Need to learn Adobe InDesign fast -- please recommend resources

[Oleg Volk]

My old Mac is non-functional, and with it my Quark XPress. I have InDesign2 for my PC and have to get a layout re-created ASAP. Unfortunately, the documentation built into the install seems skimpy, same with the printed brochure. I can't find any tutorials on-line. Need image placement and editing info especially, mosly to find the proper controls within the software. Please advise.

[Justin]

http://studio.adobe.com/us/search/main.jsp

Adobe's tutorial list thingy.

To place images, hit "F" draw a box, followed by, IIRC, Ctrl+D*.  That should pop open a file explorer window.  Surf to your file and hit "ok."

Text tool is "T" hit that, draw your text box and type away.  There should be a floating command palette called, iirc, Character that will let you set stuff like leading, spacing, scaling and other options.  You can either highlight the specific text in a box to change just a few characters, or hit your "V" tool, click the box, and make your changes which will be applied universally.  Sometimes it's hidden in one of the floating boxes, just be sure to read all the tabs.  If you don't see that window, check under the "Window" (again, iirc) menu at the top and select Character as well as Paragraph.

I know we've got at least two other INDD users around here, one of them should be along shortly.

Don't sweat the software too much, I picked the basics up in a couple of days.  Quark sucks, viva la InDesign Revolucíon!


*Cmd+D on the Mac, I think.

[Oleg Volk]

The one thing I can't find but kno wit has to be there is the pallete for controlling placed image attributes. Where do I look for it?

[Justin]

Like which? for resizing the placed image?

Hit "A" and click on the picture.  You should get a brown border around the pic, and then you can drag to resize it.  You should also get a few options available at the top of the screen, skew and whatnot.

Also, in the right click menu, there are Fitting options- fit frame to picture, picture to frame, fit picture proportionally, etc.

[Standing Wolf]

Frankly, I think both QuarkXPress and Adobe In Design have terrible user interfaces. I can do more from the keyboard with XPress, but In Design's typographic engine is much stronger. Ultimately, In Design has more features and functions, but all the unavoidable mousing just antagonizes the socks off me.

A pox on both their houses!

[Mulliga]

I used InDesign last summer to design my dad's company's brochure. Pretty clunky interface IMHO - I had the feeling they were trying too hard to retain commonality with other Adobe products.

[Standing Wolf]

I had the feeling they were trying too hard to retain commonality with other Adobe products.

If only Adobe had tried! Every time that company comes out with a new version of a product, the end users lose as much as we gain. I use Photoshop 7 only to open weird files and save them in file formats I can read with 5.5. Why use such an old version? It lets me use my hundreds of dollars' worth of third party filters. I paid for Illustrator 8 and 10, but still use 7 whenever possible: it's much faster, more stable, and intelligible. I'm not "upgrading" from In Design 2; I'm also not buying QuarkXPress 5.

If they'd wanted my dollars, they'd have given me my money's worth instead of insulting my intelligence and stripping away functionality. I'm tired of doing business with thieves.