The DVD videos are available on Safari. Please click here. Master the fundamentals of Adobe InDesign with One-on-One, Deke McClelland's unique and effective learning system. Abode InDesign CS4 One-on-One includes step-by-step tutorials, more than four hours of DVD-video demonstrations, and hands-on projects to help you improve your knowledge and hone your skills. Once you read about a particular technique, you can see how it's done first-hand in the video. The combination is uniquely effective. Whether you're new to InDesign or a creative professional interested in the groundbreaking features of CS4, Deke's conversational style and carefully structured lessons guide you easily through the program's fundamental and advanced concepts and techniques. More than 900 full-color photos, diagrams, and screen shots illustrate every key step. With this book, you will:

• Learn at your own speed with 12 self-paced tutorials

• Create professional-looking documents with InDesign's powerful text and graphic tools

• Discover how to create, import, and modify artwork

• Apply a sequence of style sheets to format an entire document in one operation

• Compose a fully interactive document with bookmarks, hyperlinks, buttons, sounds, and movies

• Test your knowledge with multiple-choice quizzes in each chapter

And more. Written and produced by a Photoshop expert with well over 20 years of experience, Adobe InDesign CS4 One-on-One simulates a classroom environment that provides one-on-one attention as you proceed from lesson to lesson. You'll learn to use InDesign faster, more creatively, and more efficiently than you thought possible.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 8 Ratings

Best guide out there for novice to intermediate use. - 2009-08-18
Reviewer Rating:
I read Amazon.com reviews and thumbed through various CS4 InDesign guides at local retailers for a week before deciding to purchase this book. I couldn't be happier with my choice to buy the One-on-One guide. This book and accompanying disc present 3 specific benefits for me:

1. Method. With each chapter, step one is to watch a video (each is approximately 10 minutes). The video shows an actual project being manipulated (in high resolution, so you can see all the icons clearly) and "sets the hook," so to speak, with regard to what the reader will learn in that chapter. With so many tools and options, it's nice to be able to see and say, "Oh - THAT'S why it's worth learning." Next is to work, step by step, through the provided sample exercises. This was much easier for me than books where the techniques are listed, and then there's an instruction like, "now, try this on the supplied examples." If you do something wrong, your document doesn't look like the full-color illustration in the book, and you know exactly where you went wrong. Last is a little vocab quiz to ensure you got the key concepts and terms. I find the approach to be ideal; the work is going quickly and I'm retaining a lot.

2. Detail level. I'm going to need to use InDesign in my work extensively. Which is not to say that I'm going to be expected to lead seminars on it; I need to know how to command it in day-to-day operations, and know enough about the program to consult other sources for the really fine details that I might not know offhand. This book nails that usage range. I don't expect to know every keyboard shortcut and every way to manipulate every character (and am appreciative that the author's scope takes that into account). But upon its completion, I'll know how to do virtually everything I'll need to do - and will know enough about the various menus and functions that I'll be able to get real results when I look up a more detailed operation online or in a bible-type guide.

3. Tone. Others have complained that Deke needs an opiate:) While I'm amused at the comment, I respectfully disagree. Sure, he's a tad sales-y, but he's interesting. No approach could appeal to the entire audience to whom this book is marketed - but I find that I'm not bored, it's easy to pay attention to the text in the book as well as the accompanying videos, and I get the vibe that Deke actually, PERSONALLY knows what he's talking about and wants you to see what he does and WHY he does it the way he does. It's easy to see that he has real world expertise; he's not just reading the same book you are and "presenting" the highlights. Brief, occasional notes about how the CS4 compares and relates to previous versions, other Adobe products, and competing products like Quark and PageMaker underscore this as well. The included sample documents run the gamut from cheese and humor to modern and professional. Bottom line - yeah, Deke is selling his product - but he's also trying to maintain the attention of students he's never met, and impart serious knowledge about a complex program. I'd take him over 80% of my college professors any day of the week, and am learning a ton with his approach.

One other ancillary benefit is that Deke imbues other non-Adobe lessons too. I've written copy for years on a freelance basis, but have always handed off my stuff in Word format. As a guy who's going to be writing proposals 9 to 5 every day, and who is going to be responsible for getting them into InDesign and printed respectably, I appreciated the little bits of editing know-how as well. I haven't incorporated all of them yet (as evidenced by my double spaces between sentences here...that's going to take some time), but there's some very practical advice here also to be gleaned from a guy who makes his living publishing books with this particular program.

I love this product, and I'd give it six stars if I could. Buy it and you won't be disappointed.

Terrific Text - 2009-06-20
Reviewer Rating:
Terrific introduction to the InDesign netherworld. I find it amazing how the author simplifies the relatively complicated applications at hand and how entertaining he makes the journey.

A simple glance through the pages of these series books shows how much more in command the authors are of layout and simple, good, logical, and entertaining aesthetics. The book is a visual treat; I find the other Adobe tutorial texts pretty tedious just to look at.

And, sorry W.A., but I enjoy the video tutorials as much as the text. No voice/manner annoyance for me.

I highly recommend the deke press series.

Definitely worth it! - 2009-09-02
Reviewer Rating:
I feel this book and video tutorial are excellent! I like it that I can get an overview from the video and then go into the chapter and have a clue what's happening. InDesign is a huge program with amazing features and it takes someone skilled to teach something like that. I'm able to create pages and enjoy doing it thanks to this product (& I've never done page layout in any program before). I like Deke's manner of speaking on the video, finding it clear and understandable.
All in all, it's good value for the money!

Excellent page layout tutorials - 2009-06-08
Reviewer Rating:
With Deke you get the nuts and bolts so that you know what to do and know what the program is doing.

Covers the basics well. - 2009-10-08
Reviewer Rating:
This is an excellent introduction to InDesign, especially for someone who hasn't had any experience with the other programs in the Adobe Creative Suite. When you finish these exercises, you should be able to create most basic types of projects in InDesign. It also makes a good reference book when you've finished going through the tutorials. I am a graphic designer that rarely uses InDesign... but when I need to use it, I need to know how! The tutorials have helped me keep up my skill with the program and of course when I forget how to do something, the book is there with answers.

I think though that the videos are way too long for what information they offer, and they seem to be more focused on keyboard shortcuts (including the author's set of keyboard shortcuts that he has you install before you begin the tutorials) than actual info. If you can barely make it through the first video, don't bother with the rest, they're all similar.

Fortunately the content of the book makes up for what I think are shortcomings in the videos... it's WELL worth the money for the book and practice files, especially if you are a casual (but professional) user of InDesign.

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