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The lesson files have doc's all set up for you. I do agree with the other reviewers that Deke is a good teacher and his instructions are easy to understand. I like the InDesign Quickstart guide much better because, well, its quick.The reason I am not getting rid of Deke's book is because there are some nice explanations to help people who basically know nothing about publishing, it just takes too long to read. I would have wanted a from scratch lesson in the beginning. BUT, they are way too wordy. He goes into so much detail that it takes about one hour to do something that could actually take fifteen minutes.
Fun way to learn InDesign CS3. He gives many, many keyboard shortcuts as well as a few of his own that you can load from the CD. This book covers everything you need to know to use InDesign, with lots of illustrations and complete explanations of topics, and humor to keep your attention. Each section has a video introduction and then a practice exercise.
Overall I really like this book though, it teaches you everything you need to be proficient in InDesign CS3. Also, a lot of the menus and functions are the same throughout the CS3 applications so if you are proficient in Photoshop CS3 (for example) then you might find some of the items covered redundant, but you can just skim over/skip those sections to finish the lesson sooner. This is a great step-by-step book to learn Adobe's InDesign CS3. If you already know InDesign CS3 then you will probably find much of this redundant (though there are some great shortcut keys in this book for almost every function you can think of in InDesign). This book is definitely not for advanced users. It is like taking a class from your own computer at your own pace. I admit that some of the information covered is basic stuff (if you are proficient in multiple computer programs), but you can just skim over the steps that are too basic.
You might be tempted to skip the first chapter, where Deke shows you his way of setting up the interface. I had a copy of InDesign CS3 but I needed to learn the basics of how to use the program in a very short time. The nice thing about Deke's training approach is that he provides all the practice files for you. Now I'm adding my own glowing review.I bought Deke's book (and CD-ROM).
I am a technical writer. My advice: take the time to do it Deke's way. Following his step-by-step instructions, I was able to add a few "extras" to the documents including running heads with variable text, anchored graphic frames, and autonumbering captions for those graphics. A client asked me to update some of the instructions he sends out with his products.
After a long weekend, I was able to create a template, a workable layout, and a functional style sheet. He knows what he's talking about, and it pays off in the long run. However, the documents were created in InDesign, and they needed to stay in that format. I read the reviews on Amazon, and Deke's book got the most glowing reviews.
Essential for anyone not enrolled in classes. a very helpful tool for the novice. Index helps located area that is creating a logjam when your are trying to complete a piece.
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