GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

GETTING STARTED WITH

ADOBE INDESIGN CC

Contents

Getting started in InDesign CC ........................................................................................................... 2

Adding Pages .................................................................................................................................... 3
Working with Links ............................................................................................................................. 3
Working with Frames.......................................................................................................................... 4
Text Frames ...................................................................................................................................... 5
Combining Text and Images ............................................................................................................... 6
Combining Text and images (in a much cooler way!) ............................................................................ 7
More Text Formatting ......................................................................................................................... 8
Adding Text to a Curved Path ............................................................................................................. 9
Creating Custom Shapes ................................................................................................................. 10
Working with Swatches .................................................................................................................... 11
Adding Interactive Elements ............................................................................................................. 11
Working with Audio .......................................................................................................................... 13
Producing a Magazinefor iPad ......................................................................................................... 14
Setting up youriPad Magazine ......................................................................................................... 14
Adding Content ................................................................................................................................ 14
Adding Animation............................................................................................................................. 15
Adding Hyperlinks ............................................................................................................................ 16
More Advanced Animation ............................................................................................................... 16
Other Effects.................................................................................................................................... 18
Publishing Online ............................................................................................................................. 18

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 1

 GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

Getting started in InDesign CC

The purpose of this document is to introduce you to

some of the basic features of Adobe InDesign CC.
InDesign is professional standard software - you can do
so many things with it – so the best way to learn is to
dive in and have a go. If you need it though, this booklet
will give you some places to start.
For now, we’re going to open a new A4 document.
Everything else can be left on the default settings. For
more about creating interactive documents see page 14.

Shown above are main areas of the InDesign

Workspace. The toolbox, on the left, contains many of
the tools you may be familiar with from other software
packages.

Menus

Panels

Tool Box

The panels area, on the right, contains the panels you’ll need to become familiar with if you
are to create an effective publication.
The panels area can be customised. Adding or removing panels can be done from the
Window Menu.

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 2

 GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

The layout of the

workspace can also be
saved so that you do not
have to keep opening
different panels whenever
you start InDesign.
To save the layout of your
screen, go to Window >
Workspace > New
Workspace.
The rest of this booklet
will introduce you to
some of the basic tools
and techniques available
in InDesign. You will also
learn how to use some of
the common panels.

Adding Pages
We’re going to start by adding some pages to your
document. This is easily done using the pages panel.
By opening this panel, you will see the pages you
have already plus, at the top, the available master
pages that are available to you (Master pages are
covered later).
You can click on one of the icons at the bottom of
the panel to either create a new page or delete an
existing one.
Create
New Page
Edit Page
Size Delete
Working with Links Selected
Pages
One of the main things to remember with
InDesign is that objects are linked rather than
embedded. This means that, for example, images will
need to be saved in a particular folder and not
moved. If you haven’t done so already, create folder
now to house all your magazine’s content.
This works in a similar way to setting up a web page or editing a movie in that, if you move
the file from the original folder it will not show up in your publication.
An Advantage of this is that content can easily be updated by simply altering the original
source file, but you might find this a little awkward if you’re used to standard office software.

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 3

 GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

If you haven’t already done so, set up your folder structure now!

Working with Frames

Frames are one of the most important features in any
desktop publishing software. Frames are used to house
images, text or any other content in your publication.
You can add frames yourself or InDesign will create them
for you if you import an element. Let’s start by drawing a
rectangular frame.
Next, we’re going to insert and image into the frame.
To do this click File > Place and navigate to the folder
containing the desired image. It may look a little strange
at first, particularly if it is a large image, like the one show
on the right. Don’t worry about that at this stage as we’re
going to fix that now.
At the top right of the screen are some buttons which change
the way the image is displayed within the frame. Have a play
with them now and see what they do. Use Ctrl + Z to undo your
last move when experimenting.

Fill Frame Proportionally Fit Content to Frame

Centre Content

Fit Content Proportionally Fit Frame to Content

As with all your work, cast a critical eye over it to make

sure the look of the image is what you intended. Your
image should look natural, not stretched or misaligned in
any way.

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 4

 GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

The Selection Tool allows you to grab the image and frame and move it to a different area
of the page. The Direct Selection Tool has a slightly different function in that it allows you to
move the image but not the frame, as shown to the right.
Have a play with both tools to work out the differences.

Tool Selection
Tool Direct Selection

Text Frames
Next, we’re going to add a text frame. To do this, click on the text tool
and draw a text frame in the same way as you would draw a text box in Word.

You can right click inside the text frame

and choose Fill with Placeholder Text to
fill your text frame with ‘dummy’ text.

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 5

 GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

Combining Text and Images

It is likely at some point that you’ll need to combine images and text in the same piece of
work. In this example, I have opened the Text Wrap panel by going to the Window menu and
choosing Text Wrap.

Again, select the image and see what the controls at the top of the panel do.

In the example on the left, the

distances at the bottom and right
of the image have been set to
1mm and 2mm respectively to
create the effect shown.
Experiment with some of the
other options on this panel to find
out what they do.

Note the little red + at the bottom of the text box. This means that your text now flows out of
the text box and you have some that can’t be seen. To correct this, draw another text box,
click on the red cross and move the text into the new box. The two boxes are now linked and
text will flow from one to another.

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 6

 GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

Combining Text and images (in a much cooler way!)

Use the Pen Tool to draw an outline around a shape

you want to “cut out”. Note: it might take you a few
attempts to get used to how this tool works (click and
drag an anchor point to get the curved lines).

Next, select your background image and cut it

(Ctrl + X).
Right-click on the shape and choose Paste Into.
You should then see something like this.

The black line

has been
removed by
changing the
options here.

You can then use the Text Wrapping options to make your text flow around the image,
like this:

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 7

 GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

More Text Formatting

Placing your text into columns is pretty easy. Click on the text box, or highlight the
text and simply change the number of columns here.

Explore other options on the Paragraph panel. For example, to add a drop cap, change this
number (if you can’t find the paragraph panel, go to Window > Type & Tables >
Paragraph).

Justification Options

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 8

 GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

Adding Text to a Curved Path

Another thing that is straight forward when you know how!

On your
document, draw a
curved line, like
this one.

Hold down the text icon and select Type on a Path Tool. Then click on the line you drew
earlier and start typing. You can format the text in the normal way.

This technique will also work with other shapes too.

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 9

 GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

Another thing to look at is the Object >

Effects menu. In this example a “Drop
Shadow2 will be applied to the text box
containing “My Headline”.

You can customise your effects using

this screen. For now, we’ll leave them
on the default settings.

A Drop Shadow applied.

You can add

effects to lots of
objects – Have a
play, experiment
to find out what
works.

Creating Custom Shapes

This section looks at creating your own custom
shapes using the pen tool.

You can use this to draw shapes like this.

If you want to change the shape after you’ve
made it, you could use the Add Anchor
Point Tool then the Direct
Selection Tool to move the anchor point.

You can add

text to the shape, in the same way as discussed earlier.

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 10

 GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

Working with Swatches

Swatches allow you use pre-

existing colours or define custom
ones. You can set the fill, outline
or text colour very easily.
You define your own custom
swatch by clicking New Swatch
then double-clicking on the
colour to take you to the screen
below. The colour can then be
defined in detail.

New Swatch

Swatches can be applied to any object or text

within your publication and, once set up, used
over and over again.

Adding Interactive Elements

Everything we’ve looked at so far has given you the skills to create your
own publications.
In the modern world, publications are not just made for print, they are
designed to be published online for consumption on PCs, tablets and
phones. One advantage of this is that publishers can include a wider range
of interactive elements, rather than just static content such as text and
images. This section shows you how to add these elements.

InDesign usually defaults to the

‘Essentials’ workspace. For
interactive elements we need to
change that to ‘Interactive for
PDF’. Select this. You will see some interactive
panels appear which we’re going to explore now.

Videos in interactive PDFs need to be compatible with Flash player.

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 11

 GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

Use File > Place and navigate to your video

(which should be saved in the same folder as
your other media). Place the video on the page,
using the ‘fit’ tools as necessary.
In this example, a border has been
added to the video to make it stand out.
The stroke has been aligned to the
outside to stop it covering the video.
We’re then going to use the ‘Media’
panel to set the options for our video.

In this example, we’ve set the video to play when the

page is loaded.
You can also set the default image to display by
scrolling through the video, choosing ‘From Current
Frame’ when you reach the desired image, then click
on the refresh tool.
We’ve also changed the ‘Controller’ to
‘SkinOverPlaySeekStop’. Feel free to have a play with
some of the others to see the difference.

You can then click on ‘SWF

Preview’ to preview how your video
will look.

Also, at the bottom of the Media

panel is an Adobe Logo. This allows
you to set the PDF options for
export. You can add a description of
the video, to help people who may
be visually impaired, or make the
video appear in a floating window
and set its initial size/position.

Bow we can export our publication to see our video working. You can export via the File
menu, but a shortcut to export is Ctrl + E. Make sure the file type is set to ‘Adobe PDF
(Interactive)’.

Once you’ve exported your page, you can open it and preview your video.

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 12

 GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

Working with Audio

Audio files can be inserted in much

the same way as videos (MP3 files
seem to work best).
Place an audio file into your page.
The media panel can then be used to
customise how your audio file looks
and plays, for example triggering it
automatically when
the page loads. You can also set a
default thumbnail image or upload
your own.
Next, we can add some buttons to
control your audio (this can be done
for your video too if desired.

Place four graphics to act as stop, play resume and pause buttons. Use the ‘Buttons and
Forms’ panel to set the appropriate action for each button.
Once exported, your buttons can be used to control the playback of your audio.

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 13

 GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

Producing a Magazine for iPad

InDesign CC has settings for various
devices to help you. In this example
we’re going to create a publication for
iPad.

Setting up your iPad Magazine

Create a new document using the
‘Mobile’ and ‘iPad’ settings.

Adding Content
Once your pages are set up, it’s time to
add some content. Choose ‘Digital
Publishing from the menu at the top
and you’ll see a menu with lots of
interactive features on it. In this
example we’ve added a button and set
it to hyperlink to a web page when
clicked.

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 14

 GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

Adding Animation

The animation panel

allows animation to be
added to page elements
in much the same way
as you can do in
Programs such as
Microsoft PowerPoint. In
this example we have
placed an image, then
used the Animation
Panel to manage how
enters when the page is
loaded.

The Timing Panel allows you to

change the timings of the animation.

Other content, such as audio and

video can be added and formatted
as shown earlier in this document.

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 15

 GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

Adding Hyperlinks

As already shown, buttons can be added and linked to web pages. Other types of links can
also be added. In this example we are hyperlinking some text to go to the second page of our
publication.
Highlight the text you want to hyperlink, click on the menu at the
top-right of the ‘Hyperlinks’ panel. Then chose ‘New Hyperlink’.

You can then set the

destination for the hyperlink.

More Advanced Animation

In this example we have placed

2 objects, as shown
here. We’re going to animate
the text to appear when the
triangle is rolled over and
disappear when the cursor
moves off the triangle.

For the purposes of this exercise. The text box containing the ‘Dovedale’ text will be called
‘Rectangle’ and the trigger button ‘Triangle’.

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 16

 GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

First, click on the rectangle, then open the ‘Buttons and Forms’ panel.

Use the settings shown here: Make your shape a button called ‘Rectangle’ and, under
‘Appearance’, check the ‘Hidden Until Triggered’ box.
Next, click on the triangle. Under ‘Event’, select ‘On Roll Over’.

Add a new action, selecting ‘Show/Hide Buttons and

Forms’. Under ‘Visibility’, click the cross next to the
triangle, as shown above.
Under ‘Event’, select ‘On Roll Off’. Then, add a new
action, selecting ‘Show/Hide Buttons and Forms’.
Under ‘Visibility’, click the eye next to the rectangle until
it shows the eye with a line through it, as shown on the
left.
That’s it. Preview your document to see it work.

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 17

 GETTING STARTED WITH ADOBE INDESIGN CC Lorenzo Andreani

Other Effects
There are lots of other things you can add to your digital magazine. Have a play with the
panels and try a few things. If they don’t work, undo them and try again. For example, below,
a panoramic image has been added and the animation set so the image appears to ‘slide’
across the page.

Publishing Online
InDesign CC as a great little feature
to allow you to publish and share
your publication
(you will need to be signed in to Creative
Cloud).

Once you click on ‘Publish’ your

publication will be uploaded to the
cloud and you can get a sharable link
or use other sharing options.

You also have the option to ‘Update Existing Document’, which means you can replace your
publication as you make changes to it, rather than uploading a new document each time.

WAES – Westminster Adult Education Service 18