Beginning Adobe InDesign - Skills for Success

Many online learning platforms give a good understanding of how to put this program to the best use. We would suggest that you go for Virtual Classroom Training from SimplivLearning.

Why do we say this? Because this course is prepared by experts to give you a thorough and proper understanding of all that goes into this program.

Adobe also offers many tutorials for InDesign.

For a learner who is keen to master this program, one day could be just enough to help get a basic idea of InDesign's general features, at a very superficial level.

Realistically, it should take a week or two for gaining some idea of this program and how to put its features to use at whatever they are meant to.

Bear in mind, however, that this is a broad estimate. The level of knowledge and the depth of understanding that one gains during this short learning duration could vary from one person to another.

So, the point to remember is that Adobe InDesign is an excellent page layout program with which you can artistically use photos, text and other assets to create stunning brochures, flyers, and a host of other marketing materials. This means that you could require time to understand its many features.

Adobe offers InDesign as part of its Creative Cloud package. Under this, individual plans start at $20.99 a month.

One to two weeks of good practice should help you get somewhat familiar with its features and the ways of using them for your work.

As we have mentioned, a couple of weeks may be sufficient for gaining a functional knowledge of Adobe InDesign. However, becoming an expert is a different kettle of fish. It could take months, even years for someone to be considered proficient at using every bit of this program.

It is almost impossible for even the most seasoned user to be completely aware of each of this program’s features, just as how no content writer or author can claim total mastery of MS Word, or no office professional can say that she has complete knowledge of MS Excel.

It is perfectly possible, and in fact, almost certain, that even as new features keep getting incorporated into new versions, even the most experienced users may have to adapt new learning. So, in this sense, one could say that the journey towards mastery of InDesign is a very long one.

Adobe has listed a series of steps to follow for someone to become certified in Adobe InDesign. All the details of these steps can be had on the Adobe InDesign page here. 

Yes, by following the link given in the previous query.

The Adobe InDesign certification is valid for two years. Like most other Adobe certifications, the InDesign certification can be renewed after two years by taking up the latest version of the InDesign certification exam. In case no new exam is available at that date, the candidate should wait till the exam is held. However, the existing certification is valid till that date. 

This is the price structure that Adobe has set for Adobe certifications, as mentioned on its website:

Adobe credential   Price (USD) Price (USD) after 33% discount voucher

Certified Professional - $125   $ 83

Certified Expert      - $ 225  $ 150

Certified Master      - $ 225  $150

Certified renewal   - $ 125  $ 83

Adobe certifications are offered at three proficiency levels: Professional, Expert and Master. The fact about these levels is that they are graded, which means that an aspirant goes to a higher level only after passing the lower one. This system makes Adobe a relatively easy certification.

In a broad sense, the ease or difficulty of an Adobe certification depends on the candidate’s interest and passion levels. Adobe has designed its certifications in such a manner that anyone who has about 150 hours of hands-on experience will find each level passable.

Again, this is only the universal average for anyone who appears for an Adobe certification. It is understood and accepted that those who have this level of practical experience find it easy to pass an Adobe certification test.

Adobe has set a few commoncriteria that a candidate should meet to become certified in any Adobe program. As for becoming an InDesign expert:

1.     Youwill be required to learn from Adobe’s exam resource, LearnKey

2.     Youwill have to take 150 hours of work experience

3.     You can take the exam and become an Adobe Certified Professional in InDesign.

With the help of the huge amount of learning resources that Adobe has made available, and with the help of YouTube videos, and with the help of learning platforms, it is possible to teach oneself InDesign.

However, in the absence of a regular coaching regimen, self-study requires enormous focus, direction, effort, and concentration, not to speak of determination.

Yes, if you want to gain a very basic level of knowledge of how to use this program.

The cost of an Adobe Associate certification is $65 for students, and $80 for commercial users. There could be a slight variation depending on your center, because Certiport testing centers can set their own fee that could vary a little from what Adobe has set.

Just like how any discipline requires familiarity and aptitude with the basic faculty related to the field, InDesign too brings its own dynamics.

It is a page layout program that enables you to create marketing and academic materials with very appealing images. So, your basic skills with using InDesign primarily concern how to put visual elements such as photos to great use.

We could summarize the basic InDesign skills into these among others:

-       A clear idea of how page layouts work in tandem with design

-       Knowledge of how to place text and graphics in sync with each other

-       Formatting text by creating, editing, and applying it

-       An idea of how graphic frames work

-       How to import and place external graphics.

There is no formal, industry-specified means or standards set for getting started with InDesign. It is, however, imperative to be structured in one’s approach towards learning everything about InDesign.

We would suggest these methods for taking steps in your InDesign learning:

-       Enroll for a learning platform: Check if the courses these learning platforms offer are updated to the latest learning, and are interactive and engaging

-       Self-study: Subscribe to relevant YouTube learning materials. Make sure you make friends with likeminded people who are as passionate about learning InDesign as you are

-       Make use of tutorials: Adobe has abundant and plentiful materials on the topic. Make generous use of these

-       Take up certification: The steps mentioned above are the preparation for their final objective: certification. This completes and validates your InDesign skills and prepares you for the job market.

Many users have complained that InDesign, especially the 2020 version, shuts down during launch, without notice, putting users to considerable inconvenience. The faulty Windows update, which is corrupting the VCRuntime dlls, is the main reason for which this is happening.

In its Help page, Adobe has suggested the following steps for fixing this issue:

-       “Open the Library folder, which is hidden by default. See Show hidden files to display hidden files and folders.

-       Navigate to C:\Users\{user}\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign\ {Version #} \{language}\. ...

-       Rename the Caches folder to Caches_old.

-       Launch InDesign.”

The answer to this question lies in understanding that although both InDesign and Photoshop are graphic design software programs, they differ considerably from each other. Discerning which of the two is more useful for one’s use is more relevant and important than trying to answer which of the two is more difficult.

At a very basic level, Photoshop is the preferred tool for digital imaging for photography, while InDesign has been created as a page design and desktop publishing software tool that professionals in print and digital media use.

This should give us an understanding of which of these two could be more useful to you, based on your needs. If your work involves a lot of text, go for InDesign. On the other hand, if manipulation of videos and images is what you are looking for, it makes sense to use Photoshop.

You can, and in a vast number of ways. The wonderful thing about becoming a professional in a software tool such as InDesign is that it opens up avenues for earning in a myriad ways. You can put your masteryto use in these ways:

-       Create stock art and sell it for a premium

-       As print-on-demand is picking up, the role of InDesign has increased considerably

-       You can create unlimited design content for channels such as YouTube, or for media outlets

-       You can create icons that can become associated with brands and make you a much sought-after design professional

-       Sell or license your work on the social media, especially the visual ones like Instagram

-       If you love to interact with the student community, you can create and teach InDesign courses either online or offline and create a steady passive income stream.

If you are someone who wants to work for a design company, that option is open too, before you. The pay for an InDesign professional starts at $29,000, and can go up to $77,000 with more experience.

The primary use of InDesign concerns designing digital and offline images and layouts for a number of print media, which include:

-       Flyers

-       Study materials, such as books

-       Brochures

-       Pictures or magazines

-       Posters, newspapers and books

-       Smartphones and tablets through Adobe Digital Publishing Solution

That depends entirely on your needs. As we have explained, their applications differ.

Both InDesign and Canva are desktop graphic design publishing software tools that can be used for a number of purposes. While this is the primary similarity between the two, the difference is that while InDesign is subscription-based, Canva can be used to create and print both online and offline graphic design documents for free by using preset templates.

With Canva, you can create design documents out of its templates, whereas, with InDesign, you can create your own work. However, this does not mean that the range of documents that you can create out of Canva is limited.

The only major shortcoming that users have complained of Canva is its limited range of fonts as compared to Adobe InDesign.

Yes, for the reasons mentioned earlier about its prospects.

As of December ’22, Adobe had a customer base of 30 million for its Creative Cloud platform, of which InDesign is a part. That offers some idea of whether people still use this tool.

Again, it is an open-ended question with a subjective answer. Between these two supremely popular graphic design software tools from Adobe, we suggest that you learn InDesign if your work involves designing marketing materials such as flyers, brochures, and related materials.

If, on the other hand, your requirement is creating vector illustrations, icons, logos and typography, and custom paths and shapes, nothing is better suited than Adobe Illustrator.

Of course, you can. In fact, logo creation is one of the highlights of Adobe InDesign.

PNG and jpeg are two popular pixel-based online image file types. Since PNGs support transparent backgrounds, they are more suitable for design software such as InDesign.

Indeed, they do. InDesign is one of the most sought-after software tools in the graphic design community.