Part I: Welcome to InDesign

Chapter List

Chapter 1: What InDesign Can Do for You

Chapter 2: A Tour of InDesign

Chapter 3: Getting InDesign Ready to Go

Part Overview

You're ready to go you've bought InDesign, installed it, even launched it. But now what? It's a new program for you, and while the program has a certain familiarity by virtue of looking like most other Macintosh or Windows programs, it is a new program, so you're not really sure what to do next . The answer is simple: Read on. The chapters in Part I walk you through the initial steps of using InDesign to create your publications .

First, in Chapter 1, I give you a basic introduction to InDesign itself, explaining the concepts it uses in its layout approach. I also highlight what's so special about InDesign and define a whole passel of publishing and InDesign terms to make sure that we're working from the same page, and so you're not confused when you see new terms in this book, in InDesign's menus and help system, or from colleagues.

With the basic context out of the way, Chapter 2 gives you a tour through InDesign's interface its array of tools, menus, palettes, panes, dialog boxes and covers what components come with the program. You also learn what's new in InDesign CS (also known as version 3).

That sets the stage for Chapter 3, which shows you how to adjust the InDesign interface by setting global preferences, changing view zooms for your documents, and setting your own keyboard shortcuts.