InDesign is a key part of the arsenal of every graphic designer. It seems to have won out as the designers preferred page layout tool. However, increasingly, InDesign is also being used by general computer users within corporations keen to save money by producing some of their corporate literature in-house. So how do you train your admin staff to use a precision design tool like InDesign?
When providing training courses for general users of InDesign, one has to do more than just explain the use of the tools and commands. As well as learning how to use program, delegates need to be given an insight into some of the basic techniques and principles of page layout, typography, colour specification and image manipulation.
InDesign offers a much greater degree of accuracy than programs like Microsoft Word. It allows users to precisely determine how and where elements will print on the page. Anyone attending an InDesign training course should learn about the tools that are used to achieve this accuracy. They should be shown how to use the grid, the baseline grid and ruler guides. They should feel confident about getting elements to print out precisely where and how they should.
The terminology used in InDesign often harks back to the pre-electronic typographic age and is often confusing to the general user. It's important to clarify these terms, perhaps by offering users a bit of background information and, wherever possible, by making comparisons with similar features in familiar software. For example, we might compare leading in InDesign with line spacing in Microsoft Word.
A typical mistake that many new InDesign users will make is to enlarge or reduce the size of images by extremely large factors. The trainer needs to point out to them that the safe zone for scaling up or down is only about 10% or so. Scaling beyond this limit can cause distortions to appear when the image is printed.
Colour terminology is often another cause of some confusion. The key facts that people will need to learn here are the difference between the CMYK and RGB colour spaces, how a colour print job is separated into the different plates and the difference between spot and process colours.
InDesign is created with high quality output in mind. New users, regardless of their background must learn how to pre-flight a document, fix any errors and then package the print job and/or produce a high- resolution PDF file.
When providing training courses for general users of InDesign, one has to do more than just explain the use of the tools and commands. As well as learning how to use program, delegates need to be given an insight into some of the basic techniques and principles of page layout, typography, colour specification and image manipulation.
InDesign offers a much greater degree of accuracy than programs like Microsoft Word. It allows users to precisely determine how and where elements will print on the page. Anyone attending an InDesign training course should learn about the tools that are used to achieve this accuracy. They should be shown how to use the grid, the baseline grid and ruler guides. They should feel confident about getting elements to print out precisely where and how they should.
The terminology used in InDesign often harks back to the pre-electronic typographic age and is often confusing to the general user. It's important to clarify these terms, perhaps by offering users a bit of background information and, wherever possible, by making comparisons with similar features in familiar software. For example, we might compare leading in InDesign with line spacing in Microsoft Word.
A typical mistake that many new InDesign users will make is to enlarge or reduce the size of images by extremely large factors. The trainer needs to point out to them that the safe zone for scaling up or down is only about 10% or so. Scaling beyond this limit can cause distortions to appear when the image is printed.
Colour terminology is often another cause of some confusion. The key facts that people will need to learn here are the difference between the CMYK and RGB colour spaces, how a colour print job is separated into the different plates and the difference between spot and process colours.
InDesign is created with high quality output in mind. New users, regardless of their background must learn how to pre-flight a document, fix any errors and then package the print job and/or produce a high- resolution PDF file.
About the Author:
The The writer of this article is a training consultant with Macresource Computer Solutions, a UK IT training company offering Adobe InDesign training courses at their central London training centre.
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