How to Wow with InDesign [Paperback]

Wayne Rankin (Author), Mike McHugh (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0321316185 | ISBN-13: 978-0321316189 | Publication Date: November 27, 2004

With InDesign CS quickly becoming the new king of the desktop publishing hill, there's no shortage of books promising to get you up to speed it. None, however, does so quite like this one, which keeps the focus right where you, as a designer, want it--on designing! Providing just enough theoretical grounding to use the program effectively but omitting the tech-heavy under-the hood discussions that represent the core of other InDesign tomes, this full-color guide uses gorgeous real-world examples and simple step-by-step instructions to cover all of InDesign CS' features, including its newest: the Story Editor, a Separation Preview palette, nested styles, the Package for GoLive command, and more. As you work through chapters on text and typography, pages and documents, placed images, tables, color, special effects, multimedia, preflighting, and more, you'll quickly master both the InDesign basics you need to get your job done and the advanced techniques that will give your pages that extra flair! A companion CD includes lesson files plus style sheets, templates, graphic libraries, images, and more!

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

With InDesign CS2 quickly becoming the industry standard in desktop publishing, there's no shortage of books promising to get you up to speed on it. None, however, does so quite like this book, which keeps the focus right where you, as a designer, want it--on designing! Providing just enough of a conceptual framework to use the program effectively, but omitting the tech-heavy under-the-hood discussions that represent the core of other InDesign tomes, this full-color guide uses gorgeous real-world examples and simple step-by-step instructions to cover InDesign CS2's newest features. The book includes a chapter on workflow techniques using Adobe Bridge, the new hub uniting the Creative Suite 2 applications. There's coverage of layer comps from Photoshop, and more on typography, including a new justification setting as well as drag-and-drop text. As you work through chapters on text and typography, pages and documents, placed images, tables, color, special effects, multimedia, preflighting, and more, you'll quickly master both the InDesign basics you need to get your job done and the advanced techniques that will give your pages that extra flair! A companion CD includes lesson files plus style sheets, templates, graphic libraries, images, and more! --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Designer Mike McHugh is one of Australia's leading InDesign and Photoshop trainers. Wayne Rankin, co-founder of the Australian Graphic Design Association, has been developing quality print, communication, new-media, and other design projects for more than 35 years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press (November 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321316185
• ISBN-13: 978-0321316189
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 8.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #156,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Confusing book, lots of errors, November 12, 2006

By 

pjh - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Wow with InDesign CS2 (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

I would say it's good if you already know how to use InDesign so you can spot the errors.

So far I have spent a whole day going through this for my students for only two of the book's chapters so far!

I wish I had checked out the errors in this book before having my students buy this book.

The fonts that the CD files ask for are TrueType so you have to know how to edit your fonts when opening file one (chapter 2). If you have a Windows operating system you will not have the free dingbats that come on a Mac so just do the best you can by choosing web dings or similar font. Someone needs to update the book's CD files to include Adobe's Open Type.

I had to tell students that page 42 starts with page 2 of the start file that is on your CD, Ch2. The way the illustrations are arranged it is hard to tell which file you are to be working on. The way illustrations are arranged is even more confusing. If you have a Windows computer, the RTF will not work as the book indicates.

Page 45 note: The Vertical justification will not work unless you have a new document open and you place the text. It will work if you click on the "Ignore text wrap" option but then the type runs over the other type in that area. If you look at their example in the book, there is no other text on the page. Would a beginner know this? The CS book is correct but the CS2 book has all the same screen captures of the justification choices but they don't match the examples underneath. Students will have to create a new document and place the text and then choose Top, Center, Bottom and Justify. Then you'll see your type positioned like the examples shown in the book.

Page 46 note: If your baseline grid will not show up when you choose view>grids and guides>Show baseline grid, check page 47, 3rd line up. If your view is the default setting of 75% or higher you can see it. So how do you change your view? Lower left area has the % of view size and you can change it there. You can also type in 75% or just zoom in closer.

Note: for some things to work you have to be sure you have the appropriate "A" or the "P" chosen in the control palette. For example, the instructions on page 47 to align to baseline will not work unless you are in the Paragraph palette.

Pages 48-52 note:The text they supply and the text that is in the book is different so the lessons will not work exactly as shown. The end file is even the same as the beginning file so students may not know what they are supposed to do.

Page 53 note: The examples of text they use in the book has punctuation to align. The book's examples are good to show how Open Type works. However, the text they supply on the CD does not really give you an idea of what they are trying to communicate. Better examples are needed.
Page 57 note. Screen capture is wrong for optical kerning. Gee who put this book together?

Page 59 note: To alter the "earthwatch 2004" go to the Master pages in the top right of your screen. Pages can be set there and they will change for all the pages in the document. (Beginners would not know to go to the master pages)

Page 60 note: The word "watch" they try to sample is already the same in the CD files. The book shows a different font to begin with for the two words so you get the idea about formatting with the eyedropper. Beginners would be saying what's this supposed to do?

Now I see the disclaimer about the CD and the "notice of liability" and wish I had not been so trusting of good reviews.
Seems like the authors or Peachpit have had ample time to get the right files and right fonts on the accompanying CD for the CS2 version. Seems like they could place the right images since the book is mostly a redo of the CS book. I really don't find a reason to really buy the CS2 book if the CS version is a bit more accurate.

Lots of nice designs (pretty pictures) but content is much better in other books or the help section of InDesign. Like so many other books this is a redo of CS with negligible changes (for the worse).

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything to get you excited about using InDesign CS, June 7, 2005

By 

Casey Sue (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Wow with InDesign (Paperback)

I learned QuarkXPress in school ... hated it then, still hate it. Bought the Adobe package one version before CS came out (InDesign 2.0) and didn't care much for ID, so used Illustrator 10 for all my page layout projects.

I have recently discovered ID CS ... with the help of this book. It is clear, to the point, and tells you everything you need to know (the basics to intermediate) to get started using ID CS for everything. It even has a chapter on how to make interactive PDF files out of ID.

Did you know that there is no white swatch? There is only "Paper" ... which you can change the color of to simulate the printed paper color ... but this "background" will not print. Pretty cool, huh? Learn other awesome stuff in this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intermediate focus, January 9, 2007

By 

Jack - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Wow with InDesign CS2 (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

Being a new InDesign user of two months, the 189-page "How to Wow with InDesign CS2" was a good starting point for me to begin to learn how to more effectively use IDCS2. Written by two of Australia's experts in using InDesign, Wayne Rankin and Mike McHugh, I learned many of the IDCS2 basics and beyond through the text, numerous graphics, text boxes, and accompanying CD. The CD provides raw text and graphic examples from the text as well as templates to practice with and/or see how they changed during the development of the book. Almost every other page has one or more short tips or insights to help you with the topic at hand. The book was written with the beginner to intermediate user in mind although I think it's more toward the latter. The book also covers both MAC and Window applications.

"How To Wow with InDesign CS2" is broken down into nine chapters, a nine-page index, and accompanying CD that includes grayscale and RGB textures, templates, graphics library with custom-made elements; project files; document presets; stroke styles; and a list of keyboard shortcuts.

Chapter 1 covers the basics including your desktop workspace, creating a document, setting defaults, transforming (moving, resizing, and rotating) objects in your new document, how text frames are created and work, acquainting you with Adobe Bridge to work more effectively with other Adobe products, and using color management to name a few topics.

Chapter 2 "Text and Typography" covers the important features of importing, formatting, and positioning text, using grids, using the eyedropper tool to format text, and styles. One topic I noted not there was changing text direction which I'm using currently doing a lot of.

Chapter 3 provides help for converting Quark Express documents, creating templates, imposing document pages, and long document features.

Chapter 4 covers creating, customizing, fills and strokes, images, and more for tables.

Chapter 5 addresses using color, swatches, tints, gradients, and more.

Chapter 6 reviews graphic placing, positioning, and linking as well as PDF Illustrator & Photoshop files and formats, and Photoshop Layer Comps.

Chapters 7, 8, and 9 deal with "transparency, interactive elements, and output of which the former two may be more of an interest to the intermediate user although the output chapter is a must for any user.

My only wish for a future edition would be to interweave the text into the CD more so that the various examples would be better illustrated before, during, and after the finished action and/or product - perhaps a book on CD? I would recommend beginners look for a different book if they are not experienced with INCS2.