InDesign CS4 Digital Classroom, (Book and Video Training) [Paperback]

Christopher Smith (Author), AGI Creative Team (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 3, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0470410949 | ISBN-13: 978-0470410943 | Edition: 1

InDesign CS4 Digital Classroom is like having a personal instructor guiding readers through each lesson, while they work at their own pace. This book includes 12 self-paced lessons that let readers discover essential skills and explore new features and capabilities of Adobe InDesign CS4. Every lesson is presented in full color with step-by-step instructions. Learning is reinforced with video tutorials and lesson files that were developed by the same team of Adobe Certified Instructors and Flash experts who have created many of the official training titles for Adobe Systems. Each video tutorial is approximately five minutes long and demonstrates and explains the concepts and features covered in the lesson. This training package shows how to design, produce and develop a streamlined workflow for page layout. Jam-packed with information, this book and DVD takes users from the basics through intermediate level topics and helps readers find the information they need in a clear, approachable manner.

**** InDesign CS4 Digital Classroom contains a DVD with both lesson files and video tutorials. The authors are constantly working to improve the lesson files so that you have the greatest experience with the Digital Classroom books, lesson files, and video tutorials. The most recent lesson files for the book are available at the Digital Classroom Books web site at: http://www.digitalclassroombooks.com/idcs4_update. zip

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

You have a personal tutor in the Digital Classroom

If you want expert instruction that fits into your schedule, Digital Classroom delivers. Adobe Certified Experts guide you through 13 lessons, helping you learn essential InDesign CS4 skills at your own speed. Full-color, step-by-step instructions in the book are enhanced with video tutorials on the DVD. With Digital Classroom, you have your own private instructor showing you the easiest way to learn InDesign CS4.

• Set up InDesign CS4, understand the workspace, and learn to use all the tools

• Build documents and master pages in standard or custom sizes

• Format text, wrap text around graphics, and flow text across multiple pages

• Import graphics, layered Photoshop files, or movies and animations

• Apply color to text, borders, and backgrounds, and create custom colors and gradients

• Prepare documents for printing, create PDFs, and generate XHTML and Flash files

About the Author

Christopher Smith is President of Aquent Graphics Institute and an Adobe Certified Instructor. He is a member of the AGI Creative Team, which develops and delivers training programs for creative, marketing, and communications professionals through the Aquent Graphics Institute.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (November 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470410949
• ISBN-13: 978-0470410943
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #494,382 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Instruction, April 30, 2009

By 

Gwen Kramer "gwenhwyvar" (Sunny and not-so-sunny California) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: InDesign CS4 Digital Classroom, (Book and Video Training) (Paperback)

First the disclaimer: I am proficient with Microsoft Word and have had some experience with hobbyist-level layout programs. However, I had never used InDesign before I started the lessons in this book.

I purchased this particular title because it seemed to be the best bargain. For the price, you get a full-color book, a DVD with video lessons and lesson files. At approximately 350 pages, the book is big enough to give detail but not so huge as to intimidate the reader.

The book assumes that you are computer literate but it does not assume that you are familiar with printing and typography terms. Every phrase is carefully explained as it is brought up. Don't know what kerning is? That's okay, a succinct explanation takes care of that.

The book is essentially a big book of exercises. Separated into thirteen chapters, each is designed to teach a specific tool in InDesign. The chapters are reasonably short, I was able to complete most of them in 30 minutes to one hour. (The exception being the very long chapter 3, which took about 2 hours)

I think that my experience with other programs helped a lot in learning InDesign but the book is so user friendly that I imagine that even people with no experience in this type of program would be able to learn quickly and easily.

The author has a very clear manner of writing and he explains his steps carefully. What's more, color pictures help greatly in showing steps that may not be clear.

I liked the videos but wished there had been more of them. They are basically short clips of the author demonstrating some of the techniques from each chapter.

I feel that the book did a very thorough job of teaching InDesign to an absolute beginner.

This book is recommended for:
* People with no InDesign experience who want clear instruction
* Self-taught InDesign users who want to fill gaps in their knowledge
* InDesign users who need a thorough review or who want to get acquainted with the new features in CS4.

The book is NOT recommended for:
* Someone already proficient in InDesign. This book teaches, it is not really a reference.

One last note: I got an early printing of the book and so the lesson files on the DVD were based on a pre-release version of InDesign. These lesson files DO NOT work with the final version of InDesign CS4. The publishers of the book have made updates files available on their website, the URL is printed directly on the DVD sleeve in the book. The whole process took 5 minutes to complete. I don't feel that this detracted from the quality of the lesson material since the problem was so easily fixed.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Digital Classroom's Best Effort, July 20, 2009

By 

Stubby - See all my reviews

This review is from: InDesign CS4 Digital Classroom, (Book and Video Training) (Paperback)

Let me start by saying this book is well written and the content is presented in a logical manner. My beef is with the publisher and not the authors.

I also want to add that I have contacted the publisher about the issues mentioned in the review. This review is based on my experience..hopefully these issues have been resolved and others will not have the same problem downloading the updated content from the website.

I am a big fan of the Digital Classroom series (usually my first choice for learning new software) but am disappointed that the publisher released this book with a DVD based on a pre-release version of the software.

As an InDesign novice, I read this book cover to cover and worked through each lesson (tried to anyway)

While clear instruction on getting the updated files is shown on the Amazon page, when I downloaded these files from the publisher's website, some of the updated lesson files did not include working files but completed files (ex: chapter 9. The original files on the DVD were created in a pre-release version of CS4 so they couldn't be opened and the updated files from the website were the completed lesson files) so trying to work through this lesson was a moot point since all the work had already been done.

Another problem with the updated files is that instead of updating the entire DVD and making it available for download - with each lesson folder containing the correct content so the user could completely replace the DVD accompanying the book - they updated only the files they thought were incorrect and left it up to the user to copy the new content into the appropriate lesson folder. Sure copying the files doesn't take long, but why should the user have to do this after paying for the book/DVD?

With money tight (and multiple training resources available), this is an unacceptable usability/quality control error. I understand that mistakes happen but when I pay close to $50.00 for a book, I expect to have the resources used in the book available somewhere - without having to contact the publisher letting them know their updated files have a problem as well.

I hope in the future the authors are better served by this publisher. A lot of hard work was put into this book and the authors deserve better. Definitely before purchasing another book from this publisher I will get a copy of it from an interlibrary loan service and make sure the DVD contents (or updates on the publisher's website) match the lessons before shelling out $$'s that may be better spent elsewhere.

Quality (and customer satisfaction) should not be sacrificed because a publisher wants to beat its' competitors to market.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars InDesign CS4 Digital Classroom is an excellent asset!, November 7, 2008

By 

L. Mickol "pixyl" (Burlington, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: InDesign CS4 Digital Classroom, (Book and Video Training) (Paperback)

This is a great book. Having used ID since CS, I feel this book expands on every aspect of the new CS4 application. The book is a great asset to have when learning more about InDesign. I visited the www.digitalclassroombooks.com website and found that it contains updated lesson files for download and more information about the book and its contents, which makes this book that much more of an asset.