Large projects in InDesign: book, brochure, catalog

A thorough briefing and a good handover are essential for a smooth project start. If you consider all points in advance, you won't experience any nasty surprises later on. In this lesson, we explain which topics play a role and what else is needed for a good project start.

This section contains all the working files that will be of practical help in the next sections.

We bring the control panels into the start position: Before we start creating the template, we prepare the InDesign interface by calling up all relevant control panels. We then save this setting as a workspace.

We first create a new document for the template. In this lesson, we explain the most important settings for this and which ones you should not forget.

Well-set margins and columns as well as the baseline grid are a must in our template. We create additional auxiliary lines and an offset height grid directly on the sample page.

Living - i.e. constantly changing - column titles are easy to create in InDesign. In this lesson, we will show you the two ways to do this: using a text variable and using the section marker.

Based on the existing sample page, we create another one and modify it so that we can work with it properly later.

We use the "Color fields" control panel to create the colors we need in the layout - all others are deleted. In this lesson, we explain what you need to bear in mind.

Paragraph and character formats are very powerful and contain a lot of setting options that support us later in efficient typesetting. We present the most important settings in this lesson.

Tables are permanently formatted if you take the time to create proper formats in advance. In addition, subsequent formatting changes can be made quickly.

Whether text, graphic or neutral frame: Objects are formatted quickly and, above all, uniformly if you make use of the object format options. A particularly interesting feature is that two different layouts can be equipped with the same objects, which automatically adapt their appearance to the respective design.

Whether library or "graphic snippets" - as soon as we use one of the two functions, we can save our design elements separately and transfer them later into our layout in a modular fashion. This is faster and, above all, more error-free than searching and copying from old documents.

InDesign offers its own *.indt format especially for templates. Here we show the final steps of template creation that are required to obtain an optimal template file.

Copy & Paste or rather "Place file"? In this lesson, we present the various import options and take a look at the import options.

A lot of information can be taken from Word to help us in the sentence. In this lesson, we show you why neat Word documents are so important.

The first pagination has to be done quickly - formatting each paragraph individually can go beyond your schedule and budget. This is where the "Search and replace" function can help.

Formats can be selected with a mouse click. In this lesson, we will introduce the "Shortcut keys" and "Quick apply" functions.

Even in long documents, proper typography should not be neglected. In this lesson, we will introduce the most important special characters and show you how to use them quickly using "search and replace".

Regular expressions - anyone who dares to tackle this topic will be rewarded with a great function. In this lesson, we will give you a brief insight into the GREP search.

In addition to text and GREP, the search/replace function also offers us the object and glyph search. We will show you how to use them effectively.

Footnotes are a must, especially in scientific texts. InDesign can handle this - unfortunately not always in the way you would like. We present both sides of this function.

It is easy to update page references automatically using the "Cross-references" control panel and can be set in many different ways. However, this function can also have its pitfalls, which we also present in this lesson.

How are hyphenations created in InDesign and what can the spell checker do? In this lesson, we provide a brief overview of the topic of dictionaries.

Tables are great - if you know how to use them. In this chapter, you will learn some tips and tricks for working with tables.

Image and graphic files are easily placed and managed in InDesign using the "Links" panel. We explain what you need to bear in mind.

The fact that objects are anchored in the text flow is not only useful for typesetting. At the latest, if an eBook is to be exported from the file, it is necessary to deal with the topic of "anchored objects".

For our project, we will customize the opening page last. To do this, we use the chapter number and define a section marker.

Many documents can be managed via the book file. This is not only elegant, but often also necessary if you want to use functions such as "Index" or "Table of contents". This chapter shows you how to create a book file.

Scripts are small programs that can be easily run in InDesign. They can be used to control virtually everything that can be done "by hand". This saves time and is fun - we explain how it works in this lesson.

What kind of corrections can there be in our project? This lesson provides a brief overview. We don't want to cause any more errors when making text corrections. In this lesson, we explain which things you need to take into account.

The scary moment in every large project: the layout changes. Those who have laid out their document well remain relaxed. In this and the following three lessons, we will look at the settings you need to make.

The font or font size changes? Do you want markups to look completely different from the first pagination? We present the change options via the paragraph and character formats.

If we have worked with object formats beforehand, elements can be quickly redesigned. We show you how to proceed here.

What applies to paragraphs, characters and objects can of course also be implemented for tables: formatting changes using the formats created.

The customer supplies corrected fine data - and these suddenly have a different file extension. What used to be a lot of work in older versions of the program can now be solved at the touch of a button in the newer versions.

Changes in one document can be transferred to other documents using the book function. A nice function with pitfalls - we show you which ones.

In our project, there is a small table of contents in each chapter. In this lesson we explain the structure.

If a table of contents is to include several documents, it is necessary to work with a book file. We explain all the relevant settings and create a table of contents for our project together.

A table of contents cannot only be created using the InDesign function. An alternative using cross-references is more complex, but also has some advantages.

InDesign offers the option of creating and managing a keyword index. In this lesson, we will take a closer look at the "Index" control panel.

Before we write the PDFs, we check the document for problems. This way we can be sure that no errors are carried through to the end. To do this, we use the "PreFlight" function and create our own suitable profile

We finish our work on the project and package the file for our customer. In this lesson, we will show you which settings are useful for this.

How do we create sensible data for the print shop? Which color settings are important and can we simply ignore them? We briefly show you the most important settings for color management.

The print shop wants print PDFs, we deliver PDF-X3 or PDF-X1a. The background to the standards and the most important settings in the export dialog are explained in this lesson.

The best way to round off a major project is with a personal final meeting with the customer. In this final lesson, we provide a brief overview of the topics that must and may be addressed. This way, you will be remembered by the customer or even lay the foundation for further good cooperation!