Milwaukee InDesign User Group

Meeting Notes Archive

September 20, 2006

Our September meeting on InDesign resources was standing room only in the Distance Learning Center at WCTC, with students from the evening InDesign class across the hall stopping by. Aquent generously sponsored the meeting by providing refreshments for everyone, including a gigantic sub sandwich with chips and cookies.

During the meeting, InDesign user group of Milwaukee chapter coordinator Cathy Palmer navigated to show many resources online, and members also shared their own favorites. Everyone was encouraged to register at InDesignUserGroup.com to take advantage of the many member benefits and because the website itself is a great hub of InDesign resources.

To get us started, the team from Aquent of Milwaukee talked about InDesign job opportunities. Their online Creative Staffing and Services database is a great resource where freelance designers can register to find projects, or employers can search for qualified talent. Several user group members talked about their positive experiences working with graphic design staffing agencies, including Aquent, AdTec, and C2. We also looked at PrintWorkers, an online job board for printing professionals.

We had a great discussion about what can be categorized as training, because almost all of the information that we found inspired learning in some way. To begin looking at InDesign training, we went straight to the Adobe website for a centralized listing of many different training formats, including self-paced online courses, instructor-led classes, workshops, events, seminars, instructional books and DVDs, and lots more.

There is an Adobe InDesign library available by subscription for only $59 for one full year of online access, with reference material and content updated throughout the year. No one in the audience had subscribed yet, so there were no direct reviews of this service, but several sounded interested in trying it out. PrepressTraining.com was another online subscription source of training, very targeted to the practical professional skills that we all need, with a structured process to track your learning progress.

Training videos/DVDs were the next learning method mentioned. Many people at the meeting had tried the video training that comes along with the Creative Suite, and some InDesign instructional books have training DVDs included. We looked at the online subscription options for TotalTraining.com and Lynda.com, with many topics also available as "hard copy" DVDs. User group members qualify for discounts as one of our user group benefits! Best of all, we checked out the FREE sample videos from TotalTraining, Lynda, and Adobe in The Learning Center area of our favorite website, indesignusergroup.com.

Online forums are a powerful way to tap into the talents and experiences of other InDesign users. The Adobe User-to-User Forum is undoubtedly the most visited, with thousands of InDesign topics divided into six different targeted sections. Other InDesign-specific forums mentioned included Tek-Tips.com and DesignTalkBoard.com.

To broaden the scope to other graphic design topics beyond InDesign, miscellaneous info and the latest news for the creative industry can be found at CreativePro.com, with the option to sign up for free daily or weekly email newsletters. Even more desktop publishing topics are covered in depth at QuarkVsInDesign.com.

Podcasts are another way to stay current with InDesign information, some with video and some audio only. We listened to a segment from the latest InDesignSecrets.com podcast by David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepción, and learned that there was a celebrity in our midst! They announced that Laura DeVries from Madison was the winner of the recent Quizzler contest from InDesign Secrets! The InDesigner video podcast by Michael Murphy is a great way to learn with active visuals. The Adobe Creative Suite video podcast by Terry White sometimes covers InDesign-specific topics, but is always valuable to learn about integration with the other Adobe CS2 apps.

After a short break, we had a SURPRISE GUEST! Michael Murphy of The InDesigner joined us (virtually) via a custom video podcast recorded especially for the Milwaukee user group! He spoke about his own InDesign resources, where he gets ideas, and how he learns new skills. Michael was emphatic that a person's individual learning style will determine the most fitting resources that they'll learn best from, and shared his favorite books on InDesign. His recommended read: the User Guide (which he read start to finish when studying for the Adobe Certified Expert test). Breaking news: The InDesigner video podcast is now available at InDesignSecrets.com. His personally valued and recommended resource was connecting with other designers, whether through the InDesign user group in his own area (he tries not to miss a meeting) or at national conferences (like the recent Barrycon events in Chicago or the upcoming InDesign Conference Master Class in Seattle).

We wrapped up the video podcast with a prize drawing for some of the InDesign books that Michael Murphy recommended, courtesy of Peachpit Press and O'Reilly Media. That was a great segue to our next resource topic of books, which we can order from these publishers at a 30% discount as one of our many user group member benefits! Other in-the-know reading included InDesign Magazine (available as a bimonthly PDF) and Layers magazine (previously MacDesign), both with links and discounts available from the InDesign user group Member Benefits page.

Testing and certification are two ways to objectively prove that you've actually learned from all of these great informational resources, and to be recognized for your smarts and skills. Michael Murphy mentioned that he got his "A.C.E" in InDesign, and there were a few other Adobe Certified Experts in attendence at the meeting. The InDesign A.C.E. is a test from Adobe that certifies expert-level knowledge of the software. Skills tests are also available from staffing agencies like Aquent and C2, which qualify the working abilities of their freelancers.

Adobe offers many in-person learning opportunities for InDesign and their other software at conferences, trade shows, and touring events. They also have scheduled online e-seminars and on-demand viewing of recorded events, and all are FREE online!

The InDesign Conference Master Class mentioned earlier is coming up on November 6-8 in Seattle, to be hosted in part at the Adobe University (headquarters of InDesign!!). Barrycon has arranged for substantial user group discounts of $100 off a two-day or three-day pass, or $200 off a Platinum pass. The registration discount code can be found on the user group Member Benefits page.

Some expanded InDesign capabilities are available as plug-ins, which are add-ons to the InDesign software itself. We talked briefly about how they work in conjunction with InDesign, and where to install them on your own computer. Once again we went to the Adobe site, this time to the Partner Finder database, to find the specialized plug-in features that you may need, with the ability to search by product, service, or vertical market. Connecting with programmers and consultants for custom InDesign solutions is also possible at the Adobe Partner Finder.

People described the plug-ins that they use on a regular basis, and how the extended features and capabilities helped them with their InDesign work. We looked quickly at a log of the plug-ins mentioned: Some are fun (like Tetris), some offer helpful how-to's (like InTips and InDesign Secrets), and some add indispensible features that you will use every day (like Multi-Do from 65bit). Table and styling controls otherwise not available in InDesign were made possible by plug-ins like Smart Styles by WoodWing and TableStyles and CellStyles by Teacup Software.

Many plug-ins offer a free download with a trial period or a limited testing version so that you can try before you buy. We checked out some of the FREE plug-ins available, with a current listing of InDesign plug-in developers available on the Services & Support page of InDesignUserGroup.com. The most applauded plug-in was Q2ID from Markzware, an essential tool when converting recent versions of QuarkXPress files. Then we had another drawing, this time for the TableStyles Pro plug-in generously donated by Teacup Software.

During another break, the members helped themselves to the informational brochures and catalogs provided by many of the publishers and developers that we reviewed as resources. Erica Conway of C2GPS announced several industry events, such as Paper Shows, listing the upcoming events in the Milwaukee/Madison area. There were more prize drawings for Photoshop® books and C2 training classes.

Back from the break, we had another virtual SURPRISE GUEST! Anne-Marie Concepción of Seneca Design in Chicago sent a custom audio podcast recorded especially to share her own InDesign resources with the Milwaukee user group! Known as "Her Geekness," Anne-Marie is an unstoppable source of information through her InDesign books, in-person design training, Seneca Design website, Design Geek email newsletter, and the InDesign Secrets podcast and blog. Whew!

So where does this powerhouse look for fresh ideas and new information? Anne-Marie shared her personal favorite listservs, forums, and blogs with us! She invited everyone to sign up for her email newsletter and podcast, both FREE. Then another prize drawing, this time for autographed copies of two books on InDesign that Anne-Marie has co-authored.

Scripting and XML were the last resources for the night, each covered very briefly because they are both such powerful and extensive topics. People were directed to the Adobe XML and Scripting page for more information, including downloads of white papers, case studies, and chapter excerpts from several leading InDesign books. One of the Adobe User-to-User Forums is dedicated to InDesign scripting topics, and you can find developers to help you with custom scripts at the Adobe Partner Finder. There will be a special scripting session taught by Dave Saunders of PDS Associates at the upcoming InDesign Conference Master Class in Seattle. AppleScript training (for InDesign and other applications) is also available from ScriptingMatters.com. Our meeting presenter, Cathy Palmer, is one of the XML instructors offering classes and seminars nationally through CookingWithXML.com.

Final prizes were drawn, including a copy of InDesign CS2 provided by Adobe. The meeting ended with member announcements, discussions of a possible venue change, and a request for presenters for upcoming meetings.

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