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Instant InDesign: Designing Templates for Fast and Efficient Page Layout

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A few years ago I started producing a monthly newsletter for a nonprofit while getting my feet wet with Adobe InDesign. Although I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do, and refined certain elements over time, this was a very inefficient way to produce the newsletter and took much more time than I anticipated. So much so that at times I wanted to back out of the project.

If I had a copy of Instant InDesign back then and followed its guidance to the letter, it would have saved me a tremendous amount of time. And because I was receiving a flat-fee, my per-hour compensation would have increased greatly by virtue of how much quicker I could have completed the task.

This well-organized book takes the reader through the step-by-step process of creating templates. This is a great way to learn InDesign and reinforce earlier training. With this method, you can see how all the elements--style sheets, grids, object styles, etc.--fit into the whole process of creating a publication. With standard instruction books, the various elements of InDesign seem disjointed, so it's tempting to skip or gloss over some of them. Yes, it can be tedious to create a template, but the payoff is well worth it and a good return on your time investment.

While the book makes mention of InDesign CS3, the underlying concepts apply to all versions of InDesign. Bonus chapters and tutorials from the publisher's website make this book even more compelling. The bonus files are in CS3 format, so you can't open them with earlier versions of InDesign. However, if you can get someone with CS3 to convert the files to the INX format, you can open them in earlier versions such as InDesign CS2. Considering the overall value of the book, this is a minor inconvenience.

In short, this is easily one of the top three books on InDesign that I've seen. If you want to save time, boost productivity and produce more professional publications, this book is for you.

Just received this book and I can't believe how well-structured this is. There is a lot to say for how information is presented and this looks and feels like a professional trainer put this together. Wait! The author IS a professional trainer! The examples and text are clear and what's so cool is that he actually used InDesign CS3 to create this.

So - buy this book and don't forget to retrieve the goodies by registering the purchase on the publisher's web site.

InDesign is an extensive and powerful program which can be used for the layout and design of any project from business cards to catalogs. Those who have used InDesign for years, know it quite well and have even mastered the use of Master Pages, have not used the total power of Adobe InDesign until they have added templates to their InDesign toolbox.

This book by Gabriel Powell teaches the reader how to build a template customized for any project. However, this is also a great book for InDesign novices. Powell takes a comprehensive look at the InDesign tools and techniques in general as well as how they relate to the specific task of designing templates.

As you would expect, Powell begins with an explanation of what a templates is and how it can be used to the best advantage to increase consistency and production. He discusses the principles of good template design while examining the mockup for a project. Next, he uses InDesign's built-in templates as a teaching tool to explore the many elements of a template. Once you have learned how to edit existing templates, Powell moves on to the major part of his book which guides the reader step-by-step through the template design process.

He begins by discussing frames and how they are the building blocks of InDesign and how page dimensions, margins, columns and grids are the framework for your template. Next are master pages, libraries, layers and text variables. When color is added to the mix, Powell explains how the all-too-familiar elements such as fills, strokes and styles apply to template design. Finally, he covers text and table formatting with paragraph and character styles.

Now that the basics of template design are covered, Powell moves on to production issues for complicated documents such as large catalogs and how to build a template that will control elements that span throughout these documents such as running lists, footnotes and table of contents. Next, he discusses the markup rules for XML for data merge. Finally, its time to test and implement your new template. Powell walks you through the finishing touches such as deciding on default settings, integrating with Adobe Bridge and creating a style guide for your template.

Gabriel Powell is the Senior Training Director for Metafusion Training, an Adobe Certified Instructor and a contributing author to InDesign Magazine and The Illustrator CS2 WOW! Book.

Anyone who needs to create templates for InDesign documents should memorize this book. Gabriel Powell explains why and how a well-made template can be an absolutely essential production tool for the creation of a publication. Instant InDesign is an exhaustive guide to the art and engineering involved in the process of developing a template. It covers everything from the overall approach one should take, through the minute details that can exert a large effect for good or ill. By following Mr. Powell's instructions, the reader can produce templates that will increase the quality and consistency of publications, facilitate production through the automation of many functions, be free of impediments to efficient production, and make it easier to share production tasks among members of a team. In addition, the book serves as an excellent tutorial for the use and mastery of InDesign CS3. The language is a model of clarity; the tone is serious; and the book is both fascinating and enjoyable to read.

In the substantial introductory section, the book provides a well-drawn theory of the ways in which templates function in relation to design. It addresses topics such as how to decide if a project requires a highly defined structure or one that allows for more variation. Powell points out the factors that distinguish the kinds of projects that benefit from templates from those for which templates are unnecessary. He gives an overview of the features of InDesign that should be utilized in the construction of a template and explains how to use them wisely. The importance of pre-planning is emphasized in all things, and especially in relation to certain advanced features of InDesign that can reduce hours of work to a few clicks. He tells how to begin the whole enterprise of creating a template, and describes exactly the sequence of steps in which the work should proceed in order to avoid any wasted effort and unnecessary backtracking. The final section of the introduction lets the reader try on some training wheels by showing how to evaluate and revise an existing template using the predesigned templates that come with the program. The chances are, however, that if the user wishes to upgrade a pre-existing template of any complexity, he is probably far better off starting from scratch--unless that template was originally created using the precepts set forth in this book. One is quite likely to spend more time analyzing it and tracking down the bugs than it would take to begin anew and do it right. One quick indicator of whether or not an existing template is worth revising: the creator did (or did not) furnish a comprehensive style guide for the users, a step which Powell describes at length later in the book. After having read this book, one may wish to reconceive a publication anyway, in order to take advantage of the many possibilities that InDesign CS3 offers.

The second section of the book teaches the workings of InDesign with particular emphasis on how its capabilities pertain to building templates. Since the author's first principle is to "Know Your Tools" the information provided is broad and deep--considerably more than one might expect in a book about a specialty topic. Even if the reader discovers that his projects do not really need to be templated, he will not regret having bought this most conprehensive book. It will enable the reader to do any kind of work in the program more efficiently.

Powell begins with detailed descriptions of the types of frames and all their parts, and reviews the numerous ways in which they and their content can be modified. With an eye to template construction, he gives tips such as presetting the fitting options, rounding off measurements to figures that are easy to remember, and anchoring one object to another to keep them together when material reflows.

He describes how to analyze the design requirements of a publication and prepare a framework to accommodate them. He offers practical wisdom about the structure of page layout along with tidbits such as the need to deal with situations involving the use of multiple languages, by taking into account that different translations of the same text will run to different lengths. The utility of the baseline grid feature for controlling vertical placement of type in copy-heavy publications is reviewed at length.

Powell shows practical ways to use guides and grids, with tips such as putting guides that need to be saved on a separate layer. He explains layout adjustment and notes that it allows for flexibility when developing a design if the trim size, margins, or column measures have not been decided upon.

Powell addresses the all-important backbone of templates--the master pages. He explains their functions and the ways in which they operate. He shows how to figure out how many different masters are needed, and suggests a strategy for using parent/child masters. He delves into the utilization of masters in conjunction with saved styles and with the powerful feature--new to CS3--text variables. He reminds us of the importance of taking the time to set up these functions for the specific requirements of a template in order to automate various processes. The opportunities for saving time and increasing accuracy that these tools provide is enormous. A template in which the master pages are not well set up, or, worse, a template without any master pages, is close to useless, and as sure as ants at a picnic, will necessitate extra work every single time it is used.

The operation of Libraries is described, and advice about how to organize them is given along with guidance about what kinds of objects should be put in a Library rather than in the template itself. Powell shows how pre-made layers can help to facilitate the construction of a publication. He describes how attention to stacking order can minimize problems such as rasterized text.

Powell does not go into color theory, but he does focus on those aspects of color that are significant in template construction. He explains that the use of defined color swatches rather than the mixing of colors on the fly enables universal color changes and other benefits. He reiterates here, as he does in regard to many other functions, that a descriptive naming strategy for swatches is important, especially in team situations. He reviews the creation of the various kinds of swatches: tint, gradient, and spot color, and also mixed ink and mixed ink groups--and he enumerates the situations for which each type is appropriate. The transferring of colors between documents and among Adobe applications is covered, along with a discussion of the reasons why such transfers are helpful. There are tips about how to get a rough idea of what your document will look like when printed on color stock, how to organize and edit the swatches panel, and even how to connect to the kuler page on the Adobe site to create and download harmonious sets of color swatches.

The chapter on typography is invaluable. InDesign affords enormously powerful and subtle ways to control the appearance of type and Powell shows how multiple typographic refinements can be built into the template so that they will automatically be applied to copy that is placed in the document, thereby greatly reducing the need for tweaking. He prompts the reader to use the full power of Paragraph, Character, and also Object styles and he demonstrates a good way to organize styles by means of the new CS3 Group function.

Tables and the new ability to create table styles are covered, and strategies for incorporating table creation into the workflow are outlined. Just as InDesign's introduction of easily producible drop shadows induced their use to near ubiquity, the effortlessness with which a table can be completely formatted is sure to have designers thinking more in terms of presenting information in that form.

InDesign has several features geared to assist in long document construction that can be pre built in a template. If a publication contains a series of figures for example, the running lists function can automatically number them consecutively and update all the numbers if anything is added or removed. This can even be done across a group of separate documents if they are assigned to a book (.indb) file. Similarly, a multilevel numbered list can be created and edited without requiring manual renumbering. Formatting for footnotes can be set up to be automatically applied, with several different schemes available for numbering them.

One of the most dramatic feats of automation is the Table of Contents function. Advance planning allows a TOC to be automatically generated in a fully formatted state. When specific paragraph styles are applied to the elements in the document that should appear in the contents list (for example, chapter names), the program detects instances of copy in those styles, notes the page numbers on which each appears, and then reformats the text and page numbers into a TOC style. If copy reflows, the TOC can be regenerated with the page numbers automatically updated.

Somewhat understandably, InDesign's indexing function is not covered in this book. Indexing is a specialty task more related to an editorial function than to document construction, and can go awry if begun before the publication is in its final form, or at least close to it. For purposes of making a template, the creation of the relevant character and paragraph styles would probably be the extent of the template creator's responsibility.

One of my favorite features of Instant InDesign is Powell's checklist for finalizing a template. Once a template is built, it is like a newly constructed house--everything is there, but there is a lot of construction debris, the water may not be turned on, and the welcome mat is not yet in place. If the reader has ever opened a template and been greeted by a missing font message, or a view zoomed in at 400% on a minor detail, or the logo is not linked, or there are frames on the pages for unknown purposes, or the paragraph styles pane is disorganized, then he is sure to appreciate this guide. These annoying, time-wasting problems and quite a few others are addressed, and solutions are given for their resolution. There is practical advice for testing a template, with tips such as making sure to use representative content to test for fit. Depending on the IT set-up and/or protocols within a workgroup, it may be necessary to package a template along with its satellite items--a library, swatch collection, print presets, links, and so forth. Unless a workgroup is very small (I would say 2 or under) a style guide should also be included. Powell provides a list of considerations in creating a style guide, and a sample is shown.

Powell includes an overview of the Bridge application, including instructions on creating and utilizing metadata. Without opening a template, Bridge can show previews of all its document pages, though, unfortunately, it does not show previews of the master pages. For regular documents (.indd), Bridge shows a preview of only the first page.

Depending on the data source, it may be possible to make use of InDesign's XML function for publications of certain types. Powell gives a beginner's tutorial in this coding language, and walks through each step required to set up an XML workflow for a template.

Data Merge is covered in the online chapter, available when the user registers his copy of Instant InDesign on the Peachpit Website. Data Merge utilizes a process similar to XML; and it can be very helpful in highly structured designs, such as business cards. For more flexible and sophisticated requirements, Powell provides a list of plug-ins that can work wonders.

The creation of a template is a very exacting process. It is not a project for beginners or for anyone who is not thoroughly adept with the technical aspects of the program, or is lacking in a drive for perfection. It is a rare individual who is both a capable designer and a technical whiz. Instant InDesign is a brilliant guide to both aspects of template creation. It is the ideal reference for all members of a template development team.

When I picked up Instant InDesign I was expecting a manual that would present guidelines, tips and hints for creating great layouts to be used in templates. I soon discovered that I was mistaken. According to the synopsis on the back of the book, Instant InDesign was written to be a comprehensive guide to creating strong, functional InDesign CS3 templates. Which it is, just not in the way that I was expecting.

The book starts out by discussing the value of templates and their application, why you should use style sheets and object libraries - all good information, though somewhat basic. The book discusses "Seven Principles of Great Template Design" which include learning the tools, having a goal, creating a template that is easy to use and flexible. By Chapter 4, Instant InDesign starts getting into the basics of using InDesign CS3. It takes you step by step through all the tools designers will use when creating any document in InDesign CS3 with a focus on how the tools would be used in a template. The bulk of the book is an InDesign CS3 primer on how to use tools, frames, type, objects, libraries, style sheets, strokes, swatches, etc. It finishes up with a chapter on using Bridge to manage your templates.

While it is all good information, Instant InDesign was very repetitive. The same information is stated over and over again with a slight twist for each tool. Much of the text is also repeated in the sidebars. I always read sidebars and find it frustrating when they are simply a repetition or summary of what was in the last paragraph. I prefer sidebars that give additional tidbits of info so that you get a little bonus from reading them.

In summary, Instant InDesign is a great How-To book for an InDesign beginner who is starting out using InDesign CS3. It will not be of much benefit to anyone who is an intermediate or advanced user, nor will it be very helpful to beginners using InDesign CS5 as the program has changed so much since CS3.
Instant InDesign: Designing Templates for Fast and Efficient Page Layout

Instant InDesign is a testament to thoughtful planning and consistency. It is a comprehensive guide to simplify your day. If you do something repetitive inside Adobe InDesign, this book will help you work faster and more efficiently.

I'm very new to the world of InDesign and I started out reading tutorials and watching the free videos, but many of them were poorly written and actually created some real frustration at times. Gabriel Powell's book changed everything. By following Gabriel's well written instructions I actually understand the program and how to use it. Now I'm making and modifying templates with ease, and making great looking books and articles.

This book is the next best thing to having a private seminar with Gabriel Powell! I took a seminar with Gabriel on other computer topics, and he revolutionized the work life of my entire office. This book does the same with InDesign.

Thank you Gabriel, for bringing InDesign down to earth, so us less technical people can use it with a sense of ease and confidence.

Highly recommended, obviously!

This book is an excellent reference for creating InDesign Templates. There is a perfect mix of background knowledge and how-to. I highly recommend it as it has greatly improved my workflow, escpecially with long documents.

Good , I expected more about this book, is not that explicit on their tutorials.