Adobe InDesign CS6 Tutorial - Beginners to Advanced Training

Explore how to customize the InDesign cs6 workspace by arranging docked panels, the top control panel, contextual options, and the essentials workspace, then save and reset your personalized layout.

InDesign auto recovery saves your work every minute and lets you recover after a crash, while unlimited undo and redo with shift+command+Z or shift+control+Z keeps you on track.

Explore the InDesign control panel, using keyboard shortcuts to select text, navigate fields, and perform on-the-fly calculations for precise layout.

Explore InDesign preferences, adjusting units like inches, picas, and centimeters, managing warnings, and enabling drag-and-drop editing and leading controls for consistent tables of contents.

Explore Adobe InDesign CS6 preferences, including units in increments, document grids, grids in back or front, smart guides visibility, display performance settings, and snippet handling for consistent layouts.

Discover how to change InDesign defaults, from text wrap and hyphenation to default fonts like Adobe Garamond Pro, for all new documents.

Create and save a custom InDesign workspace by selecting, arranging, and saving panels like mini bridge and lines for print; learn to delete, reset, and switch workspaces.

Create, save, and open documents in Adobe InDesign CS6, and choose document presets and intents for print or digital publishing. Set page size, margins, columns, gutters, bleed, and slug.

Learn to use and customize rulers in Adobe InDesign CS6, including show/hide, per-spread or per-page setups, origin dragging to margins, and unit changes.

Learn to create and manage ruler guides in Adobe InDesign CS6, including snapping to objects, extending guides across spreads, and using view options to show or hide guides.

Explore outside-the-box grid design in Adobe InDesign CS6, learning to create multi-row and multi-column grids, place images via Mini Bridge, and use scripts and document grids for precise snap-to layouts.

Learn the basics of the pages panel in Adobe InDesign CS6, including creating a 4-page document with bleed, navigating pages, using master pages, and inserting pages or spreads.

Explore the pages panel in InDesign CS6, rotate page views for easier editing, and apply or clear transitions across spreads; learn how shuffle behavior affects documents and master pages.

Master pages in InDesign CS6 enable auto page numbering and current page numbers. Create, base, and apply masters to spreads, using paste in place and guides for consistency.

Explore the pages panel and numbering options to start page numbering at a chosen page, apply prefixes such as A, B, and manage section behavior for multi-section layouts.

Learn how to use Adobe InDesign CS6 alternate layout to reuse content across sizes—iPad portrait/landscape and beyond—while automatically preserving linked stories, smart text reflow, and layout integrity.

Master liquid layout in Adobe InDesign CS6 to resize pages with alternate layouts, using object-based and guide-based rules to adjust text, images, and logos.

Master stacking order in Adobe InDesign CS6 by using the layers panel to arrange, lock, and visibility controls of objects, and to create multiple layers for precise layout control.

Explore the layers panel and stacking order in InDesign CS6, create and rename layers, move objects between layers, adjust layer options, and manage visibility, locking, and print settings.

Master InDesign drawing tools to create text, graphic, and unassigned frames, using smart guides for precise alignment and the shift key for perfect circles and squares.

Master selecting and moving objects in Adobe InDesign CS6 using the selection tool and content grabber, drill through objects to reach layers, and manage groups with group and ungroup commands.

Learn to use InDesign CS6 find and change to locate objects with a white stroke and apply a consistent four-point stroke across all documents.

Master transforming objects in Adobe InDesign CS6 with the free transform, scale, rotate, and shear tools, using reference points and preview.

Learn to align and distribute objects in InDesign CS6 using the align panel, with options for aligning to selection, key object, margins, page, or spread.

Master smart guides in Adobe InDesign CS6 to align, size, space, and rotate objects precisely, with tips to enable or temporarily disable guides for exact placement.

Discover how the content collector and content conveyor in Adobe InDesign CS6 streamline collecting, linking back to the original content, placing, and updating across two layouts with mapped styles.

Harness the power of the Pathfinder panel to combine shapes, subtract, intersect, exclude, and convert paths into rectangles, rounded rectangles, polygons, and more, including compound paths for holes.

Explore how to create and customize corners in adobe indesign cs6, using linked and independent corner options, live corner editing, and keyboard shortcuts to apply round, bevel, or inset shapes.

Explore creating impossible objects in Adobe InDesign CS6 by turning shapes into text frames, making holes with compound paths, rotating frames, and editing frames with open path and scissors tools.

Explore playing with objects in InDesign CS6 by shaping and grouping frames, creating a 3x3 grid with a script, and applying a window-like inner effect.

Place text from word processing applications into an InDesign CS6 layout and map Word styles to your design styles for clean, formatted text.

Edit text in Adobe InDesign CS6 by double-clicking for a word, triple-clicking for a line, or arrow keys with shift; use Story Editor to fix overset by removing page breaks.

Learn practical text editing tricks in Adobe InDesign CS6, including invisible characters, drag-and-drop editing, eyedropper formatting, and story editor solutions for overset text.

Learn power-user techniques in Adobe InDesign CS6 to clean up text with find change, fix spacing, two paragraph returns, dashes, and ellipses, and remove underlines for consistent typography.

Learn to use InDesign's grep presets in the find/change dialog to clean and reformat text—convert dashes, quotes, spaces, and phone numbers with no coding, speeding up editing.

Explore InDesign CS6 spell checking with Hunspell, manage dictionaries and languages, and correct misspellings across documents, stories, or selections while adjusting hyphenation and language settings.

Learn to use and customize placeholder text in InDesign CS6, including non-roman options like Hebrew, and fill text frames with the placeholder or a placeholder.txt in the application folder.

Map Word styles to InDesign and auto format text using your paragraph styles, preserving formatting. Fix typography with double returns, em dashes, ellipses, and spell check before character formatting.

Learn character formatting in InDesign CS6 by selecting the type family, setting size, and applying metrics or optical spacing, leading, and kerning for clean, readable text and aligned numbers.

Explore character formatting in InDesign CS6, covering kerning, tracking, vertical and horizontal scaling, baseline shift, register marks, and skewed or false italic to adjust type with care.

Explore hidden character formatting options in InDesign, including open type settings, all caps, small caps, superscripts, subscripts, underlines, ligatures, and no break controls, via the character panel and options menu.

Discover the hidden power of open type in Adobe InDesign CS6, enabling cross-platform glyphs, real fractions, ordinals, swashes, titling alternates, contextual alternates, small caps, and subscript options.

Apply custom underline and strikethrough effects in Adobe InDesign CS6 by adjusting underline options, offsets, and strokes, then save as character styles for reuse.

Learn to find and insert glyphs in Adobe InDesign CS6 using the glyphs panel, including division signs, infinity, currency symbols, math symbols, fractions, and punctuation; manage sizes and fonts.

Apply character formatting to an annual report page, fix typographic quotes, adjust kerning and baseline shift, and create a total character style for consistent grand totals.

Explore powerful paragraph alignment features in Adobe InDesign CS6, including left, center, right, and various justify options, plus spacing controls like flush space and whitespace flush space.

Learn to position paragraphs in Adobe InDesign CS6 by adjusting left and right indents, traditional and negative first line indents, and spacing before and after, including bullets.

Use the baseline grid in Adobe InDesign CS6 to align every line of type to grid lines, a core aspect of paragraph formatting, and apply custom grids per text frame.

Explore how InDesign’s paragraph composer optimizes line breaks and rag balance for consistent typography, using hidden characters, forced line breaks, and lock in techniques to control breaks.

Apply keep options in Adobe InDesign CS6 to control paragraph formatting and prevent awkward column breaks, such as orphaned subheads and a lone line.

Learn how span columns in Adobe InDesign CS6 lets headlines span multiple columns, adjust spacing before and after, and save the result as a reusable paragraph style.

Learn to apply and customize paragraph rules in InDesign CS6, turning rules above or below paragraphs into text that moves with the text and can be saved as paragraph styles.

Master bullets and numbering in adobe indesign cs6, applying bullets and numbers, choosing glyphs and fonts, customizing indents and levels, applying character styles, and saving as paragraph styles.

Learn to use the tabs panel in adobe indesign cs6 to set left, center, right, and decimal tabs, adjust the leader field, and manage indents for precise paragraph formatting.

Learn advanced tab formatting in Adobe InDesign CS6, including creating fill-in coupons with underscores, right-justify tabs, leader, and repeating tabs, and saving as a paragraph style.

Set up a newsletter page in Adobe InDesign CS6 by spanning columns, applying paragraph styles, aligning to the baseline grid, adding pull quote with rules above and below, and previewing.

Learn how to configure text frames in Adobe InDesign CS6, including columns, frame width, gutter, insets, vertical justification, text wrap, and primary text frame flow across master pages.

Learn to create and apply paragraph styles in Adobe InDesign CS6, format subheads fast with styles, keyboard shortcuts, eyedropper tool, manage overrides, load and sort styles for consistent documents.

Create and apply character styles in Adobe InDesign CS6 to save formatting time, then learn how they differ from paragraph styles and how to redefine, load textiles, and manage overrides.

Explore how the next style feature in Adobe InDesign CS6 automates paragraph styles, using a question and answer loop to format frequently asked questions with the question and answer styles.

Master nested styles in Adobe InDesign CS6 to automatically apply character styles within paragraph styles, control drop caps, and end nested formatting on sentences or line breaks.

Apply character styles by the line with nested line styles, create drop caps in nested styles, and control styling as the text flows across three columns in InDesign.

Learn to apply grep styles in InDesign CS6 to automate formatting with nested styles and no code, using a character style.

Apply object styles to format images quickly and consistently in InDesign CS6, then define, preview, and redefine the style to manage borders, drop shadows, and strokes.

Create and apply paragraph and object styles to format a magazine layout in InDesign, including headline, body text, drop cap, pull quotes, captions, and photo styles.

Master anchoring objects to the text flow in Adobe InDesign CS6, using inline and custom anchors so images move with text and attach to points like subheads.

Apply text wrap in Adobe InDesign CS6 by wrapping around bounding boxes and shapes, offsetting sides, and using jump and invert options to control flow around master pages.

Master advanced text wrap in Adobe InDesign CS6, including wrap around object shapes, Photoshop paths, and options like left, right, largest area, and ignoring wraps via text frame options.

Explore text wraps and anchored objects in a layout by applying text wraps, anchoring images to paragraph ends, showing text threads, and using smart guides.

Link text frames in Adobe InDesign CS6 by using outports and inports to thread text across columns, adjust frames, and add or delete frames for long documents.

Learn how to use next page number and previous page number markers, text threads, and overlapping frames in Adobe InDesign CS6 to show continued stories across pages.

Configure captions in InDesign using object captions and metadata, including photographer descriptions. Generate live captions linked to file data, or switch to static captions, then export as Acrobat.

Create and manage an InDesign book by adding chapters, selecting a style source, and syncing styles. Update page numbering and the table of contents, then save or print.

Create an automatic table of contents for long documents using the layout menu and paragraph styles, with chapters and subheads, and options for entry styles, numbers, and PTF bookmarks.

Set up a simple index in Adobe InDesign CS6 using the book and index panels, add entries, sort by last name, and generate the index.

Learn to format long documents in Adobe InDesign CS6 by importing text, loading paragraph styles, applying body text with drop cap and captions, and pasting into a layout.