notice the Customize Video Menu in tiny blue type circled in red above. It lets you also easily customize the display to view the presenter, level and topics.
Because these are Flash videos they should work flawlessly in almost all browsers for Mac and Windows (reportedly 98% of browsers support Flash). In the video below, David is showing off the Synchronizing Master Pages feature in InDesign CS3.
Video Workshop_Example
Many of the videos also come with an illustrated tutorial in HTML you can print out, and sample files which you can download as well, so you can print out the detailed steps and try out some of the features yourself when you get InDesign CS3.
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The Video Workshops are accessible in other ways too. When you get your copy of InDesign CS3 and open the Help file, you’ll see links to videos in the Help text (shown below). Also check out Bridge CS3 which comes with InDesign CS3 and the Creative Suite. If you click on the Bridge Home in the Favorites panel, you also get access to videos, as well as Adobe Resources, InDesign news, and community resources. Of course, the InDesign Secrets podcast is listed, but you know about that already because you’re here!
Video Workshop_Help
Just a note to David about the Text Wrap video. He mentioned the “Suppress Text when Layer is Hidden” feature is new to CS3. It’s been arond since at least CS2. He might want to make that correction :)
Oh drat! You’re right; thank you. I’ll pass it on, though it’s pretty unlikely that they’ll be able to fix it. Oh well. (This is one of the problems with using CS3 for months: It gets hard to remember what features are new, which were in CS2, and which are even older.)
Sorry Guys ! This feature appeared in CS1 ! ;-)
I’m in the same boat David. I’ve been training a large company on CS1 for the last 6 months, and frustrated with the fact that I couldn’t show off all the cool stuff in CS2. They’re tied into a CMS system that won’t support CS2 until late summer!
Hey Branislav, I’ve been dumbed down having been relegated to the very basics of CS1, including NO layers. It’s hard to cope :(
Now I have to get training on CS3 and I’m going to forget what changes happened between CS2 and CS3 from CS1, DOH!!!
I meant I need to start training folks on CS3. I was training folks on CS2 since Fall ‘05 and it was hard to unlearn all great things CS2. I’m sure I will be annoyed come late summer when I have to unlearn CS3 to teach this group CS2. Man that bites my butt!
Well, in my defense: First, I don’t actually say that this was a new feature in CS3. I only say that it is a feature in CS3 (though I admit that it’s somewhat ambiguous). Second, I only had about an hour to prepare for this particular video (longer to prepare some of the other ones) and I didn’t have CS1 or CS2 nearby to check. Oh well.
Casey, I feel your pain. It’s definitely a difficult task.
I may be posting this on the wrong page.
This Video Workshop is awesome!
I just hope they don’t start charging for it. Right now, I want it all and am waiting for my premium design suite to arrive so I can order even more stuff.
Again, the word, ladies and gentlemen, is MAGNIFICENT!
I can’t get it to work in Safari. It keeps telling me I need to update my flash player and I have the current version installed. Any ideas whether anyone else has had this issue?
This happened to me on one of my computers.
If you open up Safari > Help > Installed plug-ins you may see, as I did, both Flash 8 and Flash 9 installed.
If so, go to Library > Internet Plug-ins, and removed the older one which somehow didn’t get removed. Then try it again.
Or use Firefox.
Steve
Thanks Steve that was exactly it.
Daniel
You know, I love this Video Workshop thing! I had no idea that they’d be available on the web and via Bridge, instead of just on a DVD in the box (which in my office would quickly disappear into a pile of shelf flotsam within hours, never to be seen again).
The breadth of the video lessons is great. I keep dipping into them during work breaks. Now I’ve finally seen how Contribute works! heh … and I’ve been enjoying watching artist/experts like Katrin Eismann (Photoshop) and Chris Georgenes (Flash) explain and demo key techniques, it’s neat to see the “artist at work.”
I just think Adobe came up with a hit — it’s a gift to their users, and it helps them expose their full product line to people like me who tend to get stuck in a software rut. And they picked the right vendor, too — lynda.com did an excellent job of editing and producing these!
I want to learn Indesign perfectly.
I want to learn Indesign within 3or5 days.
verry good
I second Nitai’s first comment (it actually inspired me to get moving).
This comment is really a plea for help! As a hearing impaired person, videos are tantalising frustrations! Are there text versions of these available? I hope this isn’t off topic!
@David Fillis: try Lynda.com. According to their FAQs (most of) their QuickTime videos have closed captioning.
Adobe really ought to have included those too, even though I personally don’t have any hearing problems, it’s not always practical to turn speakers on.