InDesign: Designing Templates

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Free Online Course: InDesign: Designing Templates provided by LinkedIn Learning is a comprehensive online course, which lasts for 3-4 hours worth of material. The course is taught in English and is free of charge. Upon completion of the course, you can receive an e-certificate from LinkedIn Learning. InDesign: Designing Templates is taught by Anne-Marie Concepción.

Overview
  • Find out how to use InDesign to create smart templates that will save time and keep your designs consistent.

Syllabus
  • Introduction

    • Welcome
    • What you should know before watching this course
    • Using the exercise files and loading fonts
    • Installing InDesign scripts
    1. Creating Smart Templates
    • Saving time with a great template
    • Making a simple template
    • Understanding what makes a template smart
    • Finding and evaluating free and commercial InDesign templates
    • Creating a template from an existing publication
    • Creating a template from a PDF
    2. Ingredients for Smart Templates
    • Setting up document intent, page size, bleeds, and slug
    • Adding margin and column guides
    • Creating a simple master page strategy
    • In Practice: Master pages
    • Adding and organizing color swatches
    • Setting up layers to streamline production
    • In Practice: Layers
    • Creating grids and guidelines for accurate layout
    • Adding text and image placeholders
    • Creating library items and snippets for reusable elements
    • In Practice: Library and snippets
    • Including other special items for your publication
    3. Smart Styles Are the Heart of Smart Templates
    • Making smart paragraph and character styles
    • Creating paragraph and character styles where none exist
    • Fixing style overrides with Redefine Style
    • In Practice: Cleaning up broken styles
    • Automating your text formatting with nested styles
    • Including GREP styles to speed formatting
    • Setting up a "style cascade" with the Next Style feature
    • In Practice: Automating your styles
    • Creating new object styles for common image and text frame issues
    • Creating object styles for callout lines and anchored objects
    4. Tips and Best Practices for InDesign Template Creation and Usage
    • Updating preexisting layouts with template elements
    • Using Creative Cloud Libraries
    • Embedding a custom preflight check
    • Helping template users with a style guide
    5. Special Considerations for Other Types of Templates
    • Reviewing a template for a reflowable ebook
    • Evaluating a trade book template and InDesign book files
    • Creating a Word template for your publication's contributors
    • Setting up a template for an interactive layout
    Conclusion
    • Next steps